[Ohio-talk] Fw: Thank you from the Klakamps

[Deborah Kendrick]

JW and all,
What a wonderful message.  I just have to share my own little Klakamp family 
story here.
Caitlyn's friends from Adrian College were with us for the weekend.  One of 
them, Connie, bought a checkers game for their other friend and sorrority 
sister, Tiffany, who is blind.  (Tiffany, sadly, could not attend 
convention.)
OK, so Connie and I are test driving this checkers game in the food court 
and suddenly have an audience who turned out to be Galen and Bryan Klakamp. 
I met all of them eventually and was truly impressed, but my favorite part 
of this encounter was when Galen started softly coaching me, "That one's 
square. ... That one's round...."  as I examined the checkers for my 
less-than-strategic moves.
After telling him that was kind of silly, I persuaded him to close his eyes 
and let me guide his hand to several checkers -- and whaddaya know?  He 
identified every one correctly.
Maybe next time he plays a game with his sister, he'll wonder if he can do 
it with his eyes closed!
Deborah
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. Smith" <jwsmithnfb at verizon.net>
To: "NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List" <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 8:11 AM
Subject: [Ohio-talk] Fw: Thank you from the Klakamps



Please keep in contact with this wonderful family!

This is one reason we do what we do.

Read on an enjoy this wonderful message.

JW

Dr. J. Webster Smith
President National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
P.O.BOX 458 Athens, Ohio, 45701-0458
Phone Number - 740-592-6326
"Changing What it Means to be Blind"
----- Original Message ----- 
From: caklakamp at yahoo.com
To: j webster Smith
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 9:46 PM
Subject: Thank you from the Klakamps


      Dear Dr. Smith,

      We want to express our gratitude to the NFB-Ohio Chapter for the 
assistance we received so as to attend the NFB/NOPOBC Conference in Detroit. 
Our experiences at the conference were beyond our expectations.

      Gabi benefited by socializing with other ones her age and realizing 
that she is not the only teenager that uses a cane.  Bryan and I benefited 
greatly from the workshop regarding technology for middle and high school 
students.  We also appreciated the suggestions that Dr. Denise Robinson 
shared with us in her workshop.  All of us developed a greater awareness of 
vision (or lack of it) during the cane walk in which we were blindfolded and 
taught travel skills to help in our maneuvers.

      Gabi and Galen were able to sell 2 bags of candy during the lunch 
breaks on Friday and Saturday. We are sorry that we were not able to make 
connections to give assistance with the Ohio table in the exhibit hall.

      We found the Exhibit Hall to be greatly rewarding.  We learned of 
several assistive technologies at the workshops and were able to compare the 
different offerings of those at the exhibits.  We enjoyed receiving feedback 
from different ones regarding what they liked or disliked about certain 
products.  We purchased the BookSense reader, several monoculars and several 
small magnifiers for Gabi.  We were also able to receive information and 
register her for the audio downloads.

      We understand that next years conference will be in Dallas.  Does the 
chapter give assistance for the conventions when they entail air travel?  We 
would like to be given consideration for assistance to attend the next 
conference if it is available.

      Again thank you so much for your help.  It was a pleasure meeting you.

      Sincerely,

      Bryan, Cheryl, Gabrielle & Galen Klakamp

      P.S.  Galen loved the NFB Camp!





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