[Ohio-talk] Buckeye Update

[Eric Duffy]

National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
Buckeye Update
Friday, November 30, 2012

	I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I certainly did. We
have much to be thankful for in the National Federation of the Blind of
Ohio. I am reminded of that each and every day as I work with you and the
public to further the work of our organization.
	Please remember to join us for our teleconference Board of Directors
Meeting Sunday evening at 7:00 PM.  Dial (605) 475-4875. Use access code
201909 followed by pound
. 
	The Capital Chapter held its annual election this month. The
following individuals were elected: Shelbi Hindel, President; Jim Debus,
Vice President; Carol Akers, Secretary; Stefanie Clayton, Treasurer; and
Angela Clark Board member. Congratulations to all. I want to thank Beth
Debus for serving as chapter president for the past two years.
	I participated in a call for states interested in having a BELL
Program in 2013. BELL stands for Braille enrichment and learning. We will
bring students ages 4-12 together for two weeks during the summer for
intensive instruction in Braille and blindness skills. Right now we are
making plans to conduct the program in the Columbus area. I can see us
expanding our work in this area in years to come. We will need to raise
between $3,000 and $6,000 for this program. We will also need a lot of
volunteers. We all know the importance of Braille, and the need to see that
blind children have the opportunity to be literate. So I will count on your
help as we move forward with our plans to ring bells for Braille in Ohio.
	At my request Arnold Shaheen has already contacted the state Lions
organization in an effort to obtain support for BELL. If you are a Lion talk
about BELL in your club. For that matter don't limit your effort to Lions.
talk about it at meetings of any service organizations you can get to. 
	I have had  a number of people say things such as, "we really need a
BELL Program in Ohio. I really want to help make this happen any way I can."
Well the first thing we have to do is fund it. It is up to each and everyone
of us to make it happen. I know we can do it.
	Congratulations to our first vice president and friend Richard Payne
for his outstanding job performance at G.E. Capital. Richard was named
Employee Of the Month for providing, "World class-service" to customers on a
daily basis.  He was also given a special citation for providing excellent
service to a blind customer who was having trouble navigating the company's
Website using JAWS. The Federation family is made up of many talented and
capable individuals, and we are proud that Richard Payne is part of our
family.
	Once again I urge you to help us see that the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities is ratified by the United States Senate.
It is especially important that Senator Portman hears from us on this issue.
Please call him at (202) 224-3353 and let him know you support this treaty.
The senate might act on this by Tuesday, so don't delay.
	BSVI has a new Director and a new Business Enterprise Program
Manager. Matt Mumma is the new Bureau Director, and  Melinda Duncan is the
BEP Manager. They both started work the Monday of Thanksgiving week, and I
received separate calls from them that afternoon. This says a lot about the
relationship we have with RSC and its Director Kevin Miller. In the past
Bureau staff have done their best to shield the BE Program from our
influence. The attitude has been that there is an elected committee of blind
operators to represent the interest of the program, and therefore no other
input is necessary. So the call from Melinda Duncan was refreshing and
leaves me with a great deal of optimism about the future.
	Here in part is an email I received this week:
	I am asking for help on behalf of my father. He recently suffered a
pretty serious heart attack and as a result an anoxic brain injury and
severe vision loss due to oxygen deprivation of the optic nerve. He is only
56 and was a very independent person before this happened. He was active
physically with softball, volleyball, and bowling (to name a few sports) and
loved cognitive challenges such as crosswords, Sudoku, and chess. He was
also very handy, and had remodeled most of the house he shares with my mom,
as well as was an electrical technician for his current job. The doctors are
not optimistic that he'll regain enough vision to return to a "normal" life
and are pretty sure he cannot return to his current field of work. I would
love any information you may have that could help us begin to understand how
to handle the new circumstances and how to help my dad be able to do the
things he enjoys again. 
	It goes without saying that I responded to this message immediately.
That is why we have the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio. There is
no better organization to help this man and his family. We are all too
familiar with how much of the general public views blindness and us as blind
people. But we know the truth about blindness. Let's continue spreading our
philosophy and our programs throughout the land.
	Have a great weekend. Shop with Scrip, and get your orders in by
7:00 PM., Monday evening. I'll meet you on the call Sunday evening.
Eric Duffy, President
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: nov30 12.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 28672 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20121130/2b7cc4a6/attachment.doc>