[Nfbf-l] FOPBC State Convention Happenings

Sun Jun 6 11:51:19 UTC 2010

Great report Lenora. 
You all put together nice variety interesting and informative activities. 
Teamwork always pays off. I was happy to see so many parents in our general session. 
Keeping your division active will certainly attract more parents. You, and your board are doing a great job.  We need our Florida Parents' Division. Your children are our future. 

Gina Minichiello
NFBF Fundraising Committee Chairperson
Greater Jacksonville Chapter, Treasurer
minichiellog at comcast.net
904-571-9117

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doreen Franklin" <theconelady at yahoo.com>
To: "NFB of Florida Internet Mailing List" <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2010 7:05:19 PM (GMT-0500) Auto-Detected
Subject: Re: [Nfbf-l] FOPBC State Convention Happenings

Lenora
You are soooo right -- FOPBC and NFBF do ROCK!!!!

I came to the convention knowing that I would be re-energized from everyone. And I got more than I expected! 

After presenting snippets from various meetings with our district, I had support and encouragment that was "much needed" on my end. I "grabbed" Holly Idler for specific info on O&M for Torrie -- and she and Sherri Brun jumped in with plenty of info and suggestions. It is so great to "ask" and just receive bundles of info, support and encouragement from everyone. Many many thanks!

On the other foot, helping with the IEP session was great "therapy" for me, as well as being able to talk to other families as to where they are. Seeing Rodney and his cane and reading his first braille book - that was well worth all the struggles we have had!!! That is what we all struggle for and Rodney just soaked it up! There was a warmth in my heart for seeing his being given the tools he needs!

I personally thought that the convention ran very well with the Affiliate meetings in the AM and break-outs in the PM. Our Parent sessions really got parents thinking (IEP and Oregon Project) but yet we had plenty of fun and laughter at the Braille book-making class (I am challenged and it took me a while to get a picture together). The Parent Meet-and-Greet was an awesome time to see where other families are and be able to start to immediately bond over the kids' disability.

Many thanks to all who helped, especially Lenora and Larry for having the insight for our parents! This will definitely help the families that were at the convention, as well as those for next year (word will spread and we are going to have many more families next year!).

I am glad I am a part of FOPBC and NFBF - definitely changing the way we think about blindness!

Doreenhttp://www.raceforindependence.org/goto/TorrieF

--- On Thu, 6/3/10, Lenora J. Marten <bluegolfshoes at aol.com> wrote:

From: Lenora J. Marten <bluegolfshoes at aol.com>
Subject: [Nfbf-l] FOPBC State Convention Happenings
To: nfbf-l at nfbnet.org, nfbfjax at comcast.net
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010, 9:55 AM

Good Morning,

Wow! What a convention! I hope everyone is caught up on their sleep. I know I am happy to have my body clock back to normal.

NFBF rocks! Thank you all so much for your continued support. Those of you who know me well, know that I cannot say something in just a few sentences. I’ve tried REALLY HARD. But it’s just not working. So, pull up a chair and grab a cup of coffee….

Our parent seminars were, by far, the smoothest I have ever coordinated with any blind group. Kudos goes out to our 14 daycare volunteers who, believe it or not, all showed up on time! They thoroughly enjoyed working, learning and playing with our children. Your future NFBF members spent time playing games, making crafts, coloring with their giant low-vision coloring books and brailled pictures. There were even muffin tins and balls for the little ones to practice Braille letters. Our kids went home with brightly colored Florida beach pails they had decorated themselves with tactile shapes filled to the brim with goodies and crafts. The teen room that the Inman’s helped Larry and I put together was a little boring – on purpose. We wanted a ‘down time’ room for our teens, but didn’t want to make it too interesting. We wanted them to choose to participate with other teens, the state affiliate and their families.

Special thanks go out to our Troop 333 volunteers who traveled from Jacksonville to help us out. Michelle Falkner, troop leader and mom traveled in with her son Dalton and his friend Justin, both Eagle Scouts. They not only assisted us with the lunchtime daycare turnover, but cared for our kids during the banquet Sunday night and again on Monday morning. They were happy to help out wherever needed with both FOPBC and NFBF. They also took the opportunity to participate in our cane walk learning even more about blindness issues. They learned much from their experiences with us and will be reporting to both Troop 333 and the North Florida Council. Go Boy Scouts! 

Our speakers, Anna Brynild from Central Florida Parent Center, Mark Keith, parent trainer from FSDB and Dr. Bill Cavitt all generously donated their time, experience and knowledge in order to help parents become better informed when making decisions concerning their children. Those parents with school age children attended an IEP workshop put on by Anna and Keith while parents of younger children spent time with Dr. Bill Cavitt learning much about the Oregon Project and how to maximize its use. On Sunday our parents participated in interactive workshops. They had so much fun at our Braille book making workshop that not one person cared that we were short on braillers. Everyone shared, learning and creating with each other. Thanks to NFBF for allowing us to have Mike Hingson for an hour. Parents, teens and NFBF members went away motivated after hearing about his personal experiences. Our bullying workshop was very well received by all. We talked about
 bullying related to blindness issues for just before parents, teens and NFBF members broke into role-playing groups. They were given instructions and questions designed to engage children in conversation meant to ‘draw out’ what is happening in their lives. 

Our very own Holly Idler, who is too fabulous for words, pulled off the best cane walk ever! The room was filled with adults, teens and children seeking much needed orientation and mobility instruction. Our parents had many, many questions concerning cane techniques, protective techniques and sighted-guide. It was such a privilege to see Rodney hold a cane for the very first time and watch his confidence grow throughout the rest of the convention. Special thanks go out to NFBF 2nd vice-president Joe Minichiello and our NFBF scholarship winners who came out to help Holly and assist our families. 

As a division, we tried some new approaches this year that really paid off!  FOPBC board members were given the opportunity to actively plan, participate and execute our parent seminars. Doreen Franklin, our vice-president, together with Anna Brynild not only planned the IEP workshop, but put together that wonderful skit for all of you in general session giving you an idea of just how difficult it is for parents to continuously deal with the IEP team. Anastasia and I spent a lot of time this year discussing and researching just how we wanted to do the Braille book making workshop. Although we both had different ideas, we worked together very well in planning just what our parents asked for – those seemingly elusive Braille picture books that are so hard to come by.  Larry not only helped to plan and execute the bullying workshop but helped out in more ways than I can possibly count. In fact, by the end of the conference, we were all referring to
 Larry as the ‘energizer bunny’.  Andrew put together a wonderful technology seminar for our teens where they learned where technology has been, where it is today, and where it is going in the future. Tracie, not sure what to expect at her first NFBF convention, helped out in many, many areas including gathering some door prizes for us and obtaining that most important auction item – the Peterbrook chocolate basket. Kelly, although unable to attend the convention, gave us many useful ideas and input throughout the year. 

The FOPBC board had many discussions this year concerning the amusement parks in Orlando and possibly planning an event on the same weekend as convention. We all had different opinions, concerns and desires. 
Major kudos go out to Larry for painstakingly making the many phone calls and follow-up with each and every major park in order to let us know what our options were so that we could make this decision together. Thanks go out to Kevin Inman who helped us to explore some other options in case we needed them. We all learned a lot from this experience as we truly had seven different opinions with a board that was not only learning how to interact with each other, but also learning about the workings of NFB. 

Immediately following general session on Monday, our May Adventures in Blind Optimism Saturday Program was held at SeaWorld Adventures in Education where our children were given a Shark and Penguin Encounter geared toward blind children. We started off in the education center where our kids got to touch and learn about a snake, a baby alligator, animal bones and even some polar bear fur. We then walked through the park for a behind the scenes tour of the penguin exhibit. We spent a lot of time there learning about the care and feeding of the penguins complete with sanitary precautions for the penguins, scheduling light simulation, etc. Our families got to touch and take photos with two very different penguins. Upon entering the shark exhibit, we got to touch some baby sharks and continued to learn, learn, learn! All this took about an hour and a half. Our families got to spend the rest of the day at the park where some of our kids rode a roller coaster
 for the first time. We had 28 people attend with two families having never visited SeaWorld previously.

All in all, it was a fabulously stupendous convention! FOPBC and NFBF are working together to change what it means to be blind for Florida children.  WE ROCK!

Lenora J. Marten, President 
Florida Organization of Parents of Blind Children 
NFB-Jacksonville Chapter Secretary 
Chairperson, FSDB/PAC
bluegolfshoes at aol.com 
904-777-5976 / 904-229-9554
www.raceforindependence/goto/fopbc
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