TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editor's Line
President's Report
Saint Louis Is Ready for the Missouri Council of the Blind by Jerry Annunzio
Public Relations Report
MCB Scholarship Applications Are Ready
White Cane Walk
Sound Technology Turns the Way You Hear On Its Ear: From USA Today
A German Voyager's Bold Vision for Tibet's Blind
Resourcefulness, Ingenuity Help Blind Woman Live a Normal Life
Eye Disease Triggers Poor Sleep
Blind Terrorists Strike London Supermarket and Commuter Train System
It's OK to Disagree With Blind People
Affiliate Affairs
From The Lower Left-Hand Drawer
More Household Hints From Galen: Unique Uses for Bounce
Living a Life That Matters
Back to the Chronicle Archives

Editor's Line:

Let me begin with just a brief word regarding our large print edition of
the Chronicle. As you may know, the Chronicle is produced in 24 point type.
Recently, I switched for one issue to 28 point type and asked for your comments.
Since the only response I received was a negative one, I decided to go back
to the original 24 point type. However, the December issue was apparently produced
in 18 point type, and I did hear some complaints on that. I want to assure you
that the switch to the smaller type for the previous issue was not done by me
or by anyone in the MCB office; I was not aware of it until I heard from some
readers who asked if the print was smaller. I have asked our large print producer
to continue printing your magazine in 24 point type and I apologize for any
inconvenience the small type size may have caused you.

It just occurred to me that I have been editing the Chronicle for five years
now. This issue begins my sixth year as Editor. How the time has flown! I still
enjoy this job. I love looking for material that I think will be interesting
to you. I have said this often, but I will say it again: this is your magazine,
not my magazine, so keep giving me your input. I want the Chronicle to be informative
and entertaining and provide you with what you need.

Our e-mail list is continuing to grow so don't hesitate to add your name
to the list if you want to receive the magazine that way. And the e-mail subscribers
are usually the first ones to get it.

In this issue: a blind woman in Tibet, the latest in sound technology, blind
terrorists and more. Enjoy.

President's Message:
by Chip Hailey

Dear MCB family and friends,

What the heart gives away is never gone '''
It is kept in the hearts of others.
Robin St. John

In this issue of my President's message, I would like to make several announcements
that I think you may find most informative.

The first announcement that I would like to make is regarding the appointment
of Mike Fester as the Deputy Director of Missouri Rehabilitation Services for
the Blind.
Mike received a Bachelors degree from Columbia College and a Masters in Business
from Webster University. Before coming to the state, Mike spent 12 years at
Boys and Girls Town of Missouri (BGTM), a non-profit residential care facility.
At BGTM, Mike served in several capacities including:
direct care worker, Marketing Director, Facility Director and Assistant to the
Director. In February of 2002, Mike accepted an offer from Denise Cross, Director
of the Family Support Division, to become Assistant to the Director. These duties
consist of being the Legislative Liaison for the Division, supervision of the
constituent relations unit and being the Division Liaison to the Department's
strategic plan.
In October of 2003, Mike was named Interim Deputy Director for Rehabilitation
Services for the Blind and in December 2003 the Interim title was removed and
Mike is enjoying his new role as the full-time Deputy Director.
Mike is the proud father of two boys ages 13 and 16, and is quite a basketball
enthusiast.
MCB is very much looking forward to working with Mike and his staff to assure
better quality services for all of the blind of Missouri. Let us join together
in welcoming Mike to his new position.

I would also like to announce, but with much regret, that Bill Hagood resigned
as the District Field Supervisor of RSB in late January of this year, after
27 years of dedicated service to RSB, nine years as the District Field Supervisor,
seven years as the Assistant Deputy Director, ten years as the Coordinator of
Special Services as well as the Coordinator for the Prevention of Blindness
Program.
The blind of Missouri will certainly miss a great friend and advocate in Bill
Hagood. Bill was also awarded the Ellis M. Forshee Award at our state convention
last year in Kansas City.
We would like to wish Bill and his wife, Carol, the very best in all of their
future endeavors, and hope that our paths will cross again some day soon.

The third announcement that I would like to make comes from Brenda Whitlock
of the Missouri Assistive Technology Project. I would like to thank her for
submitting the following announcement.

Power Up 2004 Conference and Expo
April 26 and 27, 2004
Tan-Tar-A Resort
Osage Beach, Missouri:

The fourth and final announcement that I would like to make comes from Clay
Barry of AlphaPointe. I would like to thank him for submitting the following
announcement.
Technology Training and Information Conference 2004:
Mark your calendars for the 2004 TTIC conference,
Thursday, May 6th, 8:00 Am to 7:00 Pm.
Friday, May 7th, 8:00 Am to 5:00 Pm.
Continuing Education Units (CEU'S) may be available.
Parties interested in giving presentations please contact:
Robert Beach, Conference Chair at:
(913) 288-7671
e-mail: rbeach@toto.net
For more information please link to the conference web site:
real-eyes.org

Purpose:
21st century technology has created a better environment for blind and visually
impaired persons at the workplace. With advancements come new challenges, keeping
assistive technology current with (state of the art) technology. With the constant
changes in work-related software and hardware, in order to be productive, screen
reading and large print software must continue research and development to improve
their products. Added to this complicated scenario, the end user must constantly
learn new software, hardware and techniques.
Employers often fear hiring people who are blind and visually impaired not knowing
how they will do the job tasks or what it might cost to purchase assistive equipment.
Because of the limited market, there are few local distributors of assistive
technology. There is a very active blind computer user group in Kansas City
but that still leaves few resources for hands-on training with the latest technology.
Thus, there is a significant need in the community to showcase new technology
and provide training.

Background:
In the summer of 1997, the first meetings were held to present the first conference
of this type in the Kansas City area that was culminated August 7 and 8, 1998.
The organizing committee was made up of community-based organizations working
with blind persons in the Kansas City area:
Alphapointe Association for the Blind
Rehabilitation Services for the Blind of Missouri
Kansas Services for the Blind, Kansas City Kansas
Community College
Missouri Assistive Technology
Missouri Council of the Blind
National Federation of the Blind
Veteran's Administration of Missouri
and the Real-Eyes Computer User's Group.

Exhibitors:
The following is a list of confirmed exhibitors for the Conference. This list
is subject to change. For the most updated information about exhibitors and
all other conference details, please visit the TTIC website at:
www.real-eyes.org
Accessibility dot Net
Adventure Fitness
Alphapointe Association for the Blind
Assistive Technology for Kansans Project
Cappers Foundation
Captek Science Products
Columbia Lighthouse
Eschenbach
First Steps for the Blind
In Focus
Kansas Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Kansas State Library Talking Book Service
Look Media
Low Vision Solutions
Missouri Assistive Technology Project
Missouri Council of the Blind
Missouri Rehabilitation Services for the Blind
Nagel's Low Vision Resource Center
NanoPac, Inc.
National Federation of the Blind
Olive Tree Software
Pulse Data Humanware
Progressive Council of the Blind
Vision Aid
Wolfner Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes my President's message for the March
Chronicle.
Have a great Spring, and always remember that when I count my blessings, I always
count you twice.

Warmest regards,
Chip Hailey, MCB president

Saint Louis Is Ready For The Missouri Council of the Blind:
By Jerry Annunzio

The Hotel has three restaurants: one on the lobby level, another one level
below on the mezzanine and on the roof level. The Hotel vans will take you to
restaurants and attractions within five miles if available.
So remember to make arrangements ahead of time and do not forget to tip the
driver.

The Millennium Hotel people have prepared the following:

DIRECTIONS AND TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION:

How to get to The Millennium:
The Hotel is located at 200 S. 4th Street

Hotel parking is directly across from the hotel in the Stadium East
Garage, Black-Level Only

TRAVELING EAST ON I-70

Take the Downtown Pine Street Exit. Continue four blocks to Spruce Street, turn
right. At the first street, make a right onto 4th Street to the hotel entrance.

TRAVELING NORTH ON I-55

Take the Downtown exit onto Memorial Drive north. Turn left on Market Street
and make an immediate left to now go south on Memorial Drive (as if making a U-turn).
Go a few blocks to Spruce Street, turn right. At the first street, go right
on 4th Street to the hotel entrance.

TRAVELING EAST ON I-44

Exit on I-55 north and take the Downtown exit onto Memorial Drive north.
Turn left on Market Street and make an immediate left to now go south on Memorial
Drive (as if making a U-turn). Go a few blocks to Spruce Street, turn right.
At the first street, go right on 4th Street to the hotel entrance.

TRAVELING EAST ON I-64 (HWY 40)

Take the Broadway exit (last Missouri exit). Go left at the stop sign to 4th
Street and turn left. Continue north for two blocks to hotel entrance to The
Millennium Hotel.

Public Transportation Instructions

Greyhound Bus Station:
The Bus Station is located at 10th and Cass. The approximate cost of a taxi
is $8.00 from the station.

Metrolink:
The light rail train operates to and from the main terminal at Lambert-St. Louis
International Airport. Metrolink serves key parts of the St. Louis metro area.
Leaving the airport, the train stops at numerous important locations of St.
Louis. Busch Stadium is the Metrolink stop for the Millennium Hotel Complex.
Metrolink operates from 5:15 A.M. until 12:30 A.M. The fare from the airport
is $3.00 ($1.50 seniors handicapped), however from every other stop the fair
is only $1.25 each way.

Taxi:
$25.00-$35.00 One Way, Approximately 20 minutes from the Airport. Reputable
companies include Laclede Cab 652-3456 and Yellow Cab 361-2345.

Trans Express:
$13.00 One Way, $21.00 Round Trip - Purchase tickets inside airport. Shuttles
run from 6:00 Am to 10:30Pm every 25 minutes. Airport - Pick up and Drop off
at Exit 12 (lower level.) Hotel- Pick up and drop off at Front Entrance.

PR Report:

By the time you receive the Chronicle in March, the amount of calendars for
each affiliate will have already been sent in. The amount of calendars you receive
for 2005 will be the same as you received in 2004.

I apologize to you as members of MCB as I was unable to get a report in the
2003 December Chronicle.

Thanks for your letters and telephone calls about any changes in addresses
for the calendars.

Yours truly, Leroy Welch PR Chairman

M.C.B. Scholarship Applications Ready:
by Phyllis Lovett

M.C.B. Scholarship applications have been sent out to high schools, colleges
and vocational training schools. If you are a blind Missourian planning to
attend one of these, you might be eligible for financial aid. Ask your counselor
or call 800 342-5632 for an application. Please, check to make sure that you
have included all required documentation. The deadline is May 1 so get busy
and good luck to each of you.

White Cane Walk Is Coming up Soon.
by Phyllis Lovett

The annual White Cane Walk is planned for Saturday, May 15. All donations
from the Walk will go to the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation. The Walk
will start around 11 addm. Lunch will be after the Walk, about 12 o'clock.
We hope to see many of you there. This is always a fun time with a good purpose.
Please Come. For more information, call:
Leo Giger: 417 866-5778 or:
Phyllis Lovett at: 417 883-7408.

Sound Technology Turns the Way you Hear On Its Ear:

From The Editor: I found this article in Usa Today several months ago and
thought it was extremely interesting. It's not really blindness-related but
it does relate to how we hear, which is something that's very important to us.

- San Diego:
Rarely is an invention so unique, so visceral and so simple that in 15 seconds
most people who experience it realize it could alter everyday life.

But that's what happens to just about anyone who steps out to the back parking
lot of American Technology Corp. (ATC) here for a demonstration of its invention
called HyperSonic Sound (HSS). Essentially, HSS for the first time does for
sound what the laser did for light-- intensely focuses and channels it so it
can travel great distances without dispersing. In the demo, a technician points
a speaker the size of a cereal box at someone standing 100 yards away. Amid
the din of the nearby freeway, the technician plays a recording of ice cubes
clinking into a glass.

To the listener, the sound comes across as if it were through headphones,
totally unlike a sound blaring from a distant speaker over oppressive car noise.
Take two steps to the side, out of the sound beam, and you hear nothing at all.
Step back in, and there it is again.

"I am certain that in time, HSS will be used everywhere," says Dionyssis
Angelopoulos of Athens, Greece. He read about HSS, came to San Diego to hear
it and went back to his Greek company to build it into commercial sound systems.

Though the technology is still years from becoming mainstream, HSS could
be used to make laptop speakers that blare music to the person in front of the
screen, while no one else could hear it. It could allow a grocery store to
play audio advertisements that seem to come from, say, the display of Duracell
batteries, yet the ad could be heard only by the shopper in front of the display.
An HSS-equipped car could play one CD for the parents up front and another for
kids in the back. Neither would hear even a whisper of the others' music.

The technology is winning believers from Wal-Mart to McDonald's, Fox Television,
The Los Angeles Police Department, Procter and Gamble, The U.S. Navy and Cirque de Soleil.
It is looking into whether HSS could be used to communicate instructions, midact,
from the ground to a trapeze artist without the audience hearing. Companies
are experimenting with HSS in TVS, rock concerts, museums, war and airport gates.
Imagine hearing only your flight's announcements. In 2002, Popular Science
magazine awarded HSS the grand prize for inventions. The Segway personal transporter
took second.

"It offers huge benefits over your standard speaker systems," says Sony executive
Simon Beesley, who is working on HSS in commercial settings, such as stores
or restaurants. "The technology is in its infancy, but I am sure it will very
quickly expand."

As it does, HSS will probably rattle the speaker industry, which has been
selling a variation of the same technology for nearly 80years. The impact could
be like that of the jet engine on propeller planes or the PC on the mainframe--a
major shift that ushers in an era.

Another hit for inventor:

The ideas behind the technology have been around for decades. But HSS-STYLE
speakers had never been more than lab experiments--too costly and unwieldy to
become a product. ATC is the first to make it practical, industry experts say.

Actually, ATC'S technology pops from the mind of Woody Norris, a throwback
to old school tinkerers like Thomas Edison or Ben Franklin. He didn't go to
college and instead learned basic electronics while in the Air Force.

Often boastful about his capabilities, he claims to be something of an inventor
savant. On his Web site (www.woodynorris.com), he says, "You know
how some people can play the piano, they just pick out notes? I've always
had that ability with electronics."

Norris, 64, has had some major successes. In the 1960s, he worked out the
basic technology behind the sonogram, eventually selling it to a medical company
that turned it into the devices used to give expectant mothers a first glimpse
of their babies. In the 1980s, Norris created a microphone that picks up a
person's voice through the vibrations in the bones in his or her head. He sold
that for $1.5 million, and it became the Jabra all-in-one cell phone headsets
now on the market. The microphone is actually in the earpiece.

Norris formed ATC in 1980 as a vehicle for marketing his inventions. Around
1995, he began working on HSS. "I had the idea probably 20 years ago," he says.

Norris got it from color television. A color TV screen has only three colors--red,
blue and green--but tricks the eye into seeing other colors by mixing those
three in the air as the light travels from the set. That led Norris to consider
making sounds by mixing other sounds.

He also knew that the waves of ultrasonic sound--a far higher pitch than
the ear can detect--can travel farther and stay more focused than waves at lower
pitches. So, Norris found a way to make two slightly different ultrasonic waves
carry information about a sound, somewhat the way radio waves carry music from
an FM station.

When the waves encounter a solid object or person, they slow, distort and
crash together. The result is the ultrasonic waves re-create the original sound
in the air around the object, so humans can hear it. So, sound from a distant
HSS speaker seems like it's right at your ears because it's actually being created
right at your ears. If you step out of the beam, the waves have nothing to
distort and mix them, so the inaudible ultrasonic waves slide silently past.

The wave-mixing characteristic of HSS has another effect: Aim an HSS speaker
at a solid object like a wall, and the two waves mix at the object. In an ATC
demo room, CEO Jim Irish plays music on an HSS speaker and aims the speaker
at a back wall. The music seems to come from the wall, not the speaker. Point
it at a door, and the music seems to come from the door.

Unlimited Possibilities:

The last key property of HSS is its ability to focus sound. The ultrasonic
waves don't dissipate, traveling pretty much straight ahead. So sound from
an HSS speaker can travel 150 yards without distortion or loss of volume, while
anyone outside the path hears nothing.

Traditional speakers work very differently. They send out audible sound
waves that quickly disperse, filling a room with sound and weakening as they
go. So the sound fades as you get farther from the speaker.

The properties of HSS are so fundamentally new that Norris predicts "an explosion
of invention" around the focusing of sound.

How about an HSS megaphone? A beach lifeguard could warn a swimmer who was
too far out. Over the crashing of waves, the swimmer would clearly hear the
lifeguard's instructions. Norris mischievously warns that such megaphones would
have to be banned from pro sports games. "Someone in the stands could use it
to razz one player he didn't like," says Norris, who has used HSS to spook neighborhood
kids on Halloween.

More seriously, the Navy is trying HSS on an aircraft carrier, where the
noise of jets can otherwise drown out orders coming from ordinaryspeakers. Police
SWAT teams are interested in the technology's ability to make sound seem like
it's coming from a far wall or window. They might be able to project sounds
that fool suspects into thinking a raid is coming from another direction, then
storm in by surprise.

In hospitals, an HSS TV could allow one patient to watch a show without bothering
the other patient in the room. In restaurants or clubs, music could be focused
at patrons but remain unheard outside the building. Wal-Mart is interested
in HSS for store advertising, Sony for everything from TVS to industrial sound
systems.

Investors Attuned To Profits:

As HSS wins converts, ATC is trying to turn it into a business. The company
spent the past seven years and $44 million developing the technology.

When Irish was hired as CEO earlier this year, he found the company had no
sales organization, no ability to mass- produce products, and a long history
of not making money on its inventions. It has only 30 employees in a generic
office park on San Diego's outskirts. A public company, ATC also has a long
list of shareholders who have been losing patience. The stock bounced above
$10 a share in 2000 but now lingers around $3.

"I'm bringing business standards to a company that needed some reining in,"
Irish says. He has cut costs, hired a sales staff, cut a deal with a contract
manufacturer in Mexico and rushed the prototype R-220A HSS speaker into production
while developing more refined models. Each R-220A--targeted more for industrial
use--costs about $600, and ATC expects prices to drop quickly.

The company is also beginning to market a couple of other sound technologies,
including one called High Intensity Directed Acoustic (HIDA), which can generate
sound waves so intense that they can instantly incapacitate a human. The military
is interested.

At first, ATC plans to sell HSS for niche applications and other uses that
don't directly challenge the conventional speaker industry.

"Later, we'll go after mainstream speakers," Norris says. HSS speakers won't
challenge conventional speakers for all uses. In many cases--such as a home
stereo, rock concert or movie--the point is to fill the room with sound. HSS
makes sense only where focusing sound makes sense.

Help For The Blind:

Nobody is debating whether the technology works--it does. And given the
enthusiasm at Sony and other companies, HSS will make its way into products
of all kinds.

In the meantime, suggestions pour into ATC daily. "I just got an e-mail
from a blind man," Irish says. The e-mail said HSS could improve the chirping
sounds used in crossing signals to guide blind people through intersections.
The sound could be channeled only along the crosswalk.

"Then you'd know that if you walked out of the sound, you'd walked out of
the crosswalk," Irish says, quoting the e-mail.

- Kevin Maney, USA TODAY

From The New York Times
A German Voyager's Bold Vision for Tibet's Blind:
By JIM YARDLEY
September 20, 2003


Lhasa, Tibet: Upon arriving in Tibet, Sabriye Tenberken decided to tour the
countryside, not from the comfort of a car, but atop the hard saddle of a horse.
It was a chancy decision, not only because the rugged Tibetan landscape can
be unforgiving and treacherous, but also because Ms. Tenberken is blind.
She thought the horse was perfect. She knew that blindness carried a terrible
stigma in many parts of Tibet, and she had been told that many blind children
were living in isolated, rural villages. She had started riding as a child in
her native Germany, one of many lessons in self-reliance, and she wanted to
instill a similar sense of independence in Tibetan blind children. So she saddled
a horse, and with three other people, began riding.

She was less prepared for what she and her traveling companions discovered.
"It was quite depressing," she recalled. "We met blind children who were 4 or
5 years old and looked like infants. They hadn't learned to walk because their
parents hadn't taught them."

The memories are still fresh six years later, though now Ms. Tenberken is
seated in a bright second-floor sitting room above the school she has founded
for blind Tibetan children in the land she has adopted.

Her partner, both personally and professionally, Paul Kronenberg, is working
on a computer in the next room, as voices of children drift through an open
window from a courtyard below. The children are practicing a play written by
one of them.

In a Himalayan region known as "the roof of the world," where high-altitude
sun exposure contributes to unusually high rates of eye disease, Ms. Tenberken
and Mr. Kronenberg, who is sighted, now run Braille Without Borders, a program
for blind children in Tibet.

She created the first Tibetan Braille system, which she is now teaching to
her students, and her memoir about Tibet, now available in the United States,
was popular in Germany.

Nor is Ms. Tenberken, 33, finished. In coming months, she and Mr. Kronenberg
plan to open a second Braille Without Borders program in northern India, a
first step in their goal of expanding their work to other developing countries.
Mr. Kronenberg, an engineer by training, is also trying to develop a lighter,
less expensive Braille machine.

Tall, with straight, sandy brown hair, Ms. Tenberken still remembers the
skepticism she faced when she presented her plans to local officials in Tibet.
She had first tried to get a job with different international aid groups, but
she says she was told that blind people were prohibited from doing "field work."

So she decided to start her own organization. Everyone, she remembered, thought
she was crazy. "They couldn't imagine I could come to Tibet," she recalled.
"They said, `It's not possible. She's blind, who can take care of her, who can
take her around?"'" The chaotic streets of the old Tibetan quarter near the
Jokhang Monastery present a disconcerting mess for sighted people, yet Ms. Tenberken
navigates them herself and expects her students to learn to do the same. Her
own childhood was filled with such challenges.

Ms. Tenberken was raised in Bonn. Her father was a pianist and her mother
directed children's theater. Her brother is now an artist, prompting her to
observe lightly that she came from an "artistic family."

"I'm the only one who is a little bit practical," she said. She learned about
independence from her mother, who as a student in Turkey during the 1960's
dressed as a man on research trips because women were forbidden to travel. In
Turkey, her mother also chose the name Sabriye, which means patience and small hedgehog.

When Ms. Tenberken was only 2, her parents learned that she would gradually
lose her sight. They did not tell her about her condition, and by age 13, she
was blind. Her parents, though, had spent the intervening years filling her
life with images. They took her to museums, traveled extensively and filled
her eyes with colors. "I have all my visual images in my head," she said.

She says she agrees with her parents' decision to keep secret her impending
blindness, because knowing might have terrified her. But not knowing did make
her condition baffling. She kept banging into things, without knowing why.

She finally put a name to her problem when she met another young girl who
was blind. "It was a relief because suddenly I had a word for something that
wasn't functioning as well as others were functioning," she said. Her parents
encouraged her to discover her own boundaries as a blind person, a philosophy
reinforced when she attended a leading German high school for the blind. She
learned to ride horses, ski downhill and cross-country and kayak in white water.
"They showed us the teaching and methods and said, Okay, you have to do something,
"'" she recalled. "The whole world was open to us if we knew the techniques
and methods."

She has adopted a similar philosophy for teaching her 29 Tibetan students,
ages 4 to 21. In August, the group went white-water rafting, and they plan to
climb a nearby Himalayan peak next year. The program emphasizes living skills
like cooking, hygiene, self-reliance, yet also teaches workplace skills like
computer use and Tibetan, Chinese and English. Training is also offered in careers
like massage therapy and music.

Ms. Tenberken's interest in Tibet took hold at Bonn University, where she
decided to major in Tibetology. She was the only blind student in the program,
and Tibetan had not been translated into Brl. So she did it herself. Her first
trip to Tibet, in 1994, ended quickly. She came down with altitude sickness
and had to fly home.

Undeterred, she returned for good in 1998, starting her school with one teacher
and six students. They were quickly evicted from their first building for lack of money.

Financing remains a juggling act. The monthly budget for the entire program
is $1,900. Proceeds from her memoir, "My Path Leads to Tibet," helped buy the
current building, while donations have come from people in Germany, the Netherlands
and Switzerland.

She has set up a Web site: braillewithoutborders.org

Finishing her cup of coffee, Ms. Tenberken offers a tour of the school while
the students practice their play. The playwright, Kyila, 17, who once lived
in a small village in northern Tibet, could not read or write when she came
to the school a few years ago. Now, she is making plans to become a massage
therapist, while her twin brothers, both blind, want to open a teahouse.

Soon, four other students will leave the program to enter a regular Tibetan
school, the first to make that transition. "The kids ask us every day, `When
do we go?"'" she said.

Her own future will remain busy, with planning for more programs in more
countries. She and Mr. Kronenberg hope one day to open a training center, possibly
in southern India, where they could train others in starting up their own programs
for the blind. The main goal remains instilling self-confidence and
self-esteem
so that blind children will "not be embarrassed anymore."

A blind child, she notes, will never be able to drive a truck. "But they
can read and write in the dark," she said. "And who can do that?"

From The Editor: Sabriye Tenberken's book My Path Leads to Tibet is available
in Braille and on cassette from Wolfner. It's definitely worth reading.

Resourcefulness, Ingenuity Help Blind Woman Live Normal Life:
By Rebekah Hoffmann

From The Editor, I have spoken several times with the lady featured in this
article. She occasionally calls into my Talkback show on Radio Information Service.
Too bad she doesn't live in Missouri. She would make a great MCB member.

It takes courage to move, on your own, to a new community where you have
no family members and few friends. It takes creativity and fortitude to help
design, then live through having a home custom-built. It also takes organization
and ingenuity to maintain a full and active lifestyle without having your own
means of transportation.

It takes all of these things--and more--to accomplish this as a single blind
woman, but that's just what Kris Hickerson of Highland has done.

Hickerson has been blind since birth as a result of the rubella form of retinitis
pigmentosa, a hereditary eye condition. She moved to Highland from Springfield,
Ill., in 2001 on her retirement following a 33-year career as a state employee.
Since that time, she has built a home in one of the city's newer subdivisions,
become involved in her church and other activities, and developed a strong network
of friends.

"I love the symphony, I love the Muny, and I love jazz. I wanted to be close
to the city (to have access to these things) but not in the city," she explained
of her decision to relocate locally. "I had visited a friend in Highland a few
times, and I liked it."

A native of northern Illinois, Hickerson attended elementary and high school
at the State School for the Blind in Jacksonville and received secretarial training
in Chicago before beginning her state employment. She first worked as a medical
transcriptionist and later, after going back to school for additional training,
as a computer programmer.

Though she had been happy enough in Springfield while she was working, she
felt no lasting ties to the state capitol.

"I was divorced and had no children," she said. "A lot of my co-workers were
leaving the area when they retired. I realized I was going to have to make a
new life for myself whether I moved or not."

Still, Hickerson realized there were risks associated with a geographic relocation.
But none seemed insurmountable, even the lack of a local taxi service.

"My biggest concern was the lack of public transportation. I didn't want
to be totally dependent on someone else, but St. Joseph Hospital has the Friendship
Van, the township has a township car and Dial-A-Ride will take you anywhere
in Madison County," she noted.

Building a house, however, was not something she had initially planned to
do; renting just seemed a lot less complicated. But the desire to have a place
of her own, built to her specifications, eventually overcame her desire for
simplicity after she walked into a model home in the subdivision she now calls
home.

"I grew up around home construction. My mom and dad designed and built homes
on the side. Then, here, I went through a display home that was very close to
what I would have wanted if I ever did build, and that got me started thinking;"
she recalled.

Hickerson explained that she "experiences" things like her tour of the model
home by walking through, noting the configuration of rooms, the placement of
doorways and the ease of navigating the floor plan as well as the convenience
of the kitchen and bath set-ups.

During a subsequent visit to her mother's home in Arizona (her mother recently
followed Hickerson in moving to Highland), she redesigned the model home's plan
and, upon her return locally, presented it to the subdivision contractor.

"He said there wasn't any reason he couldn't make the changes I wanted"
she said. Hickerson, who prefers openness for easy maneuvering, removed a wall
separating a formal dining room from a breakfast area and changed a full wall
separating these from the main living area to a half wall, in the process creating
the perfect spot for her organ. Likewise, she eschewed several features in the
original design, like a fireplace and a garden tub, in favor a spacious sunroom,
with the financial trade-off' a virtual wash.

She now devotes one bedroom of the three-bedroom home to several of her special
interests. Housed within is a computer outfitted with both auditory and Braille
screen readers, as well as software that allows Hickerson to, among other things,
scan and read her mail. The room also holds a piano keyboard and her extensive
music collection, as well as a complete ham radio setup.

She insisted on a basement, a throwback to the numerous emergency preparedness
classes she had taken in conjunction with her ham radio hobby, as well as a
place for storage.

"I can't stand clutter; everything has to be in its place so I wanted to
have plenty of storage space," she noted, adding that she would probably be
compulsively neat even without her sightlessness.

She credits her parents' attitude and upbringing with her ability to get
along well in the sighted world. "When my parents found out I was blind my mother
went to the library and read everything she could about raising a blind child,"
noted Hickerson. "She decided I was going to be whatever I wanted to be, and
to do that, I was going to need to be independent.

(My parents) were not overprotective. If I wanted a glass of water, they
weren't going to let me sit in a chair and be a princess. Everything they did, I did."

The fact that she went away to the School for the Blind at age five and,
throughout her time in school, lived there nine months of the year in student
dormitories, where hall directors were likewise uninclined to coddle, only increased
her independence.

That independence has served her well over the years. During her years in
Springfield, she first battled employers' reticence to hire the blind, then
her co-workers' initial unease around her and, later, technology's impact on
the job market.

"Even today, it is very difficult for a blind person to get a job," she stressed.
When searching for her first job, Hickerson was passed over in hiring, although
she had the top test score among all applicants for a medical transcriptionist
opening.

"Eventually, I was hired by a different facility and did a very good job,"
she said.

She won over co-workers by letting them know that the real only difference
between them was her eyes didn't work.

"People don't want to offend you. You have to take the initiative and give
them the message, `I'm normal; I just don't see"'. I've often said, I need to
borrow your eyes,"' as an icebreaker," Hickerson said.

In response to this attitude, her co-workers were more than willing to help
when needed even with Hickerson's makeup on one memorable day.

With the critique of a trusted friend and lots of practice, she had perfected
makeup application, relying on a rigid routine. However, one day that routine
was thrown off when the ringing of her phone startled her and caused her to
inadvertently twirl her makeup compact, switching the location of the eye shadow
and the brush-applied lipstick.

"I went to work with blue eye shadow on my lips," she recalled, smiling at
the humor of the situation. "When I walked in, my coworkers asked me, `Are you
feeling all right?"' They thought at first I was sick."

By the late 1970s, Hickerson became increasingly aware that technology was
changing her work field and she resolved to change along with it.

"I realized that computers were encroaching on (my job), and I wanted to
try to keep abreast of things and thought if I am going to do that, I might
as well take some programming."

Technology in general has been a boon for sightless people like Hickerson.

Today her home is full of gadgets that help her live a normal life: talking
clocks, scales, calculators and thermometers, Braille-labeled stove controls,
a device that "reads" the color of her clothing, allowing her to match things
appropriately, and a currency reader that tells the denomination of paper money,
to list a few.

Hickerson has made a full life in Highland that extends beyond her home into
the community and back.

She attends Hope Lutheran Church, where she is a member of the Dorcas Circle,
the Lutheran Women's Missionary League and the church choir. Her sightlessness
has not prevented her from taking communion along with other parishioners, singing
solos on occasion, and even delivering a special children's Bible message on
a recent Sunday.

Hickerson also enjoys other musical pursuits. She has studied organ, piano
and drums in addition to voice and is an active participant in an Internet music
circle that evolved from a group organized for keyboard enthusiasts.

"I love music, everybody from Beethoven to Johnny Cash," she said. Cooking
is another of her passions. One of her favorite cookbooks, "Cooking Without
Looking," provides recipe directions that use sound and smell as guidelines.

She organizes her pantry carefully to avoid confusing food items, even Braille-labels
her spices. However, for grocery shopping, she has to rely on a friend because
food shelf arrangement is constantly changing and a can of green beans may feel
identical to a can of peaches.

When she wants to "veg out," Hickerson, like many of her sighted counterparts
turns on the TV. For her, "watching" a program means listening to the dialogue
and background music.

It's no wonder, then, that her favorite shows are musicals, and programs
with long gaps which contain no dialogue are a particular source of frustration.

(Highland News Leader, December 4, 2003)

Eye Disease Triggers Poor Sleep.

Editor's Note: I found this article on the Internet, but the source was not
given. I included here because it mentions research that was done here in St. Louis.

Doctors believe optic nerve damage disturbs sleep patterns. Some eye diseases
can trigger serious sleep disorders, a study by doctors in the United States
suggests.

They say people with damage to their optic nerve, which connects the eye
to the brain, can have problems sleeping.

They can have difficulty falling asleep and can wake up at strange times.
They can also be sleepy during the day and suffer from insomnia at night.

Writing in the journal, Ophthalmology, they say the findings highlight the
need to treat these patients early.

Body clocks.

Dr Russell van Gelder and colleagues at Washington University Medical School
in Still Louis studied 25 visually impaired young people between the ages of
12 and 20.

Half had optic nerve damage, while the remainder had other eyesight problems.

These results lead to the unexpected conclusions that eye disease is a risk
factor for sleep disorders.

The researchers compared these volunteers with 12 healthy young people.

All of those involved in the study wore a watch-like device for two weeks,
which enabled the researchers to monitor their circadian rhythms or body clocks.

"The study showed the subjects with optic nerve disease were 20 times more
likely to have pathologic levels of daytime sleepiness, as indicated by napping,
than the subjects with normal sight," said Dr van Gelder.

"They were also nine times more likely to have pathologic sleepiness than
the visually impaired subjects who were blind from the non-optic nerve diseases.

"We suspect these patients have difficulty using daylight to synchronize
their internal rhythms to the outside world."

Dr. van Gelder said the findings were surprising.

"Taken together, these results lead to the unexpected conclusions that eye
disease is a risk factor for sleep disorders, and whether the optic nerve is
healthy or diseased strongly influences the risk of sleep disorders."

Dr. Alfredo Sadun, professor of ophthalmology at the Keck-University of Southern
California, said the findings should prompt doctors to ensure patients with
optic nerve damage were treated as quickly as possible.

Blind Terrorists Strike London Supermarket and Commuter Train System:

From The Editor: I think this item needs some explanation. BlindKiss is a
web site created by two blind people, Sarah, from South Wales and Damon, from
England. BlindKiss isn't your traditional blindness web site. Don't go there
looking for "traditional support or ideas for how to cope with this terrible
affliction." Instead, sarah and Damon take a humorous and satiric look at blindness.
They say they want to talk about "your life as a blind person, not what the
paid professionals think is important." Their web site www.blindkiss.com contains humorous
articles written by several contributors and a monthly hour-long audio program
produced by Sarah and Damon. You might enjoy Blind Kiss but I should warn you
that some of the material contains strong language that some of you might find
offensive. Here are two articles from the Web site claiming to be newspaper
accounts of actions taken by a fictitious blind terrorist group. These events
did not, of course, actually occur, (at least I don't think they did), but they
make a humorous point about some of the frustrations faced by blind people.
I hope you find them to be as funny as I did.

At 8:30 last night three masked individuals, two using white canes and one using
a guide dog, rushed into Sainsbury's Finchely Road store wielding hand guns
and pushing and scattering terrified shoppers in their wake. The apparently
blind threesome seemed to have a specific target, rushing straight towards a
stand-alone set of shelving holding hundreds of cut price cans of food. One
of the blind men marched up and down patrolling the area with his guide dog
as the other two layed into the shelving, grabbing cans, ripping off the labels
and replacing the unlabeled metal containers back on the shelves in random order.

Detective Inspector Jane Byng later gave us this comment: "this was an outrageous
and highly co-ordinated attack on the supermarket. They managed to rip labels
from almost 300 food cans within 3 minutes, leaving the floor littered with
paper labels and shiny metal containers. They left firing shots and jumped into
a waiting Dial-a-Ride vehicle."

BlindKiss spoke with several customers who witness the crime: "They were
terrifying, blind and terrifying," said one. "I suspect the three blind men
were just bitter" said another perceptively.

Meanwhile at 9:00 pm as the store closed, shop workers were doing overtime
picking up unlabeled food cans, shaking them and listening to work out what
each might contain.
"It's ridiculous," said one Sainsbury's shelf stacker. "How on Earth are we
going to work out what's inside these cans with no labels on? We're just going
to have to open each one up, one at a time, and physically look inside each
can. It's a joke."

The Met Police said last night that they suspected this might be the first
of many attacks by the blind terrorist group they believe to be called the B.L.O.
- Blind Liberation Organisation. BlindKiss will bring you more as events develop.

BLIND TERROR TRAIN ATTACK

BREAKING NEWS!
Blind TERROR TRAIN ATTACK

Commuters travelling home from a busy day's work in the city were shocked
and bewildered to find that the big signs that usually display the name of the
station they're arriving at had been painted over!

"We just didn't know where we were," complained Janet Karendotir, a website
designer attempting to travel home Monday night. "With the station names whitewashed
over, we could have been anywhere at all! I wanted to get to Bromley South station
to visit a friend but when the train drew in at the first station down the line
there was no way of knowing where I was."

"I tried counting the stops from memory," said a flustered looking man who
had been sitting next to Janet, "but I got absorbed in the music on my Walkman
and lost count somewhere close to Rochester."

Confusion reigned and passengers were seen to be sticking their heads out
of train doors and windows and shouting "what station is this?" to the passengers
standing on the platforms as they arrived at each new station.

Frustrated Chartered Accountant Gareth Kingman told us "The thing that bugged
me was that the driver of the train didn't even bother announcing where we were
over the tannoy system. It wasn't until we reached Gillingham that I recognised
a small sandwich bar on the platform and realised I should have got
off two stations before."

The transport police were receiving disturbing reports late yesterday evening
that this may have been yet another attack by the Blind Liberation Organisation
(B.L.O.) who are also thought to be behind an attack on a supermarket in north-west
London late last year. Many Railtrack staff from the twenty main stations on
the London to Dover line reported physical attacks by masked cane wielders and
Guide Dog Owners. Staff were subdued as small gangs of blind people located
and painted out station names, making it difficult for sighted passengers to
know where they were. Some of the smaller more self contained stations were
attacked by blind men in NBC chemical suits spraying sleeping gas and it wasn't
until the staff regained consciousness after rush hour that they saw the information
devastation.

One Railtrack worker at Canterbury East station said "This is just some kind
of callous display of wanton bitterness. These people can't see where they are
and don't want anyone else to know either. It's pathetic and dangerous."

The Transport Police have hooked up with the Metropolitan Police to continue
investigations and share knowledge of suspected B.L.O. ring-leaders. BlindKiss
will update you of further developments as they arise.

It's OK To Disagree With Blind People:

Ann Arbor, Mich.
From The Editor, Here's a thought-provoking article, taken from the Internet,
on a rather touchy subject. How would you have reacted if you had observed what
this writer experienced? Would you have spoken out or, like the writer, kept
quiet out of embarrassment? Think about it.

My roommate and I had a brief encounter with an unpleasant lady last week
at Meijer, and ever since, I haven't been able to shake the feeling that I missed
an opportunity to say something that needed to be said.

Let me explain:

Toting only a combined seven items (maple syrup, a broom, a jar of peanut
butter, a dustpan, a gallon of milk, a griddle and some razor blades--use your
imagination), my roommate and I were waiting in the express checkout line at
Meijer when a stout older lady (who will henceforth be known as "Irma") appeared
behind us and demanded that we push some of our stuff forward on the conveyer
belt so she could start unloading her cart. My roommate, slightly taken aback,
said well, actually we couldn't, because see the broom was already poking the
groceries of the woman in front of us, and there were none of those little plastic
divider things left. Irma didn't have time for this. She gave our seven items
a shove--nearly skewering the cashier with the broom handle--and set to work.
My roommate, still baffled, noticed Irma's full cart and said that, ummm, this
was the 12 items-or-fewer line. "Well," Irma snapped as she plunked a huge package
of paper towels on the belt, "I'm legally blind and I can't see things like
that."

Oh. Well.

Irma turned back to the man pushing her cart (her husband?) and said, loudly,
"She was getting snippy with me."

We gaped, conflicted. Actually, I think my roommate was more appalled than
conflicted, but I was definitely having a major, multi-layered moral crisis.
Nothing makes my blood boil quite like unprovoked rudeness, and under normal
circumstances I would have had no problem giving Irma an extensive list of places
where her attitude might best be stuck.

But these were not normal circumstances. Half of my brain was all riled up
("You wanna see snippy? I'll show you snippy"), but the other half ("No, you
must be nice to blind people at all times and under all circumstances!") tackled
it before it had a chance to seize control of my mouth.

In Entitlement Euchre, no card--not the gender card, not even the race card--can
trump the physical disability card. As soon as the words "legally blind" hit
our ears, my roommate and I understood that our contributions to this conversation
were no longer welcome. Irma offered this information not to inform or to explain,
but to shut us the hell up and let her do what she wanted. And it worked. She
won the trick. I couldn't say a damn thing to this lady because all immediately
available evidence suggested that her life was harder than mine.

Also, and forgive me if this sounds insensitive, but I've been racking my
brain for four days, and still I have no idea how being legally blind (a term
that encompasses a wide range of visual impairments) gives a person license
to unload a full cart of groceries in the express lane at the supermarket
--knowing full well that it is the express lane--while others (with 12 or fewer
items) are waiting. I don't think it does at all, and I think most legally blind
people would agree.

Did I say any of this to Irma? In public? Ha! Sure didn't. Didn't want to
call her out and cause a scene, didn't want the other people in line to think
I couldn't appreciate the daily struggle of the disabled, which, regardless
of how carefully I worded my objection, is what they would have thought.

It's a societal thing. Americans love disadvantage--an integral part of the
American dream--and they hate to hear its situational relevance questioned.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it, too--if I said I didn't take some pride
in telling people about the crappy jobs I've had to work to pay my bills--but
I do think it's important not to let the big and small obstacles we may have
faced turn us into pushy Irmas, not to develop victim complexes or cheat at
Entitlement Euchre.

People carry around all kinds of horrors inside their heads, traumas far
worse than five years in the food service industry and--dare I say it--at least
as difficult to live with as any other disadvantage you can imagine, physical
or otherwise. But that's not what makes them great. What makes them great is
that they don't use those horrors as excuses to be unprovokedly rude at the
supermarket.

Affiliate Affairs:
Where we find out what's happening in your part of Mcb

Blind of Central Mo
Monday January 26, 2004

Now that the holidays are through, We hope this year will be a pleasant one
for you. Hello to everyone from Sedalia.

At our November meeting, The Blind of Central Mo. presented Linda Gerken with
a flower on her being elected as a director on the state board. Congratulations,
Linda. We know you'll do a great job.

We had our Christmas party on Thursday, December 4th. Someone had already booked
the American Legion for the 11th which would have been our meeting night. We
had 45 members and guests in attendance. We had a gift exchange afterwards.
It was a great time of food, fun, and fellowship.

On Saturday, December 20th, some of our members again rang bells for the Salvation
Army. We enjoy helping them have all of the programs for helping people that
they do.

We have had three new members join our club. They are Rebecca Calvert, blind;
Aaron Naylor, blind; and Helen Hays. They are from Warrensburg. We welcome all
of you into our club. We hope there will be others from there that will join.

We will have a bowling party on Saturday, February 7th from 3:30 to 6:30 Pm.
We will have Pizza, bread sticks, cinnamon sticks, and soda. I'm sure it will
be a great time of food, fun, and fellowship.

We hope you all have a happy spring, and many great months ahead. Until next
time, keep your smile and a song in your heart. If you can't be good, be good
at it. Trudy Blood Blind of Central Mo Recording Secretary

BRAILLE News

Greetings to all from BRAILLE. On January 10, we held a meeting in Springfield.
There was an awesome turn-out, for a meeting held in between conventions. Most
of the people in attendance were actually from Kansas City. Apparently there
are quite a few MCB members there who have joined us in BRAILLE in our efforts
to keep braille alive.

Our next BRAILLE meeting will be held in St. Louis, on April 23rd, at the
Millennium hotel. The time is 7:30 p.m. This meeting will be in conjunction
with the April MCB board meeting on the 24th. We would love to see as many
members of the BRAILLE as possible there. Those of you, especially from the
St. Louis area, grab a braille-reading friend, and bring him or her with you.

I have some information for everyone to pass on to the kids and their parents.
National Braille Press, and the Braille Institute both have awesome programs
for getting books to the young people who read braille. The program at NBP,
ReadBooks, is for children, birth to seven. Braille Institute's program is
for children three and up, plus they have a Dots for Tots program. My daughter
has been signed up for both programs, and the materials she has received from
each are wonderful.

I'll close for now. Keep those fingers warm; it's easier to read that way.
See you in St. Louis.
Respectfully Submitted,

Linda Coccovizzo

Delta Area

Happy New Year to everyone from the Delta Area Blind Members.

There is not much to write about this time. However, several of our members
attended a Thanksgiving dinner at Cape Girardeau and had a great time. Then s
ome of them went to Poplar Bluff for a Christmas party, where a good time was
had by all. Delta Area members and guests went to Ryan's in Sikeston for our
own party. Mickie Ormsby did some poems and songs for our entertainment. She
did a real nice job.

We have a new member. His name is Maurice Stauffer and he is visually impaired.
Welcome aboard, Maurice.

We were sorry to hear about the loss of Phyllis Lovett's mother and the loss
of Marti Watson's mother. Our prayers are with you both, girls. See you all soon.

Yours Truly, Marie Thompson.

Joplin Service Club of the Blind

We wish you all a happy and blessed 2004. The weather in December was great
for our trip to Grove, OK December 6 to see the Kountry Kosins Christmas show.
We stopped to eat before leaving Grove, then drove through their park to see
their beautiful Christmas decorations as well as other decorations. Then December
8th we attended the Living Christmas Tree at the Ozark Christian College. We
enjoyed both shows very much.

We had our Christmas luncheon December 16. Again, this year, instead of a
gift exchange, we donated money and canned goods to the Salvation Army. Bruce
Phillips entertained us with Christmas music and songs. It was also a very important
birthday celebration for a very dear lady and member of our club, Vivian Interval,
who reached her 100th birthday on December 25th. Vivian was quite surprised
that day at the center. Shirley Lamb is Vivian's niece and, along with the delicious
meal that Bill Eden and other volunteers fixed, Shirley had a beautiful cake
and ice cream. We hope she can celebrate many more.

At our November meeting, Shirley Ritter resigned as vice president to assume
the duties of our representative.

Kathy Parnaly was elected.
At our December business meeting, we welcomed Jim.

Mahurin to our club. Glad to have Jim.

We did not meet on Tuesday during the holidays. Also cancelled the 1st Tuesday
in January due to the very cold weather and when January 13th came, it was like
a family reunion. We were surprised and pleased to have Joyous Maxton with us.
She suffered a stroke several months ago and now resides at a nursing home.

The Joplin Association for the Blind is adding a nice addition to the building.
There is hope that it will be finished by May. We would like to have the dedication
of it and combine it with our White Cane walk. It will eliminate some parking
spaces but the Low Vision Center has grown so much and will really appreciate
the extra space.

Virgil McCoy had surgery December 19th and is recuperating at home now. He
is a member and volunteer driver. Get well soon, Virgil. We need you!

Until next time - Sincerely, Valva York, P.R.

Lake Stockton Council of the Blind

Hello from Lake Stockton and a Happy New Year!!!

Winter is here!!! That is according to the calendar but it is 58 degrees
today and it is January. I am sure in a few days it will return. It would be
nice to have a mild one.

November was our Thanksgiving Banquet and we had turkey and all the trimmings.
There were 37 members and 7 visitors attending. Irene Sparks and Sue Thomas
furnished the pretty table decorations.

December we had a catered ham dinner with 47 attending. Instead of exchanging
gifts, we gave our five dollars we would have spent on presents and gave the
money to the food pantry. Here is a cute quote, "If you think you're too small
to make a difference, you haven't been in bed with a mosquito." It gave all
of us a good feeling to be helping others. Faye Hughs and Eunice Ballinger turned
in applications for membership and we are so happy to welcome them. We are sorry
to report the death of Charlotte Bentley.

January meeting was on new year's day so our President, Eujean Dody, made
it a party. We had potluck then some fun games like sitting on balloons and
seeing who could pop theirs first and chewing gum and trying to be the first
one to blow the biggest bubble. Also guessing how many jelly beans in a jar.
It was a fun night. It ended with Bingo called by Robert and Teresa Evans. We
also took in two new members, Angela Crowson and Juanita Halmon.

'''A final thought'''

You can either complain that rose bushes have thorns--or rejoice

that thorn bushes have roses. Taken from "Good Stuff Magazine.

Submitted by Pauline Eggert

Missouri Guide Dog Users

Hello once again from the Mo. Guide Dog Users,

Here we are in a new year and I hope it goes well for everyone. As always,
I ask for suggestions and input about what you would like to do about moneymakers
for our Guide Dog Users. I also put a reminder about dues which are five dollars
per member. Dues should be sent to:
Mrs. Linda Hailey
2940 West 17th Street
Joplin, MO 64801

I would like to know if you want to keep the Mo. Guide Dog Users special
affiliate going or what your wishes are. I have been your President for three
or four years and when we have the MCB Convention, we cannot get enough people
together even to have an election. Our President, Chip Hailey, worked very hard
to get this special interest affiliate established. He got our 501ggcggblec
tax exempt papers and that is not easy to get sometimes. If we would dissolve
the Guide Dog users, any money left after all bills are paid goes to MCB. So
please think about this and let me know what your wishes are. I believe in the
Mo. Guide Dog Users affiliate but people need to be educated about it.

Thank you.

Marie Thompson
932 Highway 162 East,
Portageville, MO 63873
Phone: 573 379-5007

Ozark Association of the Blind

Hi from Ozark Association of the Blind.

We are happy to welcome our new member, Robert Brophy, and look forward to
his input into our organization.

We wish a quick get well to members Dorothy Johnson who is at Ashbrook Manor
and to Helen Shirrell, who suffered a stroke on Nov. 27 and is recuperating
at home. We miss them and hope they both will be back with us in a short time.

Linda Stoll, president of OAB, spent two days in the hospital after falling
down steps. She is fine now and is back doing a great job conducting our meetings.

Yvonne Schnitzler e-mailed the American Council the names and address of
14 radio stations covering at least a seven-county area. They were happy to
receive these. If your affiliate has not done so, be sure to do it. We want
to cover the state of Missouri with the PSA'S of Willard Scott. We need all
the exposure we can get.

Eight members attended the state convention.

Our members celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with a dinner at the Hotel
Genevieve and exchanged gifts playing Rob Your Neighbor.

Ida Scotti and Yvonne Schnitzler will be attending legislative days in Jefferson
City and will be speaking with five classes of freshman in the spring.

Keep healthy and happy.

Yvonne Schnitzler
Corresponding Secretary

Greetings from the Progressive Council of the Blind.

We started January 2004 with exciting plans for the new year. Kelly Standfield
joined as returning member and we were glad to have her back. Ed Reyes returned
from Chicago, where he had been taking computer training. We are preparing
a new membership roster since we have grown in the past year. We also plan to
update our constitution. Seven members from Progressive and one member from
Allied Workers leased a van and with a volunteer driver, went to the Braille
Revival League meeting in Springfield, MO on Saturday, January 10th. A beneficial
meeting was enjoyed by all. We will be selling candy bars as a fund raiser at
our functions and throughout the early months of 2004. Eldon Cox, Susan Pearce,
and Kelly Standfield are looking forward to participating in Legislative Day
in February. Progressive Council will have a table in the Tech Fair at Alpha
Pointe in May and, for those of you that attend, we look forward to seeing you again.
Mary Pendleton

Public Relations.

The Rite Report
Hello From RITE,

"Baby, it's cold outside." But, in less than two months spring will lift
her pretty head and give us a warm breath.

The Holidays were wonderful. Our Thanksgiving dinner was enjoyed by guests
and members alike. We were honored by the presence of the MCB President and
First Lady Linda at our Christmas party. There were several other guests and
we were happy to have them join us. A special thanks to Jack Lenk, who brought
his accordion and led us in singing of Christmas carols.

On November 29th, Rose Hunsicker, Larry Ledford, Richard Kolasch and I rang
bells for the Salvation Army. We were out there for over seven hours and, although
we don't know how much we took in for them, we know the kettle was so full we
couldn't push another dollar into the top of it. It was a wonderful, glowing
feeling when thinking about that day during the last ice storm, we may have
helped provide shelter for a homeless person, perhaps an innocent child.

We are sad to report that Maryan Harrison was hospitalized. While she was
there, she developed shingles. According to the last report I received, she
is feeling better. Hang in there, Maryan, you're in our prayers.

Larry Ledford visited his son's family over the Christmas holidays. While
he was there, a huge snowstorm blew in and knocked out the power for two or
three days. Over fifteen inches of snow fell in one day. White Christmases are
nice and even beautiful in songs, but that would have been a little to white
for me.

And so, another little article with news tidbits comes to an end. Rose and
I will see some of you on Legislative days in Jefferson City. But until then,
or till we speak to you from the pages of the Missouri Chronicle, may you receive
many blessings and much happiness. A prosperous and happy new year to all of
you from all of us at RITE.

Warm Blessings,
Bunny Maginnis

Happy New Year from the beautiful river city of Cape Girardeau.
The holidays have passed and we are looking forward to an exciting new year.

On November 8th we held our annual Thanksgiving dinner at the First Church
of God here in Cape. The dinner was spectacular as always, as was the entertainment
provided by a small local band. We were also entertained with music by Holden
McFarland, a blind young man, who was mentored by the late Joyce Godwin. Our
members were blessed with 76 attendees at our dinner including visitors from
St. Louis, Sikeston, and Poplar Bluff. Mary Howard also announced her marriage
to Herman Lucey earlier that day. We all wish them many years of happiness.

After Thanksgiving, Bill Godwin, Clinton Shirrell, and Truman Waldrup put
out our Christmas display at Cape County Park North.

This year Bill's daughter Vicky Lohrsdorfer repainted the display for us
and it looked wonderful.

In December, eight of our members made the trip to Poplar Bluff to attend
their Christmas party; they had a great time and enjoyed Poplar Bluff's hospitality.
At our meeting we had a little Christmas party of our own, but instead of bringing
gifts for each other we brought in necessities like toilet paper, soap, and
toothpaste, to be taken to the local newspaper for distribution to the elderly.
After our December meeting, our Secretary Elaine Shirrell went shopping with
Darlene Staples-Felts with Rehabilitation Services for the Blind, to purchase
Christmas gifts for some of the visually impaired children in the area. At
our January meeting we discussed our New Year's Resolutions, most of us shared
the same resolution to lose weight in the upcoming year. Hopefully we can help
each other to fulfill these resolutions, though we have a party coming up for
Valentine's Day.

We have set the date for our picnic. It will be June 12, 2004 at Cape County
Park South, Shelter 21. We will begin to gather around 11:00 Am and eat around
noon. Everyone is invited to attend and share good food and good company with us.

We are sad to report the passing of Ms. Juanita Porter, our oldest member
at 91 years of age. She will be greatly missed by us all.

As we look forward into the year we hope that your year is happy and that
you will be able to keep all of your resolutions too. Until we see you again,
God Bless.

Respectfully,

Brandi Emmons, Elaine Shirrell, Dee Niswonger

RCWB Communications Committee

Hello from the Southwest.

We hope everyone had a good time during Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Our club has been very busy. At Thanksgiving, Tom and Elvena Smith cooked
a complete meal for us, which was served at the American Legion Hall. Thank
you, Tom and Elvena for a very good meal.

On december 6 a few of our members went to Grove to see the Kountry Kousins
Christmas show. Everyone enjoyed the show, and after the show we went to Drakes
Cafe for dinner. The food and fellowship was good.

We had our Christmas dinner at the Golden Corral. After our meal we had a
gift exchange, and it was a lot of fun.

Our club donated $50.00 to the American Legion for their food basket program.

Promoting Braille literacy: Our affiliate President received a
proclamation from Mayor

Richard Russell of Joplin. On January 12 our president, Ed Forcum, also received
a proclamation from Mayor Glenn Dolence of Webb City.

On January 20 we went to the King Palace for dinner, and Chip says he is
going back as soon as they restock the fish, since he ate all they had.

Two of our members are recovering from surgery. Gerald Curtis had a hip replacement
and Blair Buffey had cancer surgery. We wish them both a speedy recovery.

Our club is getting new members, so we are growing in numbers.

We wish you all a happy new year and may you stay well. Until next time keep smiling.

Respectfully submitted,
Margret Forcum
Southwest Missouri Friendship Council of the Blind Secretary

The Springfield Scene.
by Phyllis Lovett

Guests for Thanksgiving Dinner:
We were pleased to have several members of the West Plains chapter as our guests.
Everyone ate too much and enjoyed the fellowship. This became a tradition of
our clubs several years ago. We look forward to it each year.

Valentine Visit:
The Springfield Service Club will be the guests in West Plains on February 9,
we hope. It is only a few days until our trip and the weather is dumping snow,
sleet and freezing rain on us. I hope it clears up by next Monday.

Christmas Party:
We had a great time on December 20. We have two blind children whose parents
are members, Sarah Knipp and Sarah Coccovizzo. We each bring a gift, women
bring a gift for a woman and men bring a gift for a man. It's lots of fun to
open the mysterious packages. Of course, the kids make it special.

Loss of Member:
Many of you already know that my mother, Thelma Vaughn, age 93, died on November
25. She had been a member of the Service Club since 1972. Her funeral and
burial was in Batesville, Arkansas. We had a memorial service at the Blind
Center on her 94th birthday. It was very touching. Many of the Service Club
members and friends honored her by attending.

White Cane Walk:
We are starting work on our 8th annual White Cane Walk. It will be held on
May 15 during Missouri White Cane Week. If anyone would like to have donation
sheets, contact me or Leo Giger.

UWB Update: Remembering Fred Keller.

The United Workers for the Blind and the blind community in St. Louis lost one
of its most respected members with the passing of Fred Keller on December 27.
Fred, who celebrated his 85th birthday in December, became a member of UWB sometime
around 1940 and seldom missed a meeting or a club function. He served as President
on several occasions and held other offices as well. Fred was Director of the
Service Club for the Blind, which provides much help and support to blind people
in the St. Louis area, for about twenty years, until his retirement last year.
Before that, he had a vending stand in the Civil Courts Building for many years,
and before that, he was a successful door to door salesman. Fred also served
on the Board of the Radio Information Service and was always a generous supporter
and contributor to that agency. Fred had five children and several grandchildren.
In addition to being a hard worker all of his life, Fred had many hobbies, one
of his favorite ones being planting flowers. Although Fred never sought the
limelight, he was extremely pleased and touched when he received the Jim Henderson
Award from the St. Louis Council of the Blind in August, 2002. He will be long
remembered by the many blind people he worked with and helped over the years.
We in the UWB will miss him and we extend our sympathy to his wife, Bettie and
his large family.
John Weidlich

From The Lower Left-Hand Drawer.

Here we are again with a somewhat slimmer than usual collection of material,
but with some items that I hope you will find interesting and useful. Mention
of a product or service in this column does not imply endorsement by me or MCB;
these are just items I have found in various magazines that I thought might
be of interest to you. So let's open up the drawer and see what we find.

I'm sure that many of you have ordered merchandise from Ann Morris Enterprises,
a New York-based company which has been in the business of selling products
to blind people for eighteen years. Ann Morris Enterprises was recently sold
to another company, Independent Living Aids, located in Jericho, New York. Here
is the announcement which Ann sent to her customers sometime in late January:

This note is to let all of you know that Ann Morris Enterprises, Inc. is
being sold to Independent Living Aids tomorrow. ILA will be keeping the name,
catalog and products along with their product catalog. I hope you will support
this merger by continuing to purchase items from Ann Morris Enterprises at 800-454-3175
or on our web site as usual. I will be continuing to assist ILA in choosing
products for Ann Morris Enterprises as I have done for the last 18 years. I would
like to thank all of you for your continuing support and friendship and urge
you to sign up for the excellent bi-monthly newsletter written by ILA by going to:

www.independentliving.com

Again, Ann Morris Enterprises is not going out of business; we are just
changing ownership.

Speaking of mail order companies, here's a new one, or, at least, it's new
to me. Danny's Occasional Gifts sells handheld games, FM radios, wall clocks,
recordable sunflowers, oldies CDS, talking thermometers and more. Contact:
Danny Thompson
3430 Albemarle Road, Number C-113
Jackson, MS 39213
Phone: (601) 396-0154.
For a list of products, you can call:
(206) 208-0209.

We have lots of news this time from National Braille Press. In addition to
some new publications which we will get to shortly, National Braille Press is
offering braille alphabet bracelets for $28.50. Each tile has a braille letter
on the front and an engraved print letter on the back. You can wear the whole
alphabet or design your own bracelet using your initials, the letters in your
name or perhaps a brief message.

If you're cutting back on carbs, like a lot of folks these days, you might
want to check out this new offering from NBP: Dr. Atkins New Carbohydrate Counter
by Dr. Robert Atkins. More than just a carb counter, the book gives calories,
protein, fiber, net carbs and fat grams for each entry. The book lists around
1,200 foods, including hundreds of brand name products arranged by food categories.
There is also a dining out section with hints on what to eat at favorite fast
food places like McDonald's. One Braille volume for $5.00.

Also new from NBP, HOW to Read Braille Music by Bettye Krolick, a book explaining
the symbols most often encountered in Braille music. Although written for children,
it can also be used by adults. The Braille edition is $19.95, the print is $12.95.

And finally, a new book from National Braille Press that we could probably
all use: a book telling us how to get rid of clutter. It's called Clear Your
Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston. We all have it--stuff we no longer
need or use that we just haven't gotten around to throwing away. In addition
to all of the physical junk we need to get rid of, there is also mental clutter,
negative attitudes, regrets, hurt feelings and resentment we are still holding
onto from long past events. This book helps us free ourselves from both kinds
of clutter by using the Oriental principles of Feng Shui, which is the art of
balancing and harmonizing the flow of energy in our surroundings. Karen Kingston
shows you how to identify clutter, understand why it accumulates and learn how
to get rid of it so that you can focus your energy on accomplishing the things
in life you really want to achieve. It is available in Braille or computer disk
for $10.95. All of these items and lots more can be ordered from:
National Braille Press at
88 St. Stephen Street
Boston, MA 02115
Phone (800) 548-7323
e-mail: order@snbp.org

The US Department of Agriculture plans to hire about 9,000 disabled people by
the year 2005. For more information, call Samantha Schmucker at:
(202) 720-6104
or send e-mail to:
samantha.schmucker@usda.gov

Easy Braille Transcription Service will put documents into Brl at a cost
of $8.00 an hour. Most projects take from one to three hours. For more information,
contact:
Meagan Green
Box 18696
Salem OR 97305
or call:
(503) 581-3948
The e-mail address is:
mnoel71@juno.com

Mobile Accessibility Software makes your cell phone talk so you can edit
your contact list, send and read text messages, use caller id and more. Contact
Tom Rash at:
tom@audiovisionradio.org

Shadows in the Dark sells Braille greeting cards for many occasions and in
several languages. The address is:
4600 Pine Hill Road
Shreeveport, LA 71107
Phone: (318) 459-1256

Cooking in the Dark sells an apron featuring Bart B. Cue, a mouse wearing
dark glasses and a chef's hat with the slogan "you don't need sight to make
dinner tonight." They sell for $26.40, but the price is $18.40 for ACB members.
To order, call:
(713)876-6971

Unfortunately, I don't have any contact information on this, but I will pass
it along as an item of interest. A company called Bionix has developed a device
called the Shot Blocker, that is supposed to take the pain out of giving insulin
shots. When Shot Blocker is placed on the skin at the injection site, it stimulates
the nerves so that they block the pain that would normally be triggered by the
injection. I will let you know if I hear any more about this product.

Do you ever doze off while you are listening to a Talking book and then have
to find your place again? I hate when that happens. The Talking Book Marker,
devised by Jim Dailey, is a handheld switch that plugs into the remote jack
on your cassette player. If you fall asleep and your hand is no longer holding
down the switch, your machine stops playing. This handy little device can be
ordered from:
Jim Dailey
835 Emma Street
Butte MT 59750
for $15.95.

Cingular Wireless customers now have access to a service called Voice Connect,
which allows subscribers to place calls by simply speaking the name or phone
number of a person in their address book. You can store up to one thousand contacts
in your address book and each contact can have up to five phone numbers. Voice
Connect also offers voice access to news, weather, sports, stock quotes, tv
listings and more. Customers with disabilities are exempt from the monthly fee
for this service but will still pay airtime charges. For more information, call
Cingular Wireless at:
(800) 331-0500
or:
Cingular's National Center for Customers with Disabilities
(866)241-6568

Audio Outdoor America Magazine is a magazine for individuals and families
who enjoy outdoor activities but who have limited time for them. It contains
articles, interviews, music and poetry. Outdoor Sportsman Audio Magazine is
for serious outdoor lovers and features more technical information such as gear
and equipment reviews, conservation information and outdoor sounds. These quarterly
magazines can be ordered by calling AOAM at:
(888) 849-1129

The FDA is about to approve a new meter for testing blood sugar called the
Sugar Trac Meter. Clipped to the ear lobe, it uses a beam of light to test blood
sugar. A talking version costing around $250 may be available by the end of
the year. For more information, contact:
Life Track
12751 West Links Drive
Fort Meyers, FL 33913
(877) 768-6978

Blind World is a web site containing articles on research, national and international
news, human interest stories, articles about sports and recreation and resources
compiled from various news sources. The web site is:
www.blindworld.net

William Miller makes solid oak or cherry wood mantle clocks for $25 and wind
chimes for $30. His phone number is:
(740) 537-9866

Need help searching for something on the Internet? www.infoeyes.org is an
online reference service established by the Illinois Library System. If you
visit the site during normal business hours, you will be connected with a librarian
who will help you with an internet search. Other libraries are also participating
in this program, including Wolfner Library.

The Princeton Braillists have just released a new publication, OUTLINE Maps
of the World, a volume containing 33 maps showing political boundaries, capitol
cities, and bodies of water for North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia,
Australia and the polar regions. An index lists countries and islands. The price
is $19.00. It is available from the
Princeton Braillists
76 Leabrook Lane
Princeton Nj 08540

If you have cassette tapes that need repair, send them with a return envelope
or mailing label to Robert Ratkowski:
700 West Division Street
Park Falls, WI 54552

New e-mail lists: Blind Adoptive Parents is a discussion list for blind people
going through the adoption process. Subscribe by sending e-mail to:
blindadoptiveparents-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Speak-easy offers members an opportunity to discuss current events and controversial
topics, including sex and sexuality. Send e-mail to:
subscribe@smartgroups.com

There is also a new e-mail list for social workers, VR counselors, teachers,
psychologists, human resources providers, and any blind person interested in
the human service field. Students are also welcome to join. Send a message to:
blind-hsp-subscribe@topica.com

The Traveller is an electronic travel aid being developed by Traveller Systems
that may be on the market by the end of the year. About the size of a 35 millimeter
camera, the Traveller is worn on the chest from a neck strap. Three vibrators
will control the unit's various functions. The Traveller can be used as an electronic
compass, a warning device or a queue-minder. The compass will allow users to
walk in a straight line or select a compass direction in which to walk. The
sonar unit warns users of upper level obstacles not normally detected by a white
cane or guide dog. The queue-minder tells you when a person in front of you
in line has moved up. The company says the Traveller is not a replacement for
a cane or dog, but is intended to provide additional mobility information. It
is currently in the final stages of development and testing and may sell for
around $350. More on this later.

The Texas Center for the Physically Impaired offers refurbished computers
to blind people for a $100 donation. Here's what you get: a Pentium computer
with Windows 98, a demo version of WindowEyes, a Juno e-mail program, a 56-k modem,
speakers, a sound card and CD-ROM drive. Taped and large print tutorials are
also included. Contact Robert Langford at (214) 340-6328 or send e-mail to:
boblang@airmail.net

Finally, we close this session with a dissertation on, of all things, sneezing,
something we all do, especially at this time of year. It seems that a behavior
expert and a medical doctor who perhaps have way too much time on their hands
have been studying the ways people sneeze and relating sneezing patterns with
personality types. They have determined that there are basically four types
of sneezers, each one associated with a set of personality traits. First, there's
the sensitive sneezer, one polite sneeze with the head turned away and they're
done. Sensitive sneezers are warm and friendly people who enjoy a relaxed pace.
Relationships with others are their top priority and they avoid conflict even
if it means making personal sacrifices. Then there's the "be right" sneezers
who always make sure to cover their mouths. These folks are careful and accurate,
deep thinkers. They always consider the right words before they speak. They
are detailed and precise, catching mistakes others miss. They have great insights
and opinions. The Get-it-done sneezer will hold it in as long as possible, but
when it comes, it could be measured on the Richter scale. They are fast and
efficient, uncomplicated and self-sufficient. Finally, there's the enthusiastic
sneezer. Their sneezes are loud and they come in bunches. If you're one of these,
you are a charismatic leader who influences others, imaginative and intuitive.
You seek relationships with others. So which one are you?

That about empties the drawer for this time, but I'll have more for you in June. Keep in touch.

More Household Hints from Galen:

A couple of issues back, I brought you some household hints from Galen Blood
and some as you commented that you liked them. Well, Galen is back, this time
with a rather bouncy column.

This is Galen, and I thought I'd give you the following tips that I received
from a friend in Iowa. Here they are. I thought some of you might like this
information. Bounce This Around.
And all this time you've just been putting Bounce in the dryer!

1. It will chase ants away when you lay a sheet near them.
2. It also repels mice.. spread them around foundation areas, or in trailers
or cars (or off-season snowmobiles) that are sitting and it keeps mice from
entering your vehicle.
3. It takes the odor out of books and photo albums that don't get opened too often.
4. Repels mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors
during mosquito season.
5. Eliminates static electricity from your television (or computer) screen.
Since Bounce is designed to help eliminate static cling, wipe your television
screen with a used sheet of Bounce to keep dust from resettling.
6. Dissolve soap scum from shower doors. Clean with a sheet of Bounce.
7. Freshen the air in your home. Place an individual sheet of Bounce in a drawer
or hang in the closet. Put Bounce sheet in vacuum cleaner.
8. Prevent thread from tangling. Run a threaded needle through sheet of Bounce
before beginning to sew.
9. Prevent musty suitcases. Place an individual sheet of Bounce inside empty
luggage before storing.
10. Freshen the air in your car. Place a sheet of Bounce under the front seat.
11. Clean baked-on foods from a cooking pan.. Put a sheet in a pan, fill with
water, let sit overnight, and sponge clean. The anti-static agent apparently
weakens the bond between the food.
12. Eliminate odors in wastebaskets. Place a sheet of Bounce at the bottom of
the wastebasket.
13. Collect cat hair. Rubbing the area with a sheet of Bounce will magnetically
attract all the loose hairs.
14. Eliminate static electricity from Venetian blinds. Wipe the blinds with
a sheet of Bounce to prevent dust from resettling.
15. Wipe up sawdust from drilling or sand papering. A used sheet of Bounce
will collect sawdust like a tack cloth.
16. Eliminate odors in dirty laundry. Place an individual sheet of Bounce at
the bottom of a laundry bag or hamper.
17. Deodorize shoes or sneakers. Place a sheet of Bounce in your shoes or sneakers
overnight.
18. Golfers put a Bounce sheet in their back pocket to keep the bees away.
19. Put a Bounce sheet in your sleeping bag and tent before folding and storing
them. Keeps them smelling fresh.

Live A Life That Matters

This was posted on the MCB List by one out our members, Bob Jaco, I think. I
really like what it says and I think you will, too.

How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you
got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice
that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel
a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those
who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of
circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Author Unknown

MISSOURI COUNCIL OF the BLIND
5453 Chippewa
St. Louis, MO 63109
Phone: (314) 832-7172
Toll-free (800) 342-5632
Fax: (314) 832-7796
moblind@mindspring.com

Office Clerk:
Donna Weidlich

OFFICERS, DIRECTORS AND COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS

President:
Chip Hailey:
2940 West 17th Street
Joplin, MO 64801
(417) 781-6728
toll-free (800) 644-9667
e-mail: chailey4@ipa.net

First Vice President:
Beverly Armstrong:
2149 Gray Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63117
(314) 781-1866
e-mail: barmstrong2@sbcglobal.net

Second Vice President:
Jack Lenk:
6347 Mardel
St. Louis, MO 63109
(314) 351-2814

Secretary:
Bill Benson:
612 Francis Place
St. Louis, MO 63105
(314) 863-6353

Treasurer:
Bill Burris:
1202 Chateau Drive
West Plains, MO 65775
(417) 256-3954
e-mail: burris@wpcs.net

Director: Jerry Annunzio:
8605 NW 85th Terrace
Kansas City, MO 64153-
(816) 741-2348
e-mail: jer.kc@juno.com

AFFILIATE PRESIDENTS