[rsva-l] ACB Walk-a-thon support requested

[Ardis Bazyn]

Dear friends and family,

 

Once Again, I Need Your Help!!

 

As you know, I spend a lot of time and energy working to advocate for the blind and visually impaired. I rarely ask for your support, and try not to make a habit of doing so. However, I plan to participate in the 3rd annual American Council of the Blind, (ACB), Walk/Run-A-Thon, in conjunction with our national Conference and Convention held in Reno, Navada in July. Each participant is challenged to seek sponsors to bring much needed financial support to ACB. ACB offers programs, services and advocacy on a nationwide basis.

 

ACB has state and special interest affiliates and local chapters throughout the country which share much needed resources and information with blind and visually impaired persons. Many are newly blinded or have been sheltered and need to become aware of products and services that can help them become more independent and self-supporting. Below are a couple of national issues we have been working on.

 

We are still working with the US Treasury to get our paper money accessible so visually impaired individuals, like me, can transact business with confidence and not have to trust strangers to know whether or not we have been given correct change. Believe it or not, 180 foreign countries have tactile distinctions for their paper money. The United States, who is so advanced in so many areas, does not! We continue are struggle to get audio description made available for television. This would not impose distracting dialogue for those who do not need it, but would be activated through the SAP option on your remote, (same feature where foreign language is currently available), and would provide spoken information to describe nonverbal aspects of a show or to read aloud things like weather/emergency alerts, sports scores, or the ever frustrating "for more information, just call the number on the screen." Captioning has been readily available for the deaf for decades, and the blind and visually impaired are still fighting for this equal access to information.

 

If you are interested in learning more, visit the ACB web site at www.acb.org.

 

I would sincerely appreciate any support you can provide for ACB. In these economic hard times, our organization is struggling to maintain our many advocacy and out-reach programs.  Therefore, it is vitally important that this fundraiser be successful.    We are also having some friendly competition among our members. Please help me with whatever amount you are able to afford. Your contribution is tax deductible as ACB is a 501(C)3 organization.

 

You can go online to acbwalk.com and go to the link identified as: "to make a pledge or donation to support a participant."

 This will take you to the pledge form, which you can fill out quickly and easily, and you can use a credit card payment with PayPal if you prefer. You

will need to specify me (Ardis Bazyn) as the person you are supporting in this Walk-a-thon.  If you would rather, you can just make a check payable to ACB, put walk on the memo line and either give it to me or mail it to me and I will attach your check to a pledge form and send it along with others to the national office. My mailing address is:

2121 Scott Road, No. 105

Burbank, CA 91504

 

If you have any questions, my phone number is (818) 238-9321.

 

I deeply appreciate any support you can provide, a little here and a little there will add up and make a big difference!

 

With heartfelt gratitude,

 

Ardis

 

Ardis Bazyn
For inspirational speaking, business coaching, or writing: www.bazyncommunications.com
newsletter: http://www.bazyncommunications.com/newsletter.php
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.acb.org/pipermail/rsva-l/attachments/20110602/13342b0c/attachment.htm>