Scholarship Honors John Cahall
The Delaware Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired recently awarded the first John Cahall Memorial Scholarship to Kyle Massey of Seaford, Del. Kyle just began his junior year at York College of Pennsylvania and is majoring in English. He hopes to pursue a career in journalism once he completes his degree. In addition to his studies, Kyle writes for the York College Spartan and works as a DJ for the campus radio station.
The Delaware Council established the John Cahall Memorial Scholarship Fund in memory of its past president John Cahall, who passed away in 1998.
“Setting up a scholarship program to help blind and visually impaired Delaware residents was a long-time goal of DCBVI and an important project to John,” says Sharon Sutlic. “The council hopes to be able to assist a legally blind Delaware resident pursuing post-secondary education or training each academic year through this fund.”
Applications for the scholarship will be available in October 2000. For more information, or an application, call Sharon Sutlic at (302) 655-2111 or mail your request to: Sharon Sutlic, DCBVI Scholarship Committee, 14 Top View Court, Newark, DE 19702. The deadline to return the applications is March 15, 2001.
Thanks to Missouri
The staff of “The Braille Forum” and the Board of Publications wish to express gratitude to the Missouri Council of the Blind for their generous donation of $100 to assist with press activities at the Louisville convention. Contributions like theirs enabled us to send out press releases to the Louisville media, which in turn attracted attention to our convention. We regret that this acknowledgement did not make it into “The Mint Julep Journal.”
Illinois Council Convention
The Illinois Council of the Blind will hold its annual state convention October 13-15, 2000 in Alton. The convention hotel is the Days Inn, 1900 Homer Adams Pkwy. For reservations, call (618) 463-0800.
Friday’s planned events include an ICB board meeting, a membership lunch, a legislation panel featuring senators Laura K. Donahue and Evelyn Bowles, a trip to the Alton Belle Casino, meetings of the Book Lover’s and Old Time Radio groups, and a hospitality suite. Saturday events include updates from the Illinois Bureau of Blind Services and Services for People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, and the annual banquet, which will feature Pam Shaw as the speaker.
Nebraskans to Address the Needs of Blind People who Live in Rural Areas
Because of the hard work of Steve Speicher, Robert Doulas and Kristal Platt, ACB of Nebraska has received a grant from the Nebraska Services for the Blind to address the transportation needs of people who are blind, who live in rural areas within the state.
The funding will be used in three pilot projects, one of which will investigate the usefulness of a modified supported transportation program modeled after programs originally developed at the Montana Rural Institute.
Steve Speicher describes the scope of work which the grant will fund as follows: “The basic idea is pretty simple. Transportation always shows up near the top of lists generated by consumer surveys about unmet needs in the disability community. Yet all these consumers live near significant numbers of licensed drivers; and most of those drivers have licensed vehicles; and most of those licensed vehicles have lots of roads to drive on ... So with all these consumers wanting rides, and all these drivers, cars and roads already in place, what is the big problem? With the help of this grant we propose to explore that question and try out some possible bridges between the available resources and the sizable population waiting and eager to use them.”
To keep track of the connections which blind Nebraskans are creating between people who need rides and people who may want to offer those rides, consult the American Council of the Blind of Nebraska web page, which can be easily linked to from ACB.org.
Other current projects which ACBN supports include a series of informational workshops on social isolation and the need to belong, and research on group fragmentation resulting from vision loss and age-related factors. In addition, ACBN supports the diabetes management research project conducted by the Nebraska Lions Foundation, which seeks to prevent blindness caused by complications of this disease.
ACBN wishes to acknowledge and express gratitude for the bequest by Bill and Mary Sue Orester, which made support of these projects possible.
Californians Convince Transit Decision-Makers That Pedestrian Safety Is Important!
Peggy Martinez, board member of California Council of the Blind, reports that advocacy by a newly formed group in Humboldt County, Calif., called Pedestrians for Education, Development and Safety (PEDS) has ensured that accessible pedestrian signals will be installed at two intersections (which happen to host the only two traffic signals in the city of Arcata).
“We will now begin work with the City of Eureka to have audible pedestrian signals installed there,” says Martinez. “Eureka is the county seat and the largest town in the area.”
Martinez says that the victory would not have been possible without the assistance and support of ACB national office, Eugene Lozano, and the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, the local Easter Seals Society, the Northwest Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities, the local regional center and the city of Arcata.