SaturdayBanquet-2020NFBPAConvention
Welcome, welcome,
welcome.
Welcome to the banquet of the 2020 NFB of Pennsylvania convention. So we have a few special guests that might be speaking on the early side. So please stand by for just a second while we confirm. How's the convention going for everybody? Cool. Anyone at home doing the remote convention? Anyone have any feedback on how it's going for them?
I think it's going great.
Thank you, Marilyn. Yeah,
yes.
Cool. Anyone else remotely? Want to chime in? Okay, awesome.
It would be great to see hybrid more often.
Oh, who's that speaking?
Michelle? Hi, Michelle. Hi.
I'm talking to you cool.
This is Kenya
i think is going great.
Okay, everybody, we are going to start with the invocation for our meal. If you would all please have a moment of silence with us. And I will bring our meal to order. Thank you very much, Lord, for this food and for all that you've blessed us with for this Federation, family, and all the work that we've been able to do through you. Thanks for all the people that are involved in all the people that we reach, please make Pennsylvania a special place where blindness is treated in a very equal way with security and opportunity for us all. Please help us to be great ambassadors to all those around us, and help us to love and to be the family that we should be in all that we do. Thank you, Lord, for all your blessings. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Okay, good evening, everyone.
Good evening.
So it is my absolute pleasure to introduce to you tonight, and welcome to our convention banquet, a gentleman who's been an advocate for people with disabilities in the state legislature. Representative Dan Miller has come to be with us today to share some comments about some of the legislation that he has presented to us. And he is also willing to take a few questions if folks have some questions. So folks who are virtual, and folks in the room, remember when it comes to Qa? If you're virtual, please raise your hand. If you're in the room, please say your name to be recognized. And without further ado, here's representative Dan Miller. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, everybody, and good evening. It is very nice to see all of you here to be with you today. tonight. I do appreciate the invitation. I will tell you, I just got back in from Harrisburg. We've had a kind of a tumultuous, you know, 10 days roughly, we still have a lot of things that we need to do as well. So our work is not done this month. But I'm very glad to be here with you. You know, look the we have a tie. I've been involved now with the legislature, this will be the start of my fifth term. So I'm so I'll tell you a bit into my fight. In my five terms. I've tried to champion disability and mental health issues in particular. We are of course, in the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I'm sure none of us need to need any reminder about how important that bill was, how much it has changed, how much it has benefited, how much it is not yet, how much we still have to do, how far we still have to go. So the ABA is a fantastic thing for us to celebrate. But we're not done yet when it comes to equality of opportunity. We're not done yet to dealing with with stigma. And we still have too many issues of so many people who have problems, such as trying to get a job. And those are big issues for us. And really what I hope to see in Harrisburg to prioritize. Now we know of course we're in the COVID crisis and if you can't totally tell I am talking through my mask in the best way that I can. And we're going to have these challenges for a period of time. And we know that there are economic struggles that are here. We know that there are budgetary problems in Harrisburg, that are very real. But I am committed to making sure that even with those challenges, that is not those with a disability, who are asked to bear more than their fair share. And all too often during these times, when things get tough. It tends to be those people, people with disabilities, people in general who have a little bit of looking for a little bit of a chance to succeed, who are asked to bear the brunt. I don't know how your life totally was before COVID. But I can tell you that few people with disabilities come up to me and say that January and February was the promised time that we were in the promised land, that everything was okay, that accessing transportation was good, that being able to get a full time job was okay and easy to do. Few people were telling me that when he came into the disability arena, so I'm not really interested in trying to get back to January in February, when it comes to these types of issues. What COVID generally does is whatever your challenge was before COVID COVID has likely magnified it even greater now. And that's the world that we're in. So when I go back to Harrisburg, to be clear. That's the big $5 billion. There are many issues that we would that we have to address, there's no doubt, there are many great causes large and small, that we have to deal with. And some of these answers are going to be tough. But that's also why you pay us we have to go make those tough decisions, we have to find compromise. And we have to find hopefully a plan that lifts all boats. Now I'll give you an example of a program that I'm trying to work on now. It's more for the deafblind community. But it's in relation in particular to ssps. as those of you who likely know, an SSP is often a gatekeeper to the world. If you are blind and deaf in Pennsylvania, you know better than almost anyone how challenging navigating the world can be an SSP provides opportunity brings you us a little bit closer to full inclusion. These are great, it's a great thing. That entire program is on the verge of being eliminated. That entire program cost less than $1 million. What less than $1 million. Now we know of course there that's partially because there isn't the largest of the deafblind community. And that does help mitigate the costs. But to the individual who needs those services. It's a measurable. So here we are dealing with a $5 billion shortfall.
And again, we are asked those who are part of our allies with the disability community to sacrifice again. And it's not just in that arena. I'll tell you, I was just talking to a parent when it came to schooling issues, IEP s 504 plans, those things there that again, were fought for a generation ago. And while we've made a progress and a lot of the arena, I could tell you now that again in COVID. those challenges before COVID are worse during COVID. And that's what we're dealing with our school systems. There are many hard working teachers and paraprofessionals who are trying so hard to educate our kids. But it is very difficult in some aspects to take an IEP plan, an IEP or a 504 plan, and translate that is successfully an entire virtual model. cyberlearning definitely does not work for most kids. And that's reality. That's reality, and there's nothing wrong with stating that stating reality. So those are the types of things that we're talking about. Again, what are we looking to do when we started this year? I did my disobey I do a disability mental health summit every year. This year, in the earliest of March, we had 2300 people get together at the Pittsburgh Convention Center was a great thing we did our fantastic. We got it done before COVID, amazingly. And we had a broad agenda about what we wanted to do. But you know, what, COVID sidetracks, almost every aspect of that progress. So we have to continue to fight to get it on to the agenda. Don't forget that even someone like myself, who to which I'm very honored and blessed to be here with you tonight, I don't know what it's like to be blind. I don't know what it's like to have autism. I don't know what it's like to be deaf, or anything else. I don't know that. You know, it. And the challenge part about being blind is, is having to continue to deal with a world that doesn't understand your reality very well. And that's a lot for you to bear. It's a lot for you to bear. But I can tell you, when I go to the floor of the house, people turn to me very kindly, many people on both sides of the aisle, and they say go to Dan Miller with your disability issue, because he's an expert. Now, that should scare you. Because you know, I'm not an expert. What I am is a passionate advocate, who cares about equality for everybody. And thankfully, you help educate me, the community helps advance me. But without you talking to people like me, I guarantee you, while people may smile for photographs, they will more often vote against your interests, largely based on ignorance. So there's a lot for this community to bear. And in this time, I know it gets tough, we have to talk still about challenges and voting independently, securely, as is your right, we have to talk about being able to go to a pharmacy and being able to operate that as independent as you wish to be as everybody else. And what is necessary for that to come. We have opportunity now to open doors like never before. But if we don't push it, more likely we slide back. So I'm always open. I can tell you, I learned a lot. I'm very blessed. When the conversations come my way. I invite you to reach out to me in the days and weeks and months ahead to tell me and others like me your stories, the challenges of what it means in relation to transportation access, or anything else. Because if you don't share, nothing gets advanced. Alright, so I want to thank you very much with it there. And I I know food is coming. I see some people already digging in. It looks good. It looks good. So I would just want to say thank you. And if anybody had a quick question, while before y'all eat, I'll gladly take it. Yes, ma'am.
Hold on a second. Let me get a microphone.
I'm sorry.
Courtney,
you said that you would like more input
from our community
and how to aid you in talking to other representatives in the house? Is there a special way that you would like that to happen? emails?
meetings? How would you like them to accomplish that? In the best manner possible,
given
the time right now?
Thank you, thank you. Look, the the technology in many ways is helpful, right. And so the best way, the easiest way is for you to contact myself, or your rep or your senator. Now's the time a budget is upon us. I used to tell people when they had IEPs, that when you go do an IEP, one of the boxes you should check is whether or not you talk to your legislator today. Okay? So use technology, reach out and ask for a zoom, or phone call, whatever you are feel comfortable with. But I guarantee you that almost every rep, I'm sure is looking for these opportunities to talk. So if you ask for it, it is an easy thing to do. The staff will set it up by your schedule, and that it's no problem at all. So I say that for Democrats, Republicans alike, no matter what the office is, call them, ask them for that, that 20 minutes of time where you can explain to them the challenge. And they will I guarantee you that overwhelmingly they will listen and we'll all be better better for it. How about any other was Any other question?
Anybody on the stream? Please raise your hand if you're on the stream. Buddy has a question.
Yeah. Do you deal with public transportation? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, buddy, right? Yes, yeah. So yeah, buddy. Um, we are very instrumental in public transportation, there's no doubt that the county is as well, depending where you live. The state provides a good chunk of the resources in transportation. So we are instrumentally involved. So you talking to us about the problems that you have? or challenges that you're facing in relation to it? We are a good place for you to turn. We'd like your business card for it or do you have a business card? I will take care of you before we go. Okay, cuz I'm a stellar County, SEPTA. Yes, I get a good chunk. Yep. No problem. All right. Thanks very much. You got it. Any other questions? Marsha? Marsha.
No way. One second. Let me um
never never met motion.
Let me turn the volume up. One sec. Yeah, working on it.
Okay. Hi, Representative Miller. I don't think you and I know each other. Oops. I really don't I don't know. I think I think maybe. Yeah, I'm being silly. Maybe one? Yeah. So I guess my question is about death line services, and about legislation. And what's been going on in this state? And I'd like very much to speak with you. Not necessarily here. I don't have your contact information anymore. And would like very much to speak with you. Because I don't know if you necessarily know about some things that that are going on. But maybe we can talk. So I'm, I'm really very sad that I don't get to work with you. And I hope that even though I don't live in Philadelphia, I mean, I don't live in I don't live in Pittsburgh. I don't even know where I am, that you would be willing to talk with me. And we can. Because I am involved in this group. I'm still connected with the deafblind community. And so yeah, it's nice to see you again. And so if I could please have your business card, please. Thank you. But I'm not really question. So thank you. Well, look, I
appreciate it. And just so you know. I'm sure Mark Marcia course knows this, but I'm sure some of you may too. It doesn't matter where you live. Okay, so I'm pretty sure most reps to won't won't, won't hang up the phone on here some. So I've never mind taking phone calls from from anywhere in the state. So I appreciate that. Marsha has been a great advocate. Her and I have talked countless times I could not even begin to fathom how many times we've talked. And I've been always better for it. So I will take care of that. But don't let where you live to pet, you know, stop you from talking to elected officials. Okay, it looks like most people have their food. Well, that's still pretty good. So I'm going to think we're pretty good. We okay. So let me say, let me say this with it, too. So look, thank you for for letting them for letting me join you for a couple minutes. Okay. I want to be honest with you. My wife said where are you going? She's in because, you know, she'd been a little concerned with the virus. Right? But look, I came here with it. Because that's how much I care about you guys. And the and Pennsylvania to our blind. So no matter what with it, don't let this be the end of the discussion. Don't let this be the end of your advocacy. Continue to push people like me. All right, don't think we're going to just do the right thing. Most of the time, or some of the time in the disability world. A lot of people don't even know what the right thing is. So that's We need you. So please don't be shy. Don't be bashful with it. Reach out anytime. Thank you very much. I wish you all safe, safe going home. I wish all blessings. So thank you again for the time. We'll look forward to talk to you another another time.
Thank you so much, Representative Miller for taking the time to come and speak with us tonight. It's always good to be connected with our representatives on the state level as well as on the federal level. So we greatly appreciate and we will continue the conversation, because there are a lot of issues dealing with the blind and the deaf blind in Pennsylvania that need to be worked out. So thank you so much.
Door prize for representative Miller. Angelina, are you ready for a door prize?
So, so the door prize for representative Miller is a $50 amazon gift card. Great. You're
a lot of us are here.
So
okay,
the name is? I know I'm slow at this. Carlton. Wait, no, wait, hold on. Sorry. Carl, Carol Cruz. Carol Cruz.
is Carol cruise with us on the stream? There is Carol Cruz on our stream if she is she needs to unmute.
Carol, are you there?
I'm here.
gratulations Carol.
All right. Should we do our other video? Yeah, it's already. Okay. At this point, we have the opportunity to hear from Senator Casey who sent us a video who sent us a video mium adjust this. Okay, please let me have your attention, everybody. You can hold on one sec.
One Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, I want to thank that Pennsylvania chapter of the National Federation of the Blind for inviting me to speak to your annual conference. We know that despite COVID-19 your chapter has been able to continue to serve blind Pennsylvanians during these challenging times. Thank you for your good work. The covid 19 pandemic is a significant challenge for all of us, but especially for the disability community. Many of the challenges and barriers to people with disabilities have been ignored or disregarded when we're able to gather with one another. Chief among these challenges is how to continue to serve people with disabilities in new and innovative ways, while also ensuring safety for all. The American Community Survey estimates that there are over 300,000 Pennsylvanians who are blind or who have a vision loss. This is why your Pennsylvania chapter of the National Federation of the Blind is so important. Thank you for fighting for equality for people who are blind, and for all people with disabilities, as well as working to help ensure that all people with disabilities have access to the resources and services they need, so they can live full, inclusive lives. This year, in addition to celebrating the 80th anniversary of the NFB. We're also celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, just as the ADA prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability and employment, transportation, telecommunications, and many other areas. 30 years ago, I will continue to fight for legislation to improve the lives of people disabilities in the years to come. One of my bills is a disability employment incentive our next wish on the Senate Bill 255 would provide businesses an incentive to hire people just abilities and provide tax credits to make workplaces more accessible. equitable and accessible workplaces are one step one step, and they continue to fight for equality for people with disabilities in this country, I'm also working to help people disabilities save and invest. The evil act, which was passed back in 2014 made it possible for people with disabilities to save up to $100,000. without risk of losing their federal benefits. If they acquire their disability before their 26th birthday, the ABLE age Adjustment Act Senate Bill 651 would extend eligibility to open ABLE accounts to anyone who requires or disability before 46 years of age. So we got to pass Senate Bill 651 able age adjustment to increase that age eligibility from 26 to 46. Now that would make it possible for 6 million more people with disabilities to open ABLE accounts, including 1 million veterans, equally important to being able to save for the future his access to services, to live your daily lives. home and community based services make it possible for so many people with disabilities to go to school, to retain a job and to live their lives with neighbors and friends. So my ability home and community based services Infrastructure Improvement at Senate Bill 327 730 to 77 would increase the funds available for home and community based services and reduce the number of people on the waiting list to receive community based services. Each of these bills is intended to improve existing services for people with disabilities and to support organizations like the National Federation of the Blind. in commemoration of the 18th anniversary of the NFB and the 30th anniversary of the ADA, let's remember that the people of this nation have achieved many goals during that time. And we also have to remember that we have more work to do to ensure that all people with disabilities can achieve full equality. Thank you for your efforts to achieve these goals. And I'm honored to work with you to make our country more equitable and accessible for all. God bless your work. Thank you.
Excellent. So do we have a door prize for senator Casey's remarks? Angelina, you're up How about a door prize? Do we have enough door prizes for one after this? Okay.
She's trying to tell Joe that I was watching YouTube.
Okay, well
she's being a little titled.
So what should this door prize be? I guess I don't have the list of door prizes.
$25 I don't know
$25 in one form or another?
Is it cash or is it a gift card?
cash. Cash All right, we like money.
And this one goes to Lisa McManus
let's see. Let's see Yeah, she was there before or almost there before. Let's see.
When you give support you got to go.
I don't see them there now.
If you don't want to have fun your pick your pick.
Do you want me to just
if you were there make Lisa McManus please pick up. unmute yourself. Okay, I guess draw again, please. Okay, Angelina, what's our next What's your name? Yep.
The next name is? The next name is Marilyn Klein.
Are you still there? Maryland? Give her a second to unmute.
And then Whoo.
Yeah.
There she
Marilyn is our winner.
How do I where I get it?
I mean,
where do I
I mean, I
realize it was now. But
no worries, it was we will send it to you. So the check will literally be in the mail and a little bit. Thank you very much. Okay, at this point, I would like to take the opportunity to invite our national. Our national representative is Jennifer Kennedy if she is available for speaking to us. She is the director of blindness learning in new dimensions Inc, our Minneapolis, Minnesota, and FB structured discovery based training center. So we are greatly honored to have her be able to address us this evening. So Miss Kennedy, if you are available. Please take it away.
Thank you, Joe.
Go ahead, we got you.
It's a pleasure to be with all of you tonight at our large virtual banquet table. There'll be a few other guests are joining us from across the country, as they are excited to share this opportunity with you. I find it fitting that our convention is being held here in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is one of my favorite places to go. I don't imagine anybody's having a romantic brother's sandwich tonight for banquet. So if you don't when you leave the hotel tomorrow, please grab one in my honor. I want to talk to you tonight a little bit about keys. keys can be a metaphor for a variety of things. And they're also something that can allow us into a desired destination. And my journey through blindness and the National Federation of the Blind. We've had a lot of keys. And so I want to talk to you about the keys of success that I have found in this journey called blindness. The first key to understanding my story is that I didn't start out as a blind person. Dr. Seuss had a book all about the Hoover baby highway. And along the Hoover baby highway when a baby was born. Prior to coming down here to their fine human parents. The baby would check boxes listing all the characteristics that you could possibly have, or Yes, no boxes, you could check off if you wanted to be tall. If you wanted to be short, if you wanted to be rich, if you wanted to be good looking, smart, fashionable, humorous. Somehow I hit the box blind on the way down. I think I intentionally had met for blind. That wouldn't occur though for a few years. So growing up as a sighted person in a small north, west town in Ohio. I didn't know blind people. I knew about things like the Etch A Sketch. And Ohio art who had the tutorial of pain. Moving towards the Cleveland area at the age of 11 was far spawned by a need. See, there was a key that we had to find. And that was the key to understanding what this mysterious illness was that was causing my blindness. And we believe that that door would be unlocked through getting closer to medical treatment at Cleveland Clinic. Lo and behold, it was but it was also the key to a door that I didn't know I needed to unlock. And that was this opportunity to now be with you. At the age of 15. The doctors essentially said Jennifer, there is nothing else that we can do for you and your family. We're going to keep trying drugs but we can't prove that they're actually helping. Now I was a teenager, I was dating the star ball basketball player. I was the student council president and I ran around with the popular kids. I did not have time to be a blind person. I couldn't read bumpy stuff and I didn't want a white cane that was an accessory that we needed. No, no. The only white accessory I ever envisioned myself with was a wedding dress. But that's what they said. We don't know what else we can do for you. We can just keep trying. I looked at my parents and I said I hate who I am. And I hate who I've become when I look in the mirror. What is the point of having any vision remaining if I don't like what I'm looking at. They support it. My decision when I said I don't want any more drugs, I just want to figure out how do I live with this vision loss. I cannot imagine what they were going through. I took the year, that would have been my freshman year of high school and I spent it at The Ohio School for the Blind, not because my school district refused to work with me, well, because they didn't know how we heard earlier today from a gentleman who is working remotely for two with the Smucker jam company. Interestingly enough, Oroville High School is where I graduated from. And that is where the smuckers headquarters is. So the little world of connections between Pennsylvania and I continue. Nobody in our circle, knew much about blindness. And I knew there were two things. Number one, I had to figure out how I was going to continue reading books. And number two, I knew that I needed to find experts in teaching me. I didn't know the real experts I would find later on. After spending my freshman high school year at the School for the Blind and went back to public school and applied the things that I had learned. I had a cute little white cane that came up to my sternum that I kept around and I had a CCTV that I drove behind me. Well, actually, I didn't drag it, I had made friends with lots of football players who were happy to leave class a few minutes early to make sure that me and my equipment made it to all of our classes on time. Who wouldn't want to leave class early in with and with the best the football players.
As I was determining what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was flip flopping between some kind of law and journalism. I knew, however, that there were things that I needed and the thing that I needed with money, the key to my success was going to be money. And I needed some help to get to college. And so I applied for a National Federation of the Blind national scholarship. I remember sending Barbara Pearson email and this was back when Jim antonacci said on the committee, and I wrote Barbara piercey, Ohio affiliate president at the time and said, Barbara, I'm told we need to have an interview. But I don't know how you would interview or we need to have a letter of recommendation from our affiliate president. How are you going to write a letter if you don't know anything about me? That opened the door for Barbara and I to begin working together and she started mentoring me over an hour and a half phone call. indirectly. I wrote a letter. And I had it sent certified mail because I just knew there was something about this radical militant group called the National Federation of the Blind. But I had to learn more. Carl Jacobson, former affiliate president and national board member from the state of New York was the one who called me and asked me the three most important questions. Number one, was I legally blind? Number two, was I still intending to pursue a college degree in this fall? And was I available to come participate in the 2001 annual convention of the National Federation of blind to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I was able to say yes to all those. And off I went. So here I am, 18 years old, and I'm going to meet all these wonderful blind people and learn a little bit about the Federation. And I knew that other people had told me things that I wanted to find out for myself, I started reading information, playing the cassette tape that I got in a box and thought, wow, there's, there's a lot of really good stuff here. And it sounds like these people are, they really believe it's okay to be blind. See, in my mind, I had always thought I did. But I realized over time that just because you think it doesn't mean you feel it in your heart. And I wanted that peaceful feeling, that confident feeling that I had so long ago. But parents, of course wanted to know who was going to meet me at the airport. And if I remember correctly, I told them Oh, don't worry, they have somebody waiting there. In the back of my mind. I'm thinking why no, that have to have taxicabs waiting there. I just haven't planned for it yet. There was However, one event that I had already planned for in addition to participating in the scholarship meeting. And that was going to affiliate scheme with the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania. There was an email that had gone out through the listserv, and I had never been to a professional baseball game with only blind people. I've never been on a metro with only blind people. But I knew I liked baseball and anywhere that you can litter in public. I figured, hey, why not and not be good. I remember talking to Mr. internachi. And all of the Federation is that we're on that Train, they were excited and they looked relaxed. Here I was I still could read a little bit of print. But I was scared out of my mind. I'm like, gosh, I have no idea where we're going and how we all going to know where to get back. And what if I get separated? But no, no, I had to keep my cool after a while I wouldn't lose scholarship people. It didn't take very long for me to realize that the key to me really understanding the organization was to be honest with myself, and say, You know what, you aren't comfortable with who you are. You don't have it all figured out. And neither do the rest of these people. But I bet they can offer you a lot of different things and a lot of perspectives that maybe just maybe you can get back to looking in the mirror and liking who you are. Well, here I am, 20 years later, you couldn't get rid of me.
From that time forward, my life had a trajectory that I did not realize had really had been set by the temple of what we saw. I saw a federation of some blind people walking around with smiles with confidence reading Braille no matter what age they had started it, and being okay with that. I love listening to adults who learn Braille, I don't care that they're not as fluent as say, the young people today who got started on Braille so much earlier than the rest of us. It's the fact that they're still using it. My passion for involvement in advocacy work continued, I spent a lot of time with our Ohio affiliate. And one of the things that I quickly realized while I was in college was I was becoming a prisoner in my own dorm room. You see, I had been taught that point A to point B travel with my little tiny cane. And I very quickly found out that if I couldn't figure out how to get from A to B, without making a mistake, I never got there. So rather than going to find other things on my college campus, going on dates, and leaving to find food in the cafeteria, it was much better to order from Papa John's three times a week and just insists you like to eat that much. I left school feeling defeated. I couldn't keep up with the studying. I couldn't travel by myself. And I certainly was no longer dating that gentleman that you heard about earlier today. Who was I? I didn't know that the key to finding myself was comprehensive training at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, eight long months, walk through rain and parking lots made a meal for 40. ran a wood shop around saws in the woodshop. For the most important thing that I did, while I was there was I really took a look at who I was, and philosophically, how was I going to become a whole person. It was easy. I put the vision that I had aside and I learned how to be successful without it. That's all it took. Why is that then? That I was never taught that from those doctors when I first lost my vision. Why is it that I was spending so much time trying to read print inefficiently, when the key to the success was it was being able to see my success was going to be based off of me and the things that I wanted to do. And the places that I wanted to go. I got back to college after that year of trading and I took the world by storm. I joined the Delta Zeta sorority, and I chase down this guy I had looked up about six months. Well, needless to say, he never got rid of me because we've been married for over eight years now. I knew who I was, I was proud of who I was. And I knew in my heart, it was respectable to be blind. I spent a few summers then working with our blind youth at the Louisiana center, teaching Braille and technology and I learned two very important things. Number one, those of you who are in any type of technology field, God love you because I don't have patience for that. Number two, the empowerment that we give people trained in our trading centers, trained by blind people who didn't necessarily go to college and get a PhD in it is the absolute best key to successful trading. It's that mentoring, whether it's your roommate who's been there three weeks longer than you, whether it is the instructors who have been living the life of a blind person for many years. Or maybe it's the person that you start mentoring, after you've been at the training center for six months. Those are the keys one another has always been the key to the success of the National Federation of the Blind. Well, you can't make money and have a roof over your head if you don't have a job. And there are a few positions that allow mentoring to be a main component but I felt that Teaching was my best way to mentor. And so I pursued an orientation and mobility degree at Louisiana Tech. After all, if I wanted to empower people the way that I had, then it was my job to take them out in the rain and leave them standing around in parking lots asking them questions like, Where is this son? Where do you hear your traffic?
The passion that I had for rehabilitation has never left. And I knew that as much as I loved Ohio, it was unlikely that Ohio would recognize a certification provided by the National blindness orientation and national blindness professional certification board. You see, the n o MC, national orientation, mobility certification. While it isn't the oldest existing certification, in a way, it really actually is. You see, blind people have been teaching each other forever. It wasn't an actual profession. Until our world war two vets came back and the doctor stood around looking at one another going. There's nothing wrong with this soldier, you just can't see. We had been doing it for decades, we've been teaching other blind people how to live the lives they want. The key to being able to teach those people wasn't the paper. It was the lived experience. We've heard today from so many wonderful people about the experiences that they are living, and they are living them because of the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind. Well, I used to think that the National Federation of the Blind trading centers were kind of like a church. And if you go to church, everybody that's in the Church says right alongside you, you know, they believe in what you believe in. And I felt really strongly that, you know, now that I really am a complete person, and I want to be able to change things and I'm going to go out, I'm going to be a rebel. And I want to work for a state agency that's undergoing change. And so I spent my first seven years of teaching orientation mobility at the Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and vision impaired. I had an incredible mentor Melanie Rome, who was my first supervisor, as a supervisor of new people. Now, I could only imagine the conversations that she was having in her head with the crazy ideas of this young 27 year old, who had no idea exactly how to run a training center, but sometimes thought she could tell her how to do her job. Well, she allowed me to try things that I only hoped would work. And for that, I'll always be grateful. After seven years, I felt that it was time for me to change the trajectory that the training center that I had participated in, it was going away, that was a little bit on life, what I thought rehabilitation should be. And rather than being the poisonous apple in that barrel of cider, I went, again, in search of a place that believed blindness rehabilitation could be done the way that I felt that it needed to be done. And I took myself and I eventually brought my husband and my dog to Salt Lake City, Utah. Now I am told that we will not be doing any more cross country moves apart. But this was now the second move that we had done apart. You see in graduate school, Daniel, left Louisiana first while I finished. Then when we left Virginia, I went to Utah first. And then he joined me. And it was just starting to get kind of old. God bless all of you who have been able to make remote careers work for you and your families. It was definitely not it was not in our original game plan to have to do that again. But we knew that we could do it. And he didn't worry about me. Even when I called complaining about being going a mile in the wrong direction for my new apartment with a gallon of milk in the hot July Utah son. He didn't worry. He knew that I had the keys to be successful in this travel skills and problem solving. But more importantly, I had moved to another place with an amazing National Federation of the Blind affiliate. I had people there who believed in me, and I was working in an agency where so many of my colleagues believed the same. It was exciting, but I always knew what I wanted to do. And that was I wanted to shape the future in a way that an instructor really can. I've been in charge of programming for summer youth. I've been the lead instructor in orientation mobility, and I have even gone as far as gone and done some contract work with a new structure Discovery Center, the Alabama freedom Center for the Blind, helping them I never intended to teach for 11 years I was shooting for five, but sometimes you just get into a routine. And that routine is comfortable. There are some phone calls that you'll never forget the phone call that I had with Carl Jacobson the first scholarship I ever won is one that I never forgot. The other phone call I probably won't forget was when I talked with President riccobono, about the position of executive director of one of our three energy training centers. Remember, I didn't want to go to the church, I was supposed to be a missionary out in the field, teaching everybody why they struggle with church, the church of the National Federation of the Blind. What the church needed me. The National Federation of wine Training Center needed me.
I applied for the job, and I told my boss at the time, and you know what I was going to do. And, of course, he knew how much I believed in what we do here. And he knew that he wasn't going to be going anywhere. And so he wished me well on my interview, and I came to Minneapolis and I did just that. It was a, it was an experience, I've never had an interview like it. And I've never left an interview wanting so much. I wanted to be able to shape the change and shape the way that we do blindness rehabilitation program, and within the National Federation of the Blind, we stand on the shoulders of giants. I've often sat in my office, at the bill's Barry mentioned, blind incorporated is located in downtown Minneapolis for less than a five minute bus ride from the city center. And we are located in a historic mansion, one of the Pillsbury brothers own. My office is in a library. And I have sat in that library so many times thinking about the things that were done, before we ever got there. Thinking about what were the key components to being able to do what we needed to do. Pennsylvania, as you know, was the place that we started the National Federation of the Blind 80 years ago, what an awesome time to be here as your national representative. It was exciting. And it's the scariest thing that I've ever done, I accepted the job and I came to Minneapolis. And of course, I had to come first and Daniel had to catch up with me. So if you ever have any temptations in bringing me to Pittsburgh, the first thing you got to do is figure out a way to get us both there. That's a requirement. And if we ever have to do another cross country move. The work that we do in the National Federation of the Blind is incredibly important, whether it's our youngest initiatives for our youth, the bell program, we've talked about with the Braille literacy and learning for our kids. And today, the king travel program for our early explorers, it's the parents teaching those children. It doesn't have to be a professional with paper, the mentoring that has gone on even here this weekend, listening to one another, it was so neat to watch the student division begin to take shape yesterday during our call, as they encouraged one another to take positions. Remember, President riccobono even started out as a student division person, and an affiliate president. He is my boss, and he's somebody that I am incredibly grateful for, to have his leadership as I hope all of you are to, he really has the organization as a top priority, as so many of our leaders do, but in a way that makes me strive every day, to be the best that I can be. Being able to read the literature in the speech is of the leaders that I never knew, I didn't have the chance to meet Dr. pennbrook. I didn't have the chance to meet Dr. Jernigan. But they've taught us so much. And I really strongly encourage you if you've not spent the time reading our literature to do so. It will help you understand why we say it is respectable to be blind. How to think about yourself when the rest of the world thinks less of you. What do you do during those microaggressions? When somebody says something as simple as Oh, watch your step on the five other people who got out of the bus before you said, Have a nice day. There are days in which the key to your success may seem far out of reach. Maybe it doesn't fit in the lock that you thought that it should. Maybe you've opened the door, and it hasn't turned into the opportunity that you wanted it to be. That's okay. We sometimes take a funny road to get there. after all. It's been a bit of an exciting journey this past year. It wasn't the year that I expected to have as my executive director hat war. It was actually very nice when I met with Pam and Julie, our Louisiana and Colorado directors It was really really nice as we work together trying to decide how we were going to handle the pandemic because finally, we were all on the same playing field. They didn't know how We were going to do it either, but we got to come up with it together. And we've continued to serve throughout. We've continued to keep all of our staff employed. Despite everything going against us. We do it because of the work that was done by Joanne Wilson. Joyce Scanlon and Diane McGeorge, the three women who built the National Federation of the Blind training centers.
Lynn Heights is your leader. And she is continuing to build upon what she was given. She is only as good as the membership that she has. And I assure you, she's good people. last key I want to talk about is the key that the last key that I want to talk about is the key to understanding who you are, you won't always know you may be in a place right now we're everything is going really, really well. You may be in a place in your blindness journey where you don't understand why things are the way they are. You may have a belief in yourself on the outside, but perhaps not so much on the inside. Be open with your Federation family. Being open for me has helped me through a tremendously difficult year, whether it was trying to understand my new role, being able to rally my staff in a time of great stress, being able to coach students in a different kind of way. finding something as simple as a nail salon in a new town.
Be open,
take that key to your heart and open it. I promise you, there's more love here in the National Federation of the Blind than anywhere else you will ever find. Thank you all so much. And please, whatever you do, go out and live the life you want. I know I am. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Jennifer. Awesome. Thank you so much for addressing us and with your words of wisdom and the hope and all that that the Federation represents for us all. Thank you very, very much. And part of what our Federation family does is that we recruit our next generation of new leaders. And for that, in a crucial ingredient is our scholarship program for college and above students. So at this point, we would love to have Jim antonacci, the chair of the convention scholarship committee, please present on our scholarship finalists for this convention.
Thank you, Joe. And let's see. I it's probably a good idea to go back a little bit and say, I wonder if if you receive a scholarship from the National Federation of the Blind does it take you anywhere? Well, you've heard a bunch of folks speak today about what they've done and what they have been doing. Let's see if we can think about some folks who have received NFB scholarships in the past. Who might be here with us today. Lin heights. She received two of them. Joe Drenth who you just heard speaking he received a scholarship. Howard Harriet go who I know is on. Virtually. How are you received? To? Let's see who else? There's Jason Polanski. Goodness, all board members so far, Jason received one. But do we have any others out there? Well, let's see. I believe Lindsey Palumbo Gifford has been around all day. It's probably here this evening. She from
the Happy Valley area. She's a scholarship winner. And oh, that's right. Jennifer Kennedy. Not only 2001 but I believe 2007 she got to
Let's see who else Hmm. Justin Salzberg. You heard him yesterday and earlier today he's been a national scholarship winner. So let's see if I missed anybody who's here with us this evening. Okay, guess not. So Melia Oh, Lily's with us. Okay. Lily Asad Alina, Lily from Philly. She received one. Hi, Lil. Anybody else that I missed? All right, well, it just shows you that. scholarship winners tend not to forget. And they are usually around. Because they realize that there's something important about this organization. If not, I mean, let's face it, when when you're one of 30 people out of 450 or so, you're in a pretty rare area here. So you got to be pretty bright. To know, to be able to receive one of those scholarships, and bright people don't usually stick around with organizations that are lame, and, and just, you know, don't don't know what's going on and the whole bit. So if that many bright people have stuck around, I guess there's something about this organization. Well, many of those folks started by receiving an LS they were national scholarships that I mentioned, but many of those folks started by receiving state scholarships. And either here in Pennsylvania or in their own home state. And we were lucky enough to have two scholarship winners this year. So let's say the first of those, and she's been with us all weekend. I know she was at the student division meeting, and she was here all the whole day today. So let's call on Anastasia sruc. And Anastasia you have to tell me if I'm saying that correctly. She's a junior now at Clarion University Anastasia's from Dubois and Anastasia Say yes, say hello to the folks here at the at the banquet and virtually good.
Hey, everybody, Can you see me? Hear me? Hello.
We do hear you.
Okay. Okay. Yes, you're saying it correctly, Anastasia. I just wanted to let you know. Hi, everybody. I'm just going to tell you a little bit about myself for anybody who wasn't around yesterday. I live in the Dubois area. I have Stargardt's disease, which is a rare form of juvenile macular degeneration. And I was diagnosed with that when I was 15 years old, and I'm 27 now. So I've been living with that for almost 13 years now. I am a junior at Clarion University. I'll be graduating in the spring of 20 2022. And I'm getting my degree in community services and psychology. And after I get my undergrad I plan to get my graduate degree in marriage and family therapy. And after that, I would like to hopefully get my doctorate in child psychology. That's a lot of school so we'll see if I decide to do but um I currently work at the Dubois Middle School. I'm a paraprofessional, and I work in the OT and I work in the autism room. And this was my first experience with the NFP and I found that you guys have a lot of resources. I really enjoyed all the panels that you guys had. And I actually have a YouTube channel where I talk about living with blindness I talk about Stargardt's disease and I talk about how I personally have overcame my challenges and I talk about, like ways you can clean your house ways that you can cook different things that are out there, like blue light glasses and things like that. So I definitely will be adding some of those things to my videos like the accessible pharmacy, for instance.
Um,
so I guess I want to wrap it up by saying that I want to be a counselor, because I want to be someone in the world. That is a part of change. And I was surrounded today, well, all weekend, basically by the same people who want the same things. So I want to thank all you guys for having confidence in me and believing in my ability to be successful. And yeah, I just I really appreciate the opportunity to be here, even if it's virtually
Thank you, Anastasia. And one of the things that Anastasia mentioned, of course, was that, you know, she wants to make a difference. And I think if she seen anything, and we've all seen anything over this weekend, it's that this entire group makes a difference that we've been making a difference. We've been doing this for a long time. 1940 is when the national organization started. And we've been saying that we intended to make a difference. And we obviously have done that. So again, maybe on that, on that YouTube channel and all that maybe you also want to indicate that the place for people to go when they experience vision loss is to check into that into the things that NFB and also NFB of Pennsylvania have to offer. Because look at all the people who have who are out there who have been doing this and that you've met over this weekend and have have done so much to make those changes that you've been talking about. All right. Our other scholarship winner is a young lady that we've known for a number of years, we've known her since elementary school. So she was she was a little kid when when I first met her. And it's it's great to that she's now pretty much grown up and she's now a senior Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and she lives in the in the suburban Philadelphia area. That scholarship winner is Rebecca Weber. Also known as Becca, Rebecca, Hello to everyone Becca.
Keep saying your name. Okay.
Hello. I'm Becca, I am a senior like Mr. antonacci said at Kutztown in the vision program. And I graduated in the spring. So I'm really excited to get started. And I wanted to go into the TVI field because I had great teachers, the blind and visually impaired in high school. And I wouldn't be you know who I am today, like know the skills that I know today without them. And so I think it's important to show other people, you know, other blind students what's possible and to you know, be a mentor for them. I guess thank you for the opportunity. And I you know, I'm really excited to start my thanks.
Okay, but, Becca, I have I have a couple quick questions for you. First of all, have you let sister mag know that you've received a scholarship from us. You still with us? Becca,
buy this mic.
Oh, there we are. Now I hear you, Joe.
No, I did not. I need to see
Shame on you. You're better either. If you don't if you don't have a number for I might have it. So, yeah, we'll have to go off to talk about that. Because I'll tell you something. Now when I mentioned sister, Meg, now you remember sister Meg, right? Becca?
Yes, I do.
Alright, sister, Meg was the principal, it's st Lucy's day school, when the NFB of Pennsylvania first got involved with the school going out there and, and starting to talk to the students and, and we got sister Meg out to one of our conventions. Now, you know, they, I always love it when, you know, I've, one of the things that I did, and I in college, was that not only, not only did I major in education, but also in mathematics. And I did a good bit of work in physics while I was there. And I noticed that every time a, either a mathematician came up with a special proof, or a physicist came up with some explanation of the way the world works, they named it after. So, you know, there's, so there's all kinds of kinds of things named after these. And I kept thinking of structured discovery, we kept talking about structured discovery, and how, if you explain to a blind person, how the things work, or you give them some tools, and say, if you encounter this problem, in a stop, think about, you know, check this out, check that out, figure out how the, the how this is, and then what will happen is, you will be able to figure your way out of the problem, ie, we structure, your learning process, through your own discovery of how to how to work out the problems. And I keep wondering whether we should almost call it the sister Meg, discovery method or whatever. And I'll tell you why. Because we brought sister Meg to an NFB convention in Atlanta one year. And she said that she was sitting in the area, and she's see people, you know, walking along, and sometimes they get to a corner, and she'd run up and rescue them and all that. And she said, it got to be tiring after a while. And she stopped doing that. And after she kept watching, she said, the person would go, they'd hit the corner. And then they check to one side, they check to the other side. And then they figure it out. And once they figured it out, they went on. And in doing so since By the way, sister Meg was the principal at St. Lucy's at the time, if I haven't mentioned that. She said, Why don't go when I and if she said said to me, Jim, when I get back to school, I'm going to start getting the kids to figure it out. And she said, I know that if I let them alone, they'll do it. And if they figure it out, they'll be the better for it. And these are the things that we teach. And we can teach even some of the top educators in the field how to do it. So Madam President, here are the two scholarship winners for this year. I hope that you're pleased with the fact that they've been with us all weekend, I still I realized that there's still tomorrow morning, which is part of the convention, but I'm sure that there'll be with us again tomorrow. And I hope that I hope and I that I speak for the scholarship committee that we've I think we've done a pretty decent job of picking to to Good, good folks. And let's hope that they go on to receive something from the national organization in the future. I that's all that I have at this time.
Thank you very much, Jim. Greatly appreciate that. And thank you for your work on the scholarship committee. And congratulations to our two scholarship winners to Becca and Anastasia. Awesome. Yep. Okay. Oh, there we go.
So, wow. Okay, so we have two phenomenal state scholarship winners this year. I know that Anastasia has been in contact with Lindsey Gifford. And, you know, I hope that, you know, she stays connected with Lindsay and eventually becomes connected with the Happy Valley chapter up there. And I know that even though Becca is currently going to Kutztown Thank you University, that she is an active member in the Keystone chapter and does call in with our meetings being virtual. You know, I hope that these two young ladies continue to be with us. So, at the end of the day, today, I mentioned that we had two special guests with us tonight, and that you should really tune in, in order to in order to hear from them. Well. You know, we heard from representative Dan Miller, and quite honestly, I really do need to apologize about this. I had totally, it, it totally kind of slipped my mind about the audio clip that Senator Casey sent to us. But there's actually a couple people here who are more important to the NFB of Pennsylvania. Then probably either Senator Casey, or representative Miller. And I'm going to pass the microphone to my left. And I'm sure that when this person starts to talk, you're going to know exactly who it is.
Good evening, fellow, Federation's. I want to thank Glenn heights very much for inviting us to see winning. I certainly appreciate the invitation.
And I'm sure my wife does to me and she didn't have to cook tonight. certainly happy to be here. I thank you very much.
So, Chuck, so we so I was trying to count it up. I had the pleasure of having lunch with Chuck on Thursday. And he told me that he joined the NRP of Pennsylvania in 1964 which means he has been a member of this organization for 46 years. Okay, so I get an A for not being able to count
56 years.
So I'm Chuck, it is just wonderful to have you and Esther here with us tonight. We have one other thing that we would really like you to do. The because we were virtual the affiliate decided the affiliate decided not to do an auction on Friday evening because it would have been very, very challenging to do that. Hybrid and virtually. So what we did was we we did we ran a raffle. And while we were raffling off was a $500 gift card to either apple or Amazon and the raffle tickets. The raffle tickets were $10 apiece and you could buy them online. Or you could have bought them in person here at the convention. So the raffle application has closed online. And I know Marsha has been diligently browsing those last few entries that we had today. And so, so Chuck, we would like you to pull the winner. So if someone could pass me the bag Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna open. No. So I got this I have this Ziploc bag here of tickets. And they're all Brown. So Chuck, if you could reach in and pull the winner for us know you read it. It's in Braille.
my brows not as good as it used to be.
I'm not sure whether you're done or not.
Okay.
I'm lost.
You haven't left Pittsburgh? Yeah, Chuck.
Oh,
oh, okay, I
got the last name.
Okay.
Mr. Joseph Drenth.
Okay, so Joe, you get to choose between the apple gift card or the Amazon gift card and you don't have to choose now. But this is like really awesome. So congratulations to Joe. And thank every thank you to everybody so much for purchasing the raffles for our state affiliate. I want to thank everybody who's participated whether you participated virtually in this your state convention, or you participated in person, it was wonderful to have you with us. We hope that you enjoyed.
We have we have one more thing, don't close it off yet. Oh, okay. So because it's the 30th anniversary of the NFB a number of us on the board thought it would be kind of nice to give our president a 30th anniversary gift for the NFP. So let me I'm coming around here second. If I might have the microphone back a second. Emily, would you describe
describe the gift
you can describe as much as you want? Sure.
So
I do apologize limb because with all the rushing around. I kind of accidentally left it on my nightstand. So however from a gift from the board to use the president or in the 80th anniversary of the National Federation of blind and the 30th anniversary of the ADA and what was the 75th anniversary of the idea the board got together and the 30th anniversary is depending on where you're looking is either type of Ruby or Perl. So we were able to find you a beaded bracelet that was both was the pearl and small rubies and beads the red beads around so
thank you for keeping us together. Keeping all your little children in line.
Thank you
for a rustling this herd of cats at times. Yes, absolutely. Like the same thing.
I just don't know what to say. I just I am truly I'm really truly speechless. The way the board this board has come together Doron COVID-19. The way members and the affiliate have stepped up and taken care of each other during this time of real stress whether it be COVID-19 To the continuous rioting, the issues with the national election. You know, it's all about coming together. And and like I said, like I said this morning, we we've come we the blind, we in the National Federation of the Blind have come a long way in 80 years, but we still have a long way to go. And it's only with love, hope and determination and working together that we all get to live the lives we want. So thank you so much.
So with that, thank you all for participating virtually or physically and come back tomorrow morning we have an early breakfast and then our breakfast meeting same time same channel. So thank you everyone, same place your living room or our banquet hall either way. So thank you all hope you had a have a great rest of the night for us here were partying Hardy, so wish you were here. So thank you all everybody and go live the life you want. The National Federation of the black