New Jersey Recorder Fall 2006 (text)

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Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
New Jersey Unit
69 Mapleton Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Phone 609-750-1830
Fax 609-750-9653

Recorder Fall 2006

A publication dedicated to our members and the volunteers, staff and supporters of the New Jersey Unit.

Providing equal access to the printed word.

RFB&D helps NAA winner Philip Wyks of Oradell stay in academic shape

Philip Wyks’ struggle with dyslexia and dysgraphia was so severe, he recalls getting “...so mad at my homework that I would throw my pillow down and hit it with a hammer.” Despite those obstacles, the Oradell, NJ, teenager persevered and graduated from high school with a 90 grade average. For that, and his extraordinary scholarship, leadership, enterprise and service to others, Wyks was honored by Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D®) as one of three top winners of the 2005 Marion Huber Learning Through Listening® (LTL®) awards.

Wyks told the gathering in Washington, DC, that RFB&D has been instrumental in his educational success. “It is such a simple concept, reading out loud, but for people like me who need it, RFB&D becomes very powerful. We can not only survive, but stay competitive and succeed thanks to RFB&D.”

Diagnosed with dyslexia in the second grade, Wyks had difficulty taking notes and paying attention in class. “Everyone around me was doing better than me,” he said. “I was sometimes made fun of by the other kids because I couldn’t read some of the words in our books.” After learning about the school newspaper in his high school journalism class, Wyks went home and told his mother that he could write anything he wanted, but that obesity wasn’t allowed. Confused, his mother looked at his paper and replied, “Philip, the word is obscenity.”

According to Wyks, his life turned around after using RFB&D audiobooks to help him comprehend novels in English class. Comparing dyslexia to running a cross country race at 200 pounds rather than his top shape of 140 pounds, Wyks, an avid runner, states that “RFB&D takes off the extra 60 pounds.” RFB&D remains at Wyks’ side as he enters his sophomore year at American University’s Kogod School of Business.

Photo caption:
John Kelly, RFB&D president and CEO (l.) with Philip Wyks and Jim Golubieski (r.), RFB&D national board member at the National Achievement Awards ceremony earlier this year.

Join the New Jersey Unit at IDA’s Annual Fall Conference

New Jersey Unit Educational Outreach Director Chris Ranaghan and Connie Dowling, educational programs director at RFB&D’s national headquarters will be making a presentation at the New Jersey branch of The International Dyslexia Association’s (IDA) Annual Fall Conference. The conference will be held on Friday, October 13 at the Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village.

The theme of the conference is Aligning Language and Literacy: Covering All the Bases. Chris and Connie will be conducting a program providing an overview of RFB&D; explaining why it is an effective intervention for students with learning disabilities. They will also outline practical classroom implementation strategies. There will also be presentations and information on research, assessment and effective instruction to aid students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities at the conference. An exhibit hall of vendors offering educational material will be open throughout the day.

The IDA is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization dedicated to the study and treatment of dyslexia. The organization focus is in four major areas: information and referral services, research, advocacy, and direct services to professionals in the field of learning disabilities. Ranaghan is also a member of the IDA’s New Jersey branch board of directors.

“RFB&D's ongoing partnership with IDA has allowed both organizations to not only better serve people with dyslexia, but also to develop innovative programs and products that provide our members with equal access to the printed word and other services,” said RFB&D President & CEO John Kelly.

The conference will run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and is open to the public. If you would like more information, please e-mail the New Jersey branch of IDAat njida@msn.com with your name and mailing address and a brochure will be mailed to you.

Photo caption:
Angela Holman (l.) displays her purchase during the sale of photographs by Juanell Boyd (r.) during the 2006 Record-A-Thon (R-A-T) in May. All of the proceeds from the sale went to benefit the New Jersey Unit. See page 2 for more details and photos from this year’s R-A-T.

From outer space to in the booth, volunteers & sponsors make Record-A-Thon 2006 a success!

Photo caption:
The New Jersey Unit celebrated Record-A-Thon 2006 on May 1–6 with 253 volunteers participating to record 410 hours of text and raise nearly $40,000 for the unit. Highlights included: (top, l–r) Dr. Gregory Olsen stepped out of a Soyuz spacecraft and into a recording booth; Unit Board Member Janet Nagourney explains the silent auction to RFB&D and Lions Club member David Mostello during Lions Night; Record-A-Thon King Clif Giddings reveals another of his epicurean delights and (bottom l–r) New Jersey Network Statehouse reporter Jim Hooker records, and old friends Jerry Freedman and Irwin Gordon take a break from another marathon medical recording session.

Does your company have a matching gift program?

Does your company play the Match Game? No, not the one with Gene Rayburn in eternal reruns on the Game Show Network. Many employers sponsor matching gift programs and will match any charitable contribution made by their employees to nonprofit organizations like the New Jersey Unit. Some even make contributions for time volunteered with the organization.

Listed below are just a few of the companies that have matched their employees’ —and even retired employees’— gifts to RFB&D. Contact your business or personnel office to obtain the proper form to complete, and return it to Jessica Wilson at the New Jersey Unit.

Gannett Foundation
Geico
J.C. Penney
Aetna Foundation
General Electric
PepsiCo Foundation
General Re Foundation
American Express Co
Glaxo WellCome
Pitney Bowes
PPG Industries
Harcourt General
AT&TFoundation
ADP
Avon Products
Hoechst Foundation
BankAmerica Foundation
Houghton Mifflin Co.
IBM Corporation
Charles Schwabb & Co.
The Boeing Company
Johnson & Johnson
BPAmerica
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Eli Lily & Co. Foundation
Lucent Technologies
Chevron Corporation
McGraw-Hill Companies
Sun Microsystems Foundation
Chubb Corporation
Merrill Lynch & Co. Foundation
CIGNA Foundation
Cisco Systems
Time Warner Cable
Citibank
Mobil Foundation
Monsanto Company
Toyota Motor Sales, USA
The Coca-Cola Company
J.P. Morgan & Co.
UPS Foundation
Corning Incorporated
Equitable Foundation
The New York Times Co.
Newsweek
Exxon Corporation
Fannie Mae Foundation
Norton Co. Foundation
Reader’s Digest Foundation
Chase Manhattan Foundation

Are you an RFB&D member or parent with a story about how we’ve changed your life that you’d like to share with volunteers and members? We’d love to hear from you!
Contact Jessica Wilson at jswilson@rfbd.org.

The unit bids farewell to three remarkable volunteers

Three long time volunteers and friends of the New Jersey Unit passed away earlier this year. All were trailblazers in their professions and shared their amazing talents with the unit and RFB&D’s members.

Betty Wood volunteered with the unit from 1974 to 2004. She was the first female scientist at Bell Telephone Labs, where she worked from 1943 to 1967. Her initial efforts helped the military master the use of crystals to control radio signals during World War II.

She was president of the American Crystallographic Association (ACA) in 1957. The ACA now awards authors of the best science books for lay readers its Elizabeth A. Wood Science Writing Award. Betty wrote several acclaimed books of that type including Crystals and Light: An Introduction to Optical Crystallography (which the New Jersey Unit recorded in her honor).

Photo caption:
Betty Wood

Anne Sheldon volunteered from 1958 until late in 2005. As well as being one of the unit’s pioneers, she was an actress in the early days of live television in Buffalo. Anne was an award winning stage actress as well, performing throughout the country. She used those skills and her unmistakable voice to benefit thousands of RFB&D members through the years. Her remarkable sense of humor kept the staff and her fellow volunteers in good spirits and she was one of the best ambassadors the unit has ever had.

Photo caption:
Anne Sheldon celebrating during the 2004 volunteer recognition event.

Ruth Alampi, who volunteered for more than 20 years, was also a broadcasting pioneer. She hosted several gardening shows, including “Around Your Home and Garden” on WNBC, with her husband, former Secretary of Agriculture Phil Alampi, himself a member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Ruth also hosted and produced consumer related programs for New Jersey Public Broadcasting.

Volunteer Spotlight: Shirley Jenks– mapping trails through the most difficult books

Shirley Jenks remembers what for her were “the dark ages” of RFB&D. The dark ages were in 1993 when recording was done on reel-to-reel machines and when mistakes were made; directors had to master the art of “flying corrections.”

Shirley’s last position before retiring was working with patients who often could not be controlled at the Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital while they were in intensive treatment. Working with much larger patients on the verge of violence never phased her, but her hand-to-hand combat with the reel-to-reel machine left her “traumatized.”

Fortunately, she found staff and volunteers “nice and patient” and soon discovered her niche as a first bookmarker, the person who creates the pencil trail to help readers, directors and checkers navigate their way from the text to the figures, footnotes, maps and other marginalia that accompany most of the texts RFB&D records.

Before working at Marlboro, Shirley taught Developmental Psychology, Educational Psychology, the Psychology of Exceptional Children and Teacher Personality at SUNY–Brockport and is the author of a book; Teacher Personalities. She also worked in training programs for individuals with mental retardation and continues to provide training and supervision to psychiatric interns at the New Jersey Department of Human Services.

On most Monday mornings and afternoons, Shirley can be found surrounded by pencils and erasers at the marking table in the hallway. She finds gratification in being part of a team that helps so many people and finds additional enjoyment because she says, “I come across books I didn’t know existed.”

Shirley thanks Irwin Gordonfor introducing her to RFB&D and is grateful to former volunteers Art Martzand Bima Kelly for their patience during her early trials. We’re thankful that she stuck with RFB&D when times were tough because, as Educational Outreach Director Christine Ranaghan puts it, “Shirley connects to why we’re all here.”

Photo caption:
She’s better than Mapquest. Before a word is uttered into a mic, Shirley Jenks’s marking helps readers, directors, checkers and RFB&D members navigate the most complex books.

New Jersey Unit Annual Report
The unit’s annual report usually accompanies the Fall edition of the Recorder. It will be published in the next few weeks and mailed to donors. It will also be available at the New Jersey Unit studio.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 can help you and the New Jersey Unit!

A new tax-saving opportunity was signed into law by President Bush on August 17, 2006. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 gives new tax incentives for charitable gifts for donors who are 70 1/2 or older, or will turn 70 1/2 on or before December 31, 2007.

The new law allows you to use funds from your IRAto make a lifetime charitable gift, tax free.

The benefits to you:

You may be receiving minimum distributions from an IRA as part of your retirement income since you turned 70 1/2. You may not need these IRA distributions, but by law you have to take them and pay income tax on them. Under the new law, if you transfer those minimum distributions to your favorite charity, you will avoid paying income tax on them.

Your transfer will not generate a tax deduction, so you do not have to itemize this tax deduction to receive the benefit.

Your gifts do not total more than $100,000 per year (thus you have a maximum allowance of $200,000 by December 31, 2007).

Your funds are transferred directly from an IRA or Rollover IRA.

You make your gift to a public non-profit charity (such as the New Jersey Unit)!

Please contact your IRA custodian for the necessary transfer forms, and consult your financial advisor for further information pertinent to your own specific circumstances. Your gifts cannot total more than $100,000 per year with a maximum allowance of $200,000 by December 31, 2007.

Making a gift to the charitable organization of your choice is easy! If you would like to set up a gift, contact Jessica Wilsonat (609)-750-9579.

SAVE THIS DATE!
Ten Thousand Villages of Princeton will donate 15% of all purchases made between 5 and 9 p.m. on Thursday, December 14 to the New Jersey Unit to support our programs.
Ten Thousand Villages
Princeton Shopping Center
301 North Harrison Street

Staff
Stephanie Campbell, Executive Director
Jessica Wilson, Director of Development
Jessie Falcone, Production Director
Margaret Breidenthal, Assistant Production Director
Tony Gruenewald, Communications Coordinator/Assistant Production Director
Michelle Ioselevich, Assistant Production Director
Judy Wilson-Smith, Production Assistant
Ginny Mayer, Production Assistant
Cathy Wheeler, Production Assistant
Pattie Lamb, Administrative Assistant

Educational Outreach Center
Christine Ranaghan, Director
Deborah Passafiume, Member Service Coordinator
Hope VanCleaf, Professional Development Provider

Sandra Shapiro, Webmaster

Board of Directors
Officers
Douglas Moore, Chair
Rose Marie Proietti, Vice-chair
Thomas K. Brown, Treasurer
David Grant, Secretary
Cynthia Hillas, Past Chair

Board Members
Edward Barry
Debra Faigen
Jerome K. Freedman, M.D.
Peter Gibson
Bruce M. Gilbertson
Herb Greenberg, Ph.D.
Madolyn Nagley Greve
Fred Horowitz
Winston Kirton
Lynne Long
Joseph Maida
Mari Molenaar, Ed.D.
Janet Nagourney
James D. Walker

©2006 Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. ©, TM, SM, "Recording for the Blind &Dyslexic," "RFB&D," "Learning Through Listening," the Heart and Headphones design, and all trademarks, service mars and trade names are proprietary to Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, Incorporated.

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