New Jersey Recorder Spring 2004 (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
Spring 2004

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

Providing equal access to the printed word.

A Galaxy of Stars Volunteer for Record-A-Thon 2004!

Princeton University president, Dr. Shirley M. Tilghman (r.), is honorary chair of the New Jersey Unit's 2004 Record-A-Thon (R-A-T) which takes place April 19-24 at the unit's studio in St. Joseph's Seminary in Plainsboro. This year's R-A-T includes celebrity volunteers Rep. Rush Holt; The New York Times science writer and author Gina Kolata; visiting professor at the Insitute for Advanced Studies, Chair of the Department African and African American Studies at Harvard University and author Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Time magazine senior science writer and author Michael Lemonick; best selling novelist Peter Benchley, 2003 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry Paul Muldoon; The New York Times restaurant critic Karla Cook; Dodge poet and Home News Tribune editor Charles H. Johnson; historian and Cuba expert Jane Franklin; McCarter Theater Artistic Director, playwright and director Emily Mann, and professor emeritus of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study and author Freeman Dyson; Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes; Princeton University Professor of English Lawrence Danson; Princeton Borough Councilwoman Wendy Benchley; and many others. A Galaxy of Stars Volunteer for Record-A-Thon 2004!

Photo Captions:
Don Tretola, Regional Public A ffairs Manager for PSE&G, Corporate Co-chair of the 2004 Record-A-Thon and a Studio Sponsor for the event, discusses the recording of the Norton Anthology of American Literature with volunteer Anne Sheldon. Tretola shares the honor with unit board member and President and CEO of Caliper, Herb Greenberg, Ph.D. Caliper is also a studio sponsor for the event. For more information about how your company can support the 2004 Record-A-Thon, contact Director of Development Sandi Wilson at (609) 750-9579.

This year's Record-A-Thon working committee has been busily preparing for the event. It includes (from left) Oriel Quinlan, Sandy Shapiro, Anita Trullinger, Beverly Mills, committee chair Anne Young, and Olivian Boon. Also working hard to make R-A-T a success are Mary Bell,and Amy Greany.

Record-A-Thon 2004 Sponsors

Lead Sponsor
Nassau Broadcasting Partners, L.P.

Studio Sponsors
PSE&G
Caliper

Booth Sponsors
Bloomberg
ETS
Volvo of Princeton

Book Sponsors

Merrill Lynch & Co
U.S. Trust Company
The Eagle Group
Llura & Gordon Gund
David W. Quinlan, PC

Unit to Host Corporate Open House

The New Jersey Unit will hold a Corporate Open House on Tuesday, April 20 from 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. at its studio in St. Vincent's Hall of St. Joseph's Seminary. Record-A-Thon corporate co-chairs Don Tretolaof PSE&G and Herb Greenberg. Ph.D. of Caliper will host the event sponsored by Tre Piani restaurant in nearby Forrestal Village. During the open house, they will honor Louis Mercatanti of Nassau Broadcasting, the 2004 Record-AThon lead sponsor, with the 2004 Leadership Award. Other activities will include door prizes, a silent auction, a tour of the unit's new state-of-the-art recording facility and networking opportunities. The event is free of charge, but attendees are asked to RSVP to Director of Development Sandi Wilsonat 609-750-9579 or swilson@rfbd.org.

Remembering Pat Pell

Pat Pell, assistant studio director at the Princeton Studio for 22 years, died in December 2003, after a three year battle with cancer.

Pat was a great friend and a wonderful resource for volunteers. As Anne Sheldon commented, "The thing I miss most about Pat is just being able to call her when I would come across something funny. Just the other day I read 'I'm not perfect, but parts of me are excellent.' I thought she'd like that."

Dry wit, acute observation, a passion for social justice, a lively intelligence--we all miss her.

Volunteer Challenge a Matching Success!

New Jersey Unit volunteers were challenged to raise $5,000 that would be matched by an anonymous donor. The $10,000 total would be used to dedicate a booth "In Honor of the Volunteers of the New Jersey Unit." The challenge was more than met and the booth will be dedicated on Friday, April 23 at the Dedication and Volunteer Recognition Reception. All volunteers are invited to attend. Thanks to all those generous volunteers and the extremely generous anonymous donor!

Photo Caption: Fred Horowitz, Anne Shultesand Larry Shultes were among the many volunteers who helped make the matching gift challenge a success.

New Jersey Says Goodbye to the Analog Era!

In mid March 2004, technicians from national headquarters arrived at the New Jersey Unit to replace the last reel-to-reel recorder with digital recording equipment. In February, the final analog recorded book, Eric J. Topol's 2,139 page Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine was completed. It filled 84 four track reels which included well over 300 hours of recording. Thanks go to those who read this incredibly complex book including Juanell Boyd, Cathy Culquhoun, Jerry Freedman, Grace Gagliardi, Bob Jackson, Mindy Langer, Rose Marie Proietti, Harvey Rothberg, Dinesh Singal, Kathy Thompson, and Felice Weinstein and all the other volunteers who directed its recording sessions, performed quality control checks and prepared the books for reading.

Photo Captions: The New Jersey Unit's analog recording era (l.) has finally come to a close replaced by digital volunteer recording workstations. The 84 tapes required for the last analog book can fit on eight AudioPlus® digital textbooks.

Patricia Burch Byers, Trustee of the Fred C. Rummel Foundation (l.) presents a $5,000 check to unit board chair Cynthia Hillas for one of two grants, one of which will help pay for the the unit's move from Princeton to St. Joseph's Seminary in Plainsboro and its conversion from analog to digital recording equipment. The other is for a Learning Through Listening® Institutional Membership for a Union County school.

Unit's Web Site Makes it Easier for Schools to Order NJ Core Curriculum Books

Schools may search the New Jersey Unit's Web site and RFB&D's 11,000 plus digital library to order RFB&D's AudioPlus® books online. Teachers may also browse RFB&D's 98,000 volume CV Starr Learning Through Listening® Library for a comprehensive listing of books on CD or audio cassette at RFB&D's National Web site www.rfbd.org.

New Jersey's new on-line ordering system at our Web site www.rfbdnj.org hosts a new, easy to use, searchable database by standard and grade level. Many of the RFB&D'sAudioPlus® digitally recorded textbooks in RFB&D's National Library are included in the New Jersey Frameworks to assist teachers with student instruction of the standards. RFB&D has textbooks in the following content areas: Health, Language Arts Literacy, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Visual and Performing Arts, and World Languages.

The shopping cart is reserved for New Jersey member schools having a current membership ID number with RFB&D and their students. Orders may be e-mailed to dpassafiume@rfbd.org in the New Jersey Educational Outreach Center's member services department for processing. The on-line ordering feature is not available for individual borrowers. If your school is not a current institutional member, you can download an RFB&D Learning Through Listening Institutional Membership application from the RFB&D national Web site at www.rfbd.org or call the RFB&D National Member Services department toll-free at 800-221-4792 for more information about RFB&D's membership programs. You may also contact the RFB&D's New Jersey Educational Outreach Center's toll-free number 877-4RFBDNJ.

The unit is very appreciative to a number of volunteers for their roles in making this vehicle ready for schools and for their generous time and expertise. Thanks go to Steve Saporta, studio volunteer and Web programmer; Leonard Epstein, president of Computer Consulting Group and education programmer; Sandy Shapiro, unit Web master, board member, and volunteer; and Outreach staff member Sherry Deutsch for making the database and shopping cart a reality for school and community use. Outreach received special assistance from Peter Gibson, president of Princeton Online, board member and former Co-Chair and Jeff Gould, Princeton Online, with hosting the Web site.

Thanks also go to Pam Johnson, Director of RFB&D National Library Services and Adrienne Kemp, RFB&D Director of Members Services and their staffs for their support and assistance. The New Jersey Unit Web site, www.rfbdnj.org offers a searchable database for New Jersey schools of the state's Core Curriculum books available in RFB&D's CV Starr Learning Through Listening Library.

Assistive Technology Specialists to Provide Training to Institutional Member Schools

When Christine Ranaghan, Director of Educational Outreach for the New Jersey Unit, first heard Dr. Brian Friedlander's articulate address to educators about Assistive Technology for the 21st Century, she had met another professional who also wanted to help students meet with educational success. Since then, Chris and Outreach Officer Sherry Deutsch have met with Dr. Friedlander, Tom Caine, president of Tom Caine and Associates, and Joan McNinch, coordinator of the Warren County Educational Technology Training Center. The seeds for a possible relationship with Tom Caine and Associates and RFB&D's New Jersey Unit Outreach Center took root.

Through Brian's awareness and recommendation of RFB&D and our products and services, and through a grant from the New Jersey Department of Education "Supporting Students with Disabilities in the General Education Classroom," three school districts received approvals to purchase and implement RFB&D's Learning Through Listening® (LTL) programs. To date, Harmony Township School District Superintendent Vicki Pede, Bethlehem Township School District Director of Special Services, Jackie Roposh, Director of School Services Linda Mullin of the Allamuchy Township School District and Franklin Township School's Director of Special Services Carol Wolfe have added RFB&D's LTL as part of their school's Assistive Technology solution for students with learning disabilities.

This month, the New Jersey Unit's Educational Outreach Center will extend an invitation to Tom Caine and Associates, LLC to become independent teacher trainers for RFB&D's LTL program in New Jersey. Chris "looks forward to Tom Caine and Associates working with educational outreach staff to attract new RFB&D LTL Institutional member schools and provide training to our existing institutional members."

Tom Caine, Brian Friedlander, Julia Sonnenschein and Celeste Hammell, provide Assistive Technology training to the K-12 special education community in New Jersey. Their company focus is complementary to the Unit's Educational Outreach Center purpose of serving students identified with learning disabilities by promoting the effective use of RFB&D's accessible textbooks. Since 1992, Tom Caine and Associates has trained special education teachers in hundreds of school districts.

Brian Friedlander, Ph.D. has over twenty years in the field of special education. As a licensed and certified school psychologist, Dr. Friedlander is passionate about the application of assistive technology in the schools and is a national leader in the field and publishes Inclusion Times: Technology for Children & Youth with Disabilities (www.assistivetek.com).

Assistive Technology Inclusive School Packages

Educational Outreach has created Assistive Technology inclusive educational packages for New Jersey schools. Each RFB&D district site license includes an RFB&D's LTLmembership, customer support, training materials and three hours of training.

Each school package offers teachers an effective method to assist students with IEPs or Section 504 Plans to meet the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and to help students keep up with their peers in the classroom. These packages are ideal for listening centers, resource centers, self-contained and inclusion classrooms. RFB&D's New Jersey Assistive Technology support team is available to assist each school in selecting a standard or custom technology license package. For more information contact Educational Outreach toll free (877) 473-2365,(609) 750-0595 or cranaghan@rfbd.org.

Photo Caption: James R. Marhold joined the New Jersey Unit as Executive Director in October, 2003. Jim brings over ten years of nonprofit management experience to RFB&D including positions as Director of Mental Health Services for Volunteers of America of Greater New York and Director of Residential Services for Hudson Association for Retarded Citizens. Welcome aboard, Jim!

Staff

James R. Marhold, Executive Director
Sandi Wilson, Director of Development
Olivian Boon, Studio Director
Jessie Falcone, Digital Audio Coordinator
Michael Casserly, Saturday/Evening Supervisor
Gail Clauer, Volunteer Coordinator
Tony Gruenewald, Communications Coordinator
Judy Wilson-Smith, Studio Assistant
Helen Fortunato, Pre-production Specialist
Jennifer Weber, Studio Assistant

Educational Outreach Center
Christine Ranaghan, Director
Sherry Deutsch, Outreach Officer
Deborah Passafiume, Customer Service Coordinator
Benjamin Rivera, Professional Development Provider

Sandra Shapiro, Webmaster

Board of Directors

Officers
Cynthia Hillas, Chair
James D. Walker, Vice-chair
Douglas Moore, Treasurer
Amy Regan, Secretary
Shawn Ellsworth, Past co-chair
Peter Gibson, Past Co-chair

Board Members

James A. Amick
Catherine D. Brown
Jerome K. Freedman,M.D.
Marjorie Freeman
Daniel Goldberg
Geoffrey D. Green
Earl Groendyke
Herb Greenberg, Ph.D.

Margaret T. Harper
Mari Molenaar, Ed.D.
Carolyn Powell Sanderson
Sandra Shapiro

Emeritus
Ruth Bogia
Hendrick van Oss

©2004 Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
©, ™, 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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