Banner Day for New Brunswick Learning through Listening Students

Students and teachers from Roosevelt School with NJ Unit Executive Director Ted Taylor and Outreach Director Christine Ranaghan at RFB&D National Headquarters.

We opened a book and took a look
It was hard to read but it planted a seed...

The seeds for the poems excerpted in this article had been planted in 20 fifth grade students in the Inclusion Class at New Brunswick's Roosevelt School. They had the desire to read, but needed something more than the regular curriculum to fulfill it.

On June 13, these students celebrated their success in improving their reading skills through RFB&D's Learning through Listening program. Along with their teachers, Ms. Obzut, Mrs. Jackson-Monroe, Ms. Bonett and Ms. Rodriguez, and Betty Whalen, Administrator of New Brunswick Health Services, they toured the National Headquarters building on Roszel Road and participated in a ceremony with Headquarters staff and New Jersey Unit staff and volunteers.

Thanks to a grant from the New Jersey Department of Education to the New Jersey Unit of RFB&D, our Learning Through Listening program was launched in four Abbott school districts this past year. Educational Outreach Director Christine Ranaghan was able to introduce the students to recorded text. The students were able to visually follow the printed text and made great improvements in their reading skills.

The students, Julio Arias, Aminah Campbell, Julia Cooper, Geraldo DeLeon, Keith Downs, Nazir Hamid, Attiba Holder, Marco Jiminez, Alex Juarez, Tyree Martinez, Sha-quan McMillan, Kamara Sirmans, Edgar Molina, Jeffrey Mooring, George Noreiga, Karla Santana, Michael Sostre, Ashley Walker, Christopher Jones and Antoine Brewer, were so grateful for the help the tapes provided that they sold pencils to raise money for RFB&D. The also wrote poems and crafted a banner representing all of the audiotapes read in class and presented them to Christine and Executive Director Ted Taylor.

I can't believe
How we did succeed
We got an A
I'm proud to say
The things we read
Didn't float away.

Refreshments were served and the students were presented their own personal cassette players thanks to a generous donation from the Sony Corporation.

Our mission was summed up by Chris during the ceremony, "It's so great to be able to help children do better in school and ultimately give them a chance at success."

But student Alex Juarez summed it up best, "I love reading now! I can slow down the tape when I'm stuck."

To end this poem
I say to you
The books on tape
Helped me through.

RFB&D...Always In Session

As summer's sandals and sunblock are traded in for a new school year's backpacks and briefcases, I want to thank the New Jersey Unit's dedicated volunteers and staff for heeding their calls to duty by staying in session despite the lure of the great outdoors. School may have been out, but RFB&D was in session working non-stop, preparing many of the books our student borrowers will need for the semester.

Thanks to the efforts of Christine Ranaghan and Sherry Deutsch, the state decided to continue its funding of our efforts in the Abbott school districts. Meanwhile, the studios were busy recording and producing texts needed by the Trenton schools and other schools statewide for the coming year.

As RFB&D continues its transition to digital technology, it places greater burden on the remaining analog recording booths to turn out texts on tape to meet the still growing demand. In time, our products will be fully digital, but until then the studios have to prepare for the future while not neglecting the present. As more volunteers are dedicated to digital, we need more people to maintain our analog output.

And you can look at it this way . . . not only did your efforts help thousands of students, but you saved a lot of money on sunblock.

...And The Challenge Ahead

The New Jersey Unit has been presented another challenge, or as we prefer to look at it, an opportunity. After nearly 50 years, our association with the Princeton Theological Seminary will come to an end in Spring 2003. The Seminary has simply outgrown their current facilities and needs to renovate and use the Hibben Road studio and office space for their own purposes. We'd like to thank PTS for graciously hosting the Princeton Studios of RFB&D rent-free for all these years. At the same time, our lease ends with Carnegie Center, the home of our West Windsor Studio and Educational Outreach Center since 1999. RFB&D National Headquarters has been good enough to pay the rent for the West Windsor Studio, but the New Jersey Unit must shoulder these costs at the end of the lease's five-year term. A facilities workgroup, made up of unit staff and board members has concluded that economics and growing facilities needs makes continuing at that site after Spring 2003 out of the question.

Volunteers and staff have already made suggestions for possible future homes and I am currently in contact with several sites which we hope we be our "dream home." Of course, we still are soliciting suggestions for facilities. If you know of a site (commercial or institutional in the Princeton area with a minimum of 6,000 sq. ft. of floor or basement space available (upper floors cannot support soundproof booths), please contact me or a staff member. This site will ideally have sufficient parking and restroom facilities and be accessible or easily made accessible to persons with disabilities.

I will be sure to keep you abreast as we make progress and hopefully we'll soon be making plans for our "studio warming" at our new site.

 

 

Have a great Fall!

Ted Taylor, Executive Director

Rewind

The last issue of Recorder highlighted the success Elmwood Park's Jasmin Sethi, currently at the London School of Economics. At the recent RFB&D National Achievement Awards, Jasmin was presented the prestigious Mary P. Oenslager Scholastic Achievement Award by event host Danny Glover.

Has RFB&D made an impact on Jasmin's career? She said, "In my future career I aspire to advise developing countries on how to strengthen their financial systems and attract investment. I really want to impact the lives of other people. I believe that RFB&D has played an important role in my academic career thus far, and that it will continue to do so."

And we at RFB&D are proud to play a role in the career of such an inspiring young woman.

 

Jasmin Sethi of Elmwood Park accepts her Mary P.Oenslager Scholastic Achievement Award from Master of Ceremonies Danny Glover.

Join the Fun...
Leave A Legacy!

One long-time volunteer's story: In 1963 it was all he could afford-ten joint shares in a major company for him and his wife, for less than $1,000. Thanks to stock splits and dividend reinvestment, the investment grew more than a hundred-fold over nearly four decades.

The intention was to bequeath this vastly appreciated stock to their children and avoid the enormous capital gains tax they would have owed if they sold the stock. (The children would inherit the stock at its value on the date the second parent died, and would owe no capital gains taxes.)

A smart estate planner, however, gave them an idea:

1) Buy a "Second-to-Die" life insurance policy (obtained even though one of them had health problems which made obtaining a conventional policy difficult.)

2) Donate the appreciated stock to charity as a joint charitable gift annuity

3) Use the guaranteed income for both lives, from the annuity, as payment for the insurance premium

The advice was followed. He obtained a guaranteed life income at least two-and-a-half percent higher than the highest paying CD, while obtaining a healthy tax deduction for a donation to charity which can be used against his income over a five year period. Above all, he and his wife now have a life insurance policy which will eventually pay their children more than three times as much as the present day value of the stock!

Fortunately, one of the recipients of this couple's donations is RFB&D. The donor says, "We had the most fun of our lives sitting down and deciding what good causes we would give our money to."

Want to have fun, too? The New Jersey Unit has partnered with LEAVE A LEGACY™ New Jersey, a cooperative effort among donors, nonprofit charitable organizations, professional advisors, and the media to encourage people to provide bequests and plannged gifts for the charities they love when arranging their estate plans. You can find a list of professional
advisors at www.leavealegacy-newjersey.org. For more information, call 609-585-0248.

 

Bob and Pearl Feldmesser at the dedication of a recording booth at the Princeton Studio, October 2000. The Feldmessers, major donors to RFB&D NJ Unit's Educational Outreach program, and long-time volunteers,were honored for their "generous contributions of time and resources." Bob Feldmesser died suddenly in January 2001.

 

 

 

 

In Memoriam
The New Jersey Unit of RFB&D is mourning the loss of these dedicated volunteers:

Robert Feldmesser
Julia Hopper
Barbara Martin
Rose McGuire
Durinda Putnam
Fred Sheldon
Helen Beatrice Stuart

To make donations in memory of these volunteers,
please visit RFB&D's "Donate" page or call 609-688-0485.

Jim Amick's Excellent Adventure

New Jersey Unit Volunteer of the Year nominee Jim Amick (l.) with Danny Glover at the recent NAA dinner in New York

New Jersey Unit Volunteer of the Year nominee Jim Amick joined his fellow nominees at RFB&D's National Achievement Awards (NAA) dinner on April 30 at the Essex House in New York City. The day started close to home for Jim and his wife Nancy as they joined the other nominees and representatives from National Headquarters for breakfast at the Novotel in Princeton. A tour of the headquarters facility featuring a discussion on the latest developments in digital recording followed. After lunch, the volunteers were taken to the Essex House hotel overlooking Central Park where they met privately with acclaimed actor Danny Glover, host of the NAA event. For Jim, the highlight of the awards gala was the presentation of the Oenslager Scholastic Achievement and the Learning Through Listening award winners. A video showing the awardee in his or her academic setting and highlighting their accomplishments accompanied each presentation. Awards were also given to Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida for his long support of RFB&D and Virginia Perce of the Connecticut Unit, the first national Volunteer of the Year winner. Jim found the experience, "exceptionally rewarding because of the grace and quality of the award recipients." Jim adds, "My wife and I were truly privileged to be present at this outstanding event." And the New Jersey Unit is extremely privileged to have a volunteer as selfless and skilled as Jim Amick among its ranks.

Newsletter Production Team Bonnie DiBenedetto Tony Gruenewald Ted Taylor Web Design Sandra Shapiro

Administration Ted Taylor, Executive Director Deborah Passafiume, Administrative Assistant Jeanette Eng, Development Assistant Tiffany Triplett, Administrative Associate Princeton Studio Amy Steinmetz,Studio Director Shamus Adams, Asst. Studio Director Jessie Falcone, Asst. Studio Director Raya Kuzyk, Studio Assistant West Windsor Studio Olivian Boon, Studio Director Gail Clauer, Asst. Studio Director Tony Gruenewald, Asst. Studio Director Judy Wilson-Smith, Studio Assistant Educational Outreach Center Christine Ranaghan, Director of Educational Outreach Sherry Deutsch, Outreach Officer

Board of Directors Board Officers Shawn Ellsworth, Co-Chair Peter Gibson, Co-Chair Daniel H. Jamieson, Jr., Vice-Chair James A. Amick Jerome K. Freedman, M.D. Amy Regan Carolyn Powell Sanderson James D. Walker Board Members Catherine D. Brown Daniel Goldberg Geoffrey D. Green Earl Groendyke Margaret T. Harper Paula Henry Mari Molenaar, Ed.D. Raymond A. Olson Sandra Shapiro Emeritus Ruth Bogia Mary-Adele Mather Hendrick van Oss Hugh D. Wise, Ex-Officio

New Jersey Recorder Archives