RFB&D event will increase production of recorded textbooks for the back-to-school season

Princeton, NJ (April 30, 2003) - US Rep. Rush Holt (D-Hopewell Township) will serve as Honorary Chair for the 9th annual Record-A-Thon sponsored by the New Jersey Unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic® (RFB&D®). The New Jersey Unit of RFB&D (www.rfbdnj.org), located in a new facility at 69 Mapleton Road (at St. Joseph's Seminary) in Princeton, is celebrating this intensive weeklong event from May 12 to 17. During the Record-A-Thon, the Unit's 500 volunteers expect to increase their production of recorded textbooks in preparation for the busy back-to-school season in the fall.

Founded in 1948 to serve veterans blinded in World War II, RFB&D is the nation's first and largest nonprofit organization to provide recorded textbooks to students in kindergarten through graduate school with disabilities such as blindness or severe dyslexia. RFB&D serves 117,000 students nationwide, including 5,000 students in New Jersey.

"We are delighted to have the esteemed Congressman as our Honorary Chairperson," says Olivian Boon, interim executive director of the RFB&D-NJ Unit. "Congressman Holt has been a stalwart supporter of our mission - for all people to have equal access to the printed word - and for years, has donated his time as a Record-A-Thon volunteer, reading physics textbooks for us."

"I applaud RFB&D's work because it enables students with disabilities from New Jersey and across the nation to achieve academic success in spite of their physical limitations," says Holt. "When I'm in RFB&D's recording booths, I feel a great sense of pride knowing that I can use my expertise in the field of physics to help students who cannot read standard print to learn through listening."

Hours for the Record-A-Thon are Monday to Thursday, from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A weeklong Open House for the public will also be held during these times. Congressman Holt will preside over the combined Opening Ceremony for Record-A-Thon and the Grand Opening of the RFB&D New Jersey Unit's new facility on Monday, May 12, at 1 p.m.

Holt received his B.A. in Physics from Carleton College in Minnesota and earned his Master's and Ph.D. at NYU. He has held positions as a teacher, Congressional Scientist Fellow, research scientist and as an arms control expert for the US State Department. He has conducted research on solar wind and received a patent for a solar energy device.

From 1989 until he launched his congressional campaign in 1998, Holt was Assistant Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the largest research facility of Princeton University and the largest center for research in alternative energy in New Jersey.

Rep. Holt serves on two committees in House of Representatives, including the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Holt is the only scientist and only Member from the New Jersey delegation to sit on the Intelligence Committee. Holt currently sits on several caucuses, including those on Renewable Energy, Sustainable Development, Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Biomedical Research, India and Indian-Americans, Hellenic and Greek-American affairs, Farmland Protection, Human Rights and a Woman's Right to Choose.

Holt has received numerous awards and citations, including the recent American Chemical Society award for public service, presented to him for his work as an advocate for science. He has also earned the Planned Parenthood Community Service Award, induction into the New Jersey High Tech Hall of Fame, the Biotech Legislator of the Year and named the Science Coalition's Champion of Science, which includes Princeton and Rutgers universities among its members. The magazine Scientific-American has also named Holt one of the 50 national "visionaries" contributing to "a brighter technological future."

Click here for more information about Record-A-Thon 2003.

The New Jersey Unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic's (RFB&D) Record-A-Thon 2003 committee is planning this year's event, scheduled for May 12-17. Record-A-Thon is the organization's annual event to raise awareness in the community about its services and raise funds necessary to keep the studios working at full capacity. The unit's 500-plus volunteers donate time to keep every recording booth busy during every session to ensure textbooks needed for the coming semester will be completed. This year, during the Record-A-Thon, the New Jersey Unit will also celebrate the grand opening of their new home. The newly renovated space in St. Vincent's Hall at St. Joseph's Seminary in Plainsboro will house the recording studios, administrative offices and educational outreach center. Committee members are (left to right) standing: Sandy Shapiro of Princeton Junction, Sue Brooks of Ewing, Anita Trullinger of Princeton and Carolyn Sanderson of Pennington; kneeling or sitting, Oriel Quinlan of Princeton Junction and Anne Young of Skillman.

Click here for more information about Record-A-Thon 2003.