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Our vision is for all people to have equal access to the printed word. |
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Editor: Mike Casserly RAT Redux Thanks to our many wonderful volunteers, we had a great Record-A-Thon! We exceeded our fundraising goal of $60K by $6K. (Let's see 60 plus 6, well, anyway, it was a lot of money!) Oh yeah, we recorded a lot too; you gave us more than 1,000 hours of your time, and recorded 383 hours! Plus, we gained some new volunteers through our first time ever Singles Night. And we managed to eat like kings at all hours of the day! The Silent Auction brought in more than double last year's amount, and our corporate sponsorship sailed past our goal of $44K by $9K! (Note: effective immediately, our new name is "Recording for the Blind & Tostitos Impaired.")
Staff News After almost two years as a member of the studio staff, Jen Weber has decided to resign her position as Assistant Production Director. Jen has been instrumental in streamlining the pre-production process, working with Educational Outreach to fulfill NJ school book requests and overseeing the studio portion of the Adopt-A-Text program. Jen said she will miss the people here very much, and asked us to share her email address with you: jenkweber@comcast.net. We thank Jen for all her hard work and wish her the best with her future endeavors! Margaret Breidenthal has been promoted to the full-time position of Assistant Production Director. Margaret was formerly a volunteer, and joined the staff in November as a part-time Production Assistant. She has been a pleasure to have on the staff and we are looking forward to seeing more of her. Congratulations, Margaret! Readers of this flublication may recall that Margaret Breidenthal's husband, Tom, is Princeton University's Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel. He was recently interviewed by WHYY's Terry Gross on her nationally syndicated "Fresh Air" radio program. The subject was Evangelical Fellowships at Princeton. Harry Potter is Coming to RFB&D! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is being released on July 16 at midnight. A marathon recording session will be held at HQ and the New Jersey Unit that day to ensure that the book is ready to be sent to our members on July 18. In order to make this happen, we need your help. Be part of the magic – sign up to read or direct at the NJ Studio, or at RFB&D National Headquarters. Sign up sheets will be posted in the studio soon.
In order to increase awareness about the RFB&D NJ Unit and the services we provide, we will begin hosting a 'Learning Through Listening Hour' on the first Wednesday of every month at 9:00 a.m. The hour will include a tour of the studio, an overview of our services, and stories about the many students whose lives have been dramatically changed by our recorded textbooks. We are asking our volunteers to invite their friends, family, and any other personal contacts who may be interested in learning more about us to one of the Learning Through Listening hours. Please see Stephanie Campbell, Executive Director, or Sandi Wilson, Development Director for more information. We appreciate your support of this new program that will help spread the word about RFB&D NJ Unit. The volunteers are our best resource!
Speaking of teachers, Joyce Maso taught Paul Rudnick, author/screenwriter/playwright of such works as "I Hate Hamlet," for 3 years at Piscataway High School. Of course, Joyce taught him Hamlet. Dick Williams instructed future Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond in a chemistry seminar at Harvard. Mr. Diamond is the author of "Collapse," which we recently recorded here at the studio. Another benefit of Record-A-Thon this year was that it brought Frank Glaz back to us, at least briefly. Frank, who is now working in Warren, NJ, was on vacation that week. Frank still gives musical performances (we used to sell his CD here at the studio) and he sells his music online at this site: hometown.aol.com/lowtekman5. Mention your connection to RFB&D and Frank will donate the proceeds of the sale to this studio.
Ed Barry continues to mend, following a car accident in April that broke two of his ribs and scapula. Ed has sent us several notes detailing his progress. (The latest is up on the bulletin board.) He's gone from wearing a rigid neck collar 24/7 to no collar as of this week. We're pulling for you, Ed! Italy was the destination of choice for at least three of our volunteers last month, including Ted Gora, who spent two weeks exploring the southern coast and Sicily, where Betty Scarlata also spent a week. A number of our high school volunteers garnered awards at their recent senior class ceremonies. Winners from West Windsor High School North included Apurva Dabholkar, Kavita and Preeta Ragavan, all three of whom earned High Honor Awards (for being in the top 20 in their class.) At West Windsor High School North High Honor Awards went to Manisha Bhattacharya, Divya Nadkarni, Jason Richards and Hema Sundaresan. Scholarship winners included Shreya Durvasula, Eric Kang, Ryan Shaw and Nora Wong. Congrats to all!! Please welcome our new volunteers: Annie Adams, Claire Butler, Hugh & Jaime Campbell, Sabina Carlson, Cathie Castagnola, Cindy Castaneda, Margaret Castoria, Pat Donohue, Vasavi Duvvur, Joyce Galantner, Alexa Hoyne, Glen Miller, Jerry Monastersky, Fred Quenzer, Shikha Sharma, Rod Vyskocil, Aditya Voleti and Bora Yoon. And congratulations to our new Readers: Burt Bauman, Dave Carta and Christina Johnson, General!
By now you should be aware of the changes that have come to bookmarking, figure reading, etc. If you haven't yet attended one of our info sessions or gotten a handout detailing these changes (and the reasons behind them) then please see staff ASAP! Many of you have noticed we've changed the yellow worksheet. Instead of asking for the "last three words of text read" we now simply ask if the file was completed, Yes or No. The goal is to avoid any ambiguity about the status of the last file read. However, some of you have been skipping over the question completely. Please be sure to fill your paperwork completely so that subsequent teams will not be confused. Readers – if you're beginning a novel and you make a decision about the pronunciation of a proper noun please record this on the back of the navGuide, so that subsequent readers will follow suit. It is important to our borrowers that pronunciations be consistent.
-- If you have any news you'd like to see in the newsletter, or suggestions (besides, "go jump in the lake!") please see Mike -- – HAVE A GREAT MONTH! –
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Volunteer News
At Princeton University's recent commencement Lionel Gossman was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities, along with such other luminaries as cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka. The dinner for the six honorees happened to fall on Lionel's birthday, so Mr. Ma borrowed a cello and played "Happy Birthday" for him! Lionel is M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Emeritus professor of French at the University, and previously Chairman of its Romance Languages Department. In her commencement speech University President Shirley Tilghman (who, coincidentally, was last year's Record-A-Thon honorary chairperson) said of Lionel, "He is the quintessential Princeton faculty member -- one who is able to combine imposing erudition with a devotion to passing on that wisdom to the next generation. Those of you who intend to pursue the life of the mind and create new knowledge will be following in the footsteps of Lionel Gossman and all others who hold that knowledge is among the most important gifts that one can give another human being."
John Madden spent two delightful weeks in Italy in early May. Joyce Maso's month was highlighted by a few days in Las Vegas, followed shortly by a tour/cruise of Alaska (her first to that state.) Gwen Southgate spent two weeks in New Mexico and Colorado, where she was able to do some hiking, thanks to last year's hip surgery. Cathy Wheeler was in Germany visiting friends for several weeks. Mimi and Milt Levin were in London for a month, during Prince Andrew's wedding and the large protests against the war in Iraq. Caroline Wylie spent two weeks visiting her parents in Ireland. Raleigh Rigler enjoyed "2 fantastic weeks" in Turkey, plus a week in the Berkshires. Ruth Friedlander is currently on a 10 day trip to Santa Fe with her son and daughter-in law. She's looking forward to seeing some Georgia O'Keefe paintings up close. And Barrie Shaw is in California visiting friends, former co-workers and family.
Production Notes
(And Jessie said,) "Let There Be Light!" Yes, those black objects on the tables in the booths are lamps. You pull them open at the base, and adjust them to your use. And, we've got the fans we promised for the booths as well! We're just working on the installation, which we expect will be soon. (In time for summer? Stay tuned!)