Vol. 32, No. 5
MAY 2007
THE MID-FLORIDA VOICE
A publication of Mid-Florida Council of the Blind
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MESSAGE FROM MFCB PRESIDENT SHELLEY JUSTICE
NEXT MFCB GENERAL MEETING
MFCB APRIL GENERAL MEETING REVIEW
FCB ANNUAL CONVENTION COMES TO TALLAHASSEE
NLS NEEDS OUR HELP
FCB TECH TALK
FCB E-MAIL DISCUSSION LIST AND VOICE CHAT ROOMS
MFCB ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
TEENAGER TREATS BLIND VETERANS WITH ICE CREAM AND MORE
USEFUL KITCHEN AND HOUSEHOLD TIPS
MEMBERSHIP - from Jay Bader
BIRTHDAY PEOPLE
MESSAGE FROM MFCB PRESIDENT SHELLEY JUSTICE
Hello, MFCB Members and Friends,
As I write this, I am feeling positive and encouraged about the direction in which we are moving. We have some prospects for New
Members, which is always a good thing. More importantly, I feel, is the fact that our MFCB chapter, the local NFB chapter and other
organizations, such as the Blinded Veterans Association, are finding ways to work together for the good of all blind persons.
I, for one, hope that this trend will continue, and that the momentum will continue to build. It would seem to me that both individually and
collectively, we all share one common goal, that being the greater good of the blind community.
In a near-future message, I will be speaking about our rights and responsibilities as voters. There very well may be changes coming,
and there may be further work to be done in this area. I will most definitely keep you posted.
I hope to see all of you at the May General Meeting. Until then, keep smiling!
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NEXT MFCB GENERAL MEETING
The next General Meeting of MFCB will be at William Booth Tower, 633 Lake Dot Circle, Orlando, FL, 32801, on Saturday, May 5th, 2007,
from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM. The phone number at William Booth Tower is (407) 843-5533. It is highly recommended that if anyone uses
paratransit, please plan your rides accordingly.
For the May General Meeting, the Guest Speaker will be Nancy Roth from the Seminole County Volunteer Network. She will have a
presentation called "Disaster Planning," which may be very timely as we especially approach the hurricane season but may apply to
other situations as well. Nancy will especially talk about services available for special needs populations in disaster preparedness.
Also, Leslie Spoone and Betty Sparrow for the Fundraising Committee plan to hold a Bake Sale just outside the Meeting Room at Booth
Tower. It is encouraged that Members bring any kind of baked items to assist in this fundraiser for MFCB.
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MFCB APRIL GENERAL MEETING REVIEW
Plenty of Members and Guests, enough to consider a quorum was established, attended the MFCB March General Meeting held on
Saturday, April 7th, at William Booth Tower in downtown Orlando. After the Pledge of Allegiance, President Shelley Justice asked those
in attendance to introduce themselves.
Then after the Secretary's and Treasurer's Reports were read and approved, Shelley opened the floor for Committees to report. For the
Activities Committee, 1st Vice President Jack Jordan told Members in attendance that a Public Forum regarding paratransit would take
place on Saturday, April 28th, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Taft Community Center in south Orlando. Among other topics at this forum
would be the issue of the "do's and don’ts" of paratransit. There would be no charge for paratransit user to go using Access Lynx.
For the Refreshments Committee, Jackie Gideons thanked Patti and David Land and Leslie Spoone for helping for the April General
Meeting. It was decided that there will be pizza served for the May General Meeting.
Leslie Spoone then announced for the Fundraising Committee that the April fundraiser was a Raffle for the Easter holiday of 3 items: a
chocolate bunny, a chocolate egg and a beach ball pillow. All in attendance who were interested in being in the Raffle would pay $1.00
per ticket with the winner chosen before the Door Prizes were awarded.
Under Old Business, it was announced that the Bowl-A-Thon held to benefit the Carter Family Blind Bowlers was a success as it raised
$2900. 12 bowlers will be going to Denver, Colorado, for the upcoming national championship tournament.
Attention the focused on selecting delegates to represent MFCB during the General Business Meeting at the upcoming Annual FCB
Convention, which will take place in Tallahassee; the Business Meeting would take place on the final morning of Convention on May
20th. The chapter would have 7 Delegates and 2 Alternates. Also, MFCB every year has the opportunity to select 1 or 2 First-Timers to
attend the Annual FCB Convention. It was decided that 2 First-Timers would be selected, those being Bill Dennis and Mary
Schwable.
Here are the MFCB Delegates chosen for the 2007 Annual FCB Convention:
Shelley Justice
Jack Jordan
Bill Freeman
Larry Turnbull
Jay Bader
Rachel Bader
David Land
The Alternates would be Sheila Young and Nicole Hugues.
For New Business, Shelley announced that on Monday, April 16th, a Blind Safety Meeting would take place with the Orlando Chief of
Police at Dover Shores Community Center, 1400 Gaston Foster Road, Orlando, FL 32812. This Center is located near the corner of
Curry Ford and Gaston Foster Roads, between Conway Road and State Road 436. There would be a discussion on the White Cane
Law during this Meeting and the police chief wants to talk to the blind community and get to know them better. All MFCB Members are
encouraged to attend this Meeting.
After the Business part of the Meeting adjourned, it was announced that $40.00 was raised for the April fundraiser. Here are the Raffle
winners:
Machel Cooper won the egg containing chocolate with bungee cords. Dan Spoone won the bunny containing chocolate. Jim Lamb won
the beach ball pillow.
The following Door Prizes were awarded:
Cheese Spreaders - Jackie Gideons
Salt and Pepper Shakers - Jim Lamb
Pasta Bowl - Angela Wagner (a Guest at the General Meeting)
Set of Bungee Cords - Bill Freeman
Shovel - Jack Jordan
Congratulations to all Raffle and Door Prize winners!
After the Business portion of the April General Meeting adjourned, 1st Vice President Jack Jordan moderated an open forum where
people could ask general legal questions. Jack practices Family Law; however, many who attended were able to ask questions
regarding law in general.
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FCB ANNUAL CONVENTION COMES TO TALLAHASSEE
(Editor's Note: Sorry for not letting the Membership know sooner in more detail about this important event.)
The Florida Council of the Blind (FCB) will hold its 54th Annual Convention from Thursday evening, May 17th, through Sunday 12 NOON,
May 20th, 2007, in Tallahassee, Florida at the Ramada Inn North, 2900 North Monroe Street. If you want a room, call the Ramada Inn
North at (850) 386-1027. The deadline for reserving your rooms at reduced rates has passed, so you will have to find out the current
rates when you call.
The Administrative Office of the Florida Council of the Blind has mailed out the Convention announcement and registration packet to all
Members, including those in MFCB. However, FCB extends a warm welcome to everyone who would like to join us for what promises to
be an informative and fun-filled time! If you'd like to receive registration material and attend our Convention, please contact Sally
Benjamin toll-free at (800) 267-4448 or by e-mail at floridacouncil@comcast.net. But
hurry because the deadline for registering for this year's FCB Annual Convention is Friday, May 4th.
If you have any questions regarding Convention Registration, please feel free to call Sila Miller at (850) 894-9203 or e-mail
registration@fcb.org. MFCB Members can also receive a voucher for attending the 2007 FCB
Annual Convention. If you are interested, please contact Treasurer Dan Spoone as soon as possible at (407) 678-4163.
In addition, the Alachua County Council of the Blind is selling White Cane Safety Awareness T-Shirts. They are usually priced at $12.00
in small through 3X sizes and available in white or black colors but ACCB celebrated its 10-year charter membership recently and has
extended it with a "Ten-Ten" promotion of these T-Shirts.
With this promotion, chapters such as MFCB would have to pre-order a minimum of 10 T-Shirts at $10.00 each by May 10th, then a
representative from the chapter would receive those T-Shirts at the FCB Annual Convention. If you are interested in purchasing a White
Cane Safety Awareness T-Shirt, please attend the next MFCB General Meeting on May 5th; otherwise, contact MFCB President Shelley
Justice as soon as possible at (407) 473-0516.
This year's Convention promises to be one of the best and FCB looks forward to many attending in Tallahassee!
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NLS NEEDS OUR HELP
As you know, the National Library Service (a division of the Library of Congress) will begin the three-year conversion to the new digital
talking book program next year. To pay for this modernization of the program, the Library of Congress has requested a budget increase.
These funds will allow for the production of all new recorded books in both cassette and flash cartridge format, as well as the production
of the new digital talking book players.
As it stands, it will still take three years before we will have enough new machines for every Florida customer to have one. And the
conversion will take even longer if the Library of Congress budget request is not approved.
The baseline budget for NLS for fiscal Year 2008 is now $53.91 million, and an additional $3.56 million for mandatory pay increases
and related costs, as well as price increases to cover materials, supplies, and other general expenses. Another $19.1 million will be
needed in the next Fiscal Year for the new digital talking book players and flash book cartridges, for a total NLS budget request for FY
2008 of $75,623,000.
It is critical that the Library of Congress budget request for next year be approved so that the national program can move forward as
planned. It is especially important for us here in Florida, since we have more talking book readers than any other region, and we loan the
most books and magazines.
Luckily, Rep. Wasserman Schultz of Florida's 20th Congressional District is the current Chair of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of
the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, and her Subcommittee is currently considering the Library of
Congress budget request.
While it is important for all Congressional representatives to know how important the talking book program is, talking book readers in
Southeast Florida may want to make a special effort to express their concerns to Rep. Wasserman Schultz. This is especially fitting this
week, which is National Library Week. Please help spread the word.
I should mention that our Bureau does not receive federal funding, but we do of course benefit from the funds that the Library of
Congress uses to produce the national collection of talking books and players. Thanks.
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FCB TECH TALK
Florida Council of the Blind (FCB) invites all Members throughout the state of Florida to participate in Tech Talk, a monthly get-together
for anyone who needs help with their computer and respective applications. John Richards, FCB 2nd Vice President and Chair of the
FCB Technology Committee, who organized this voice chat, says, "Please take advantage of this free tech support session. Have you
paid for tech support lately? If so, then you're aware of the cost."
Tech Talk takes place on the first Monday night of every month at 8 PM. To be a part of Tech Talk, grab a headset and microphone and
head to the FCB General Chat Room at the following link:
http://www.fcb.org/FCBGenRSigIn.htm. From there, just sign in and hit the Enter key
on your keyboard.
There are some Members of MFCB that are part of the FCB Technology Committee and they may even be able to help you. So if you
need help with your computer, join in on Tech Talk. And keep the change in your pocket.
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FCB E-MAIL DISCUSSION LIST AND VOICE CHAT ROOMS
Florida Council of the Blind (FCB) is proud to have its members throughout the state participate in a couple of ways on the Internet. The
FCB E-mail Discussion List is a way for members, locally and statewide, to express themselves freely on a variety of issues. These can
range from those on a local level to issues on a state or even national platform.
MFCB encourages all Members with E-mail and Internet access to sign up and participate in the various discussions as well as maybe
even starting a few. To sign up for the FCB E-mail Discussion List, and for more information about the List, go to the FCB website at
http://www.fcb.org and go to the link for "FCB E-mail Discussion List Information and Instructions."
And FCB has 2 voice chat rooms for members of the organization. One of these is for General chat, the other is for the FCB Board and its
respective committees to meet. Everyone is invited to sit in on these chats, especially to participate with those in the General chat
room.
As this issue goes to press, the technology behind these chat rooms is being improved. So these rooms are temporarily down but
should be back shortly. For more information about these FCB chat rooms, especially if you want to know how you can join in on the
chats, click on the link "Voice Chat for FCB" at http://www.fcb.org.
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MFCB ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Mid-Florida Council of the Blind has a presence on the World Wide Web. Through the Florida Council of the Blind website,
http://www.fcb.org, there is information available on the Internet about MFCB, especially the MFCB
By-Laws, as well as current and past issues of the MFCB Newsletter, both in the previous name of MUMBLES and the newer name of
THE MID-FLORIDA VOICE. MFCB is proud to have people find out what is going on with our organization in this global
manner.
To specifically get to the MFCB section of the FCB website, go to http://www.fcb.org/mfcb.htm.
Feedback is strongly encouraged as to the accessibility and content of the website, so if you have any questions or suggestions, E-mail
webmaster@fcb.org. With your suggestions, changes can be made that better what we have
on the Web.
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TEENAGER TREATS BLIND VETERANS WITH ICE CREAM AND MORE
All of us appreciate the service of those in the military; however, the blinded veterans can get overlooked. One teenager in South Florida
had a great idea to show his appreciation to those who have served in the military who either were blinded during service or became
blind after their service to our country. MFCB Member Joseph Musil wanted to share this teenager's efforts with an article he recently
discovered.
On January 5th, 2007, Andrew Wolf, age 14, treated the blind veterans at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: Blind Rehabilitation
Center at the West Palm Beach (Florida) VA Medical Center, to a variety of ice cream flavors, various toppings and bananas. Andrew
used his holiday gift money to buy these treats for the 15 blind veterans (and the staff). Not only did he buy the tasty treats (banana split
makings), but he also served the veterans, cleaned the dining room tables and the serving area, and left the area ready for breakfast the
next morning.
Andrew is a student in the seventh grade at the Trade Winds Middle School, Greenacres, Florida. Andrew says he did this because he
loves the veterans and what they have done for us. He says he wishes he could be at the Blind Rehabilitation Center as a volunteer to
help the veterans.
This young man is a star, shining above those of his age group. The veterans at the Blind Rehabilitation Center really appreciate his
generous treat and thank him for it.
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USEFUL KITCHEN AND HOUSEHOLD TIPS
There is always more than one way to take care of things around the house, whether it be making a meal simpler or getting the chores
done in a much easier fashion. MFCB Member Sheila Young shared some of those ways and thought other Members may find them
just as useful.
Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove. Set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No
soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up
mixing thoroughly. Cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to
frost more cakes & cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar/calories per serving.
Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture
will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants; work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers & put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover
with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
Broken Glass
Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken glass pieces of glass- the fibers catch ones you can't see!
No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away!
Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the
squirrels won't come near it.
Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when
wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and - voila - static is gone.
Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add
your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser!
Works better than a cloth!
Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour
or two. Voila! It unseals easily.
Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great
way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.
Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will
find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home" and can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so,
especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
Take baby powder to the beach
Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When you're ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder
and the sand will slide right off your skin.
Pass on these great tips to your friends and family!
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MEMBERSHIP - from Jay Bader
Notes from Jay: First, I would like to apologize to everyone for not being able to attend the last couple of MFCB General Meetings. There
have been circumstances that I could not avoid; however, as this issue goes to press, I should be back to normal in attending any future
MFCB General Meetings and Luncheons.
The MFCB Telephone Roster will be available at the May General Meeting in Large Print and Braille. E-mail and Cassette versions can
be made available by request.
I also always accept submissions to THE MID-FLORIDA VOICE. All submissions for the June-July 2007 issue must arrive by regular
mail or e-mail to me by the 15th of May as it will be prepared shortly after that. You will be properly credited with the submission.
If you have any further questions, please call me at (407) 658-2479 or e-mail
mfcbinfo@bellsouth.net. Looking forward to seeing many of you at the MFCB General
Meeting in May!
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BIRTHDAY PEOPLE
MAY
5 - Gladys Piloian
6 - Lois Huddle
17 - Rebecca Letzkus
19 - Jim Lamb
20 - Denyse Eddy
21 - Eddie Lee
26 - Bill Dennis
28 - Florence Anderson
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