The TAPING RECORDER September, 2005 News from & about Taping For The Blind, Inc. www.tapingfortheblind.org KATRINA--There's not much more that we can say about the hurricane and flood and the pain that has been caused to fellow Americans. Houston has really done itself proud coming to the rescue like a very good neighbor. Taping was the first agency to call the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities and offer our help. We took 10 radios out to the Astrodome, and we sincerely hope this was a help to some evacuees. We may not hear anything about those radios, but we hope they are valued by whoever has them. SPEAKER'S TRAINING--We will be holding a training class for volunteers who want to be part of our speakers bureau. We have many visits coming up, and if you would like to help, David Thomas will lead the training session on October 1, 2005 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. He will talk about delivering the message that can inform as well as help us raise money. We always get a lot of requests from the Combined Federal Campaign and usually get several from the Combined Municipal Campaign, and we have many Lions Clubs we would like to give presentations, so if you would like to help on this project, contact Cynthia Franzetti. NEW SCHEDULE IMPLEMENTED--On September 15 our new schedule for HTBR went into effect. Changes come about generally as a result of listener comments. We have added "Cooking in the Dark" with chef Dale Campbell. Dale produces the show and we are the first radio reading service to air it. We have added a show featuring magazines on amateur radio, again a listener request. We have expanded the "PC Byte" show back to a full hour. We will be adding the Saturday Wall Street Journal, but this will be archived and then be available via our web site for interested readers. Radio Manager Jim Martinez has been plenty busy putting all the changes together, and while all the changes are not detailed here, we thank him for his dedicated effort, as well as Client Services Vice President Nadine Saffell and her Listeners Committee for making this happen. We are always curious to see how our audience reacts to the changes we make, but if they're displeased, we expect we will be hearing about it. BLIND MICE MART--Speaking of Dale Campbell, in addition to doing a regular cooking show, he runs the Blind Mice Mart. This is an online store with a wide variety of goods. Profits from this effort fund a scholarship for a blind or visually impaired student every year. We are telling you about this because we have an arrangement with Blind Mice Mart whereby if you buy goods there, Taping will benefit from your purchase. If you do the transaction exclusively online, you can put "Taping" (without the quote marks) in the coupon box, and your purchase will be credited to our account. If you prefer just to look around online and then do business by phone, Dale can do that as well, and just mention Taping for us to get credit. The web site address is: http://www.blindmicemart.com You can sign up to be a Blind Mice member for free, and you will receive periodic e-mail updates if you want them. The real advantage of membership is that gets you the best price offered from the Mart. From time to time Dale holds auctions which are fun as well, so give it a try. GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY--We offer our sincere congratulations to Joe & Fanelle Laughlin on the celebration of their golden wedding anniversary. Fifty years and still going strong! GET WELL WISHES--We send a load of get well wishes to Dee Weaver as she recovers from recent surgery. We are also pleased that Cynthia Franzetti is recovering nicely from her recent surgery. LIGHT THE CANDLES--We wish Happy Birthday to the following volunteers who celebrate in September: 09/01 Michael Johnston; 09/03 Grant Olsen; 09/04 Janet Parisi; 09/05 Joe Laughlin, Dena Marks Sokolow; 09/07 Bernard Lewis; 09/09 Betti Saunders; 09/17 George Manley; 09/20 Bill Brown, Ann Chatoney; 09/22 Carolyn Babb, Kathy Bodin; 09/23 Deborah Filip; 09/24 Julie Machal-Fulks; 09/27 Marty Ryan; 09/28 Anne Sharpe; & 09/30 Sam Bertron. If you celebrate a birthday in September and do not see your name on this list, please let Ginger know so we can update our records. GOOD LUCK--We offer best wishes to HTBR reader Shirley Houston ("Southern Living" magazine) as she moves on to the Dallas area. We sincerely appreciate the good work you did for Taping, Shirley! A THOUGHT TO PONDER-- The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. RLB