The TAPING RECORDER April-May, 2006 News from & about Taping For The Blind, Inc. www.tapingfortheblind.org LUNCHEON, FASHION SHOW HONOR MARY FARISH JOHNSTON We are very pleased to report on the total success of the luncheon and fashion show we held to honor Mary Farish Johnston. Mary has been a client for some time, and she has also served on the board, been an officer, and now serves as an Advisory Director. Mary has been a Taping volunteer for 15 years. Her husband, Dennis, surprised Mary by arranging to have her family attend the event. Neiman Marcus hosted the event at their Galleria store. Our objectives were to honor Mary, raise money, and introduce Taping to some nice people who didn't know who we are -- we were successful on all counts! The fashions were courtesy of Escada (who also donated a $3000 gift certificate for a very successful raffle). Your reporter was told that the fashions were most fetching. Co-chairs Barbara LeGrange and Susan Boggio did a superb job assembling a coordi-nating committee, and we can't thank them enough for this five-star success! Neiman Marcus was so gracious when they underwrote luncheon expenses, and our co-chairs underwrote all other expenses for the event, so all proceeds from this happening came directly to Taping. Our sincere thanks to all of our volunteers who supported this first time effort and contributed to its success. Our challenge is to repeat this success next year. IAAIS MEETS IN SAN DIEGO The annual gathering of the members of the International Association of Audio Information Services (IAAIS) was held in deep southern California, namely San Diego. Taping was represented by Executive Director Cynthia Franzetti and Radio Manager Jim Martinez (we know it was tough duty but somebody had to do it). We are pleased to report that we captured another award for an outstanding program. "Turning Sight Into Sound" is a program that allows producers Jim Martinez and Jim Bratton some creative latitude, and the show that brought home the prize was the recap by volunteer Bill Brown of the Astros run to the World Series in 2005. Bill did a great job of recapturing those moments; if you are witness to his work as the Astros TV play-by-play voice, you know what excellent work he does. Congratulations on work very well done! Concerning the conference, Cynthia Franzetti said, "It is an honor to represent Taping, a pleasure to share what we do right with other reading services, and a joy to collect ideas for things that might help us work even better!" Thanks to both Cynthia and Jim for representing us so effectively. LIGHT THE CANDLES! We hope that the following Taping volunteers who celebrated birthdays in April had a great day. They are: 04/01 Gladys Forde; 04/05 Barbara Badgett, JD Wilson; 04/06 Leila Reynolds; 04/08 Mary Gregg Manuel, George Thomas; 04/09 Gerald Stone; 04/10 John Biondi; 04/14 Charles Boyd; 04/16 Russell Sanders; 04/19 David Halliburton; 04/20 Elizabeth Eriksen; 04/21 Sylvia Levy; 04/22 Larry Foust; 04/24 Ozzie Colten; 04/27 Sue O'Dell; 04/28 Jim Bratton; and 04/30 Kym King. Special congratulations to Ozzie Colten who told this reporter that this was his 94th birthday! And for May: 05/03 Kavita Self; 05/08 Otto Schlamme; 05/10 Steven Galindo, Josephine Tarr; 05/11 Randy de La Garza; 05/17 Paul Daly; 05/19 Nancy Daly, Agnes Hortobagyi; 05/20 Margaret Anderson; 05/22 Elizabeth Heeb; 05/23 Lynn Johnson, Bill White; 05/27 George Nevers; and 05/31 Allan Kohlwes. With our usual reminder, if you celebrated a birthday in either April or May and we don't have you on our list, please let either Cynthia or Jim know so we can update our records. VOLUNTEERS RECOGNIZED DURING RECEPTION Each year we start off National Volunteer Recognition Week with our Volunteer Recognition Reception. These events are always great fun and allow us to thank our volunteers for their amazing efforts on behalf of Taping. Initially let's recognize the volunteers that helped make this party such a success. They are Cullom Connely, Beverly Hicks, Gwen Hieger, Marie Roberts, Marcie Corder, Resa Dunn, Kelli Cooke, and Janet & Tony Parisi (our wine committee). We also thank Taping's staff, Cynthia Franzetti, Jim Martinez, and Ginger Gish. These folks get the supplies, get the place set up, and get it cleaned up after all is said and done. We also had several clients there including Carl Nettleton, our Katrina client who traveled from New Orleans to say thanks to our wonderful volunteers. MILESTONES IN TAPING SERVICE We had several volunteers celebrating service milestones as detailed below: Celebrating 35 years (serving since 1971) Carl Hess and Otto Schlamme. Celebrating 20 years (since 1986) Charles Boyd, Agnes Hortobagyi, and Robin Rice. Celebrating 15 years (since 1991) Gladys Forde, Joan Gallo, Lyn Green, K.C. Jobe, Lynn Johnson, Mary Farish Johnston, Diana Mitchell, Sarah Roush, and Scott Ward. Celebrating 10 years (since 1996) Sarah Braham, Bill Canning, Fred Dawson, Jean Frey, Gwen Hieger, Linda Reneberg, Nadine Saffell, and Carol Worsnop. Celebrating 5 years (since 2001) George Frey, Gordon Guillory, Allan Kohlwes, Geetha Martin, Monica McHam, Anna McLean, George Nevers, Kathleen Osman, Kay Schill, Robert Schuller, Al Schuttenberg, Josephine Tarr, and Jane Zimbaldi. Congratulations to all! SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS RECOGNIZE EXTRA EFFORT The Taping Special Achievement Award is the highest award we give. It recognizes efforts above and beyond the call of duty to Taping. We were very pleased to recognize the following individuals with this award at our Volunteer Recognition Reception: JOAN GALLO, DAVE HERFORT, BILL CANNING, and RANDY de LA GARZA. We would like to detail the contributions each of these outstanding individuals has made, but we are already running really long in this edition. Be assured, each has done outstanding work for our agency and is extremely deserving! CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to Bob and Victoria Bartlett as they celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary recently! OUR SYMPATHY The sympathy of the entire Taping family is extended to the family and friends of Sam Bertron who died recently. RLB