Published by The Roanoke Star-Sentinel
August 7-13, 2009 Edition
VOBR Provides Valuable Service to Visually Impaired
The fifth annual fundraiser for Voice of the Blue Ridge (VOBR) was held recently at Blue 5 Restaurant. A silent auction and music provided by The Elderly Brothers kicked off the event. The 164 people in attendance also had the opportunity to partake in hot hors d’oeuvres and appetizers and to participate in a live auction.
Despite the economic downturn, businesses and individuals donated an array of items for both auctions including artwork, a Greek writing table, fine jewelry with diamonds and/or precious stones, gift certificates, trips, electronics, designer purses, Joe DiMaggio sunglasses, and a football signed by Head Virginia Tech Coach, Frank Beamer.
Patty Alls, Executive Director of VOBR, said that Blue 5 Restaurant was a “new venue for them.” The previous four fundraisers were held in conjunction with a production at Mill Mountain Theatre, which is now closed. Alls went on to say that VOBR “plans to hold two fundraisers next year.”
The funds raised help VOBR in achieving its stated mission, “to provide various services to meet the needs of the blind, visually impaired, and others with print handicaps, especially in Central and Southwest Virginia, with programs centered on accessibility to the printed word, audio aids, and technical communication aspects, to enhance communication and life opportunities for those who might not otherwise have this enrichment.” Other funding received by the non-profit organization comes from United Way, donations, and bingo games that are held at the Allstar Center on Melrose Avenue.
Charted in 1981 and based at 3435 Melrose Avenue, VOBR through the assistance of a volunteer board and a staff of three, offers numerous services primarily to those with vision and print impairments who are located in Southwest and Central Virginia. Over the years, VOBR has helped thousands of people utilizing various creative means.
Services offered by VOBR include dial-in services, news service, a lending library, adaptive technology center, large print calendars that are sold and shipped throughout the United States, radio reading service, and a volunteer reading service.
Dial-In News is a completely independent project of VOBR and provides the newspapers in an automated format available 24 hours daily. Through the combination of electronics, volunteerism, and special needs, newspapers are now available to a growing audience with widely varied schedules and interests. Volunteers read the news each day into the telephone and their readings are captured into a computer. The listeners can then call at any time during the day and access the readings. This service currently provides literary freedom to 360 people who are signed up for this service, said Sherrie Oliver, Coordinator of Volunteers at VOBR.
When people can no longer read newspapers and magazines because of vision or other physical problems, those people can often use radio reading services, a network of radio stations that broadcast printed materials through closed circuit radio stations throughout the United States. In the Roanoke area, including Southwest and Central Virginia, VOBR has helped produce WVTF Public Radio’s reading service since 1981. Hundreds of radios have been given over the years by VOBR to people who use the WVTF Radio Reading Service to hear their newspapers read to them. To participate in this service, the participants must follow a broadcast schedule.
VOBR has a lending library of more than 400 books in a variety of formats including cassette, CD, and Braille.
The Assistive Technology Center is equipped with five workstations. Using special assistive technologies people who are visually/print impaired can gain or regain access to benefits offered by computer. Irene Peterson, Licensed Trainer, teaches six classes weekly [five classes in Roanoke and one class in the New River Valley] for those who have the desire to learn how to use special adaptive technologies.
VOBR’s system includes a scanner, printer, Braille embosser, Internet access, and various programs that enable those who are sight/print impaired to gain access to a new level of information and independence. Center users are able to surf the web, read magazines, books, letters, and other printed items that can be scanned, use online banking, order products they need such as food and clothing using any website offering that service, and send and receive email. For those who can read Braille, they can change printed material into Braille for their use.
More than 8,000 large-print calendars have been sent out by VOBR this year. While most of the calendars have been sent out to those who are sight/print impaired in Virginia, some of the calendars have been sent to addresses as far away as Hawaii.
Reading volunteers play a significant role in the mission of VOBR, which currently has 80 volunteers and substitutes. For information on volunteering, donating your books on tape or CD to the lending library, or for other information about VOBR, visit vobr.org or call (540) 985-8900.
By Susan Ayers
