Vol. 28, No. 8
OCTOBER 2003
MUMBLES
A publication of the Mid-Florida Council of the Blind
CORRECTIONS
A few corrections from information in the September issue of MUMBLES... The scholarship given out at the June Luncheon is the Connie Rotter Scholarship, not the MFCB Scholarship. And as will be noted in the September Meeting review, there was a guest speaker for the meeting (that information was overlooked in preparation of last month's issue). We apologize for the errors.
MESSAGE FROM MFCB PRESIDENT RACHEL BADER
Hello to all of you. With White Cane Safety Day coming up in just a few short weeks, the Mid-Florida Council of the Blind is looking forward to taking part in and hosting local events in observance of this all important aspect of safe travel for vision impaired pedestrians. We would like to take this opportunity to thank and applaud Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer for helping to promote awareness of White Cane Safety through proclaiming the entire week of October 12th as White Cane Safety week in the City Beautiful. More information regarding our upcoming events will follow later in this issue. I would encourage any and all of you who can join us at the event to do so, or help out by raising awareness in your own areas of the community about White Cane Safety. If you have any questions or are interested in participating, you can contact Dan and Leslie Spoone, White Cane Safety Event Coordinators, at 407-678-4163. I look forward to seeing many of you at our next meeting and at our White Cane Safety event.
NEXT GENERAL MEETING
The next General Meeting of MFCB will be at Booth Towers, 633 Lake Dot Circle, Orlando, FL, 32801, on Saturday, October 4th, 2003, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. It is highly recommended that if anyone uses paratransit, please plan your rides accordingly.
President Rachel Bader will call a Board Meeting at 12:30 PM.
There will be no guest speaker for this meeting as we will be discussing our final plans for our White Cane Safety event.
SEPTEMBER MEETING REVIEW
At the September 6th General Meeting, 24 members were present to hear guest speaker Officer Gribble from the Orlando Police Department talked about personal safety issues. Members present at the Meeting also mentioned what they did during the Summer Break. With the upcoming Elections for MFCB Officers in November, the Nominating Committee was formed. Those members are Shelley Justice, Nicole Hugues and Scott Larson. They will present a slate of MFCB Officers for Elections to the October General Meeting.
Plans were discussed for how MFCB would participate for White Cane Safety Day on October 15th. Due to the fact that Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has declared the week of October 13th "White Cane Safety Week" in the city, it was decided in the General Meeting that MFCB would hold an event on Saturday, October 18th, at Fashion Square Mall. This event would take place from 10 AM to 6 PM, with members volunteering for 2-hour shifts to man a table set up with MFCB materials to hand out as well as copies of the White Cane Law. In addition, 1st Vice President Betty Sparrow would contact Mayor Dyer's Office to express interest in having the Mayor participate in the event. Dan and Leslie Spoone volunteered to be the Event Coordinators. For more information or to help with the event, contact Dan and Leslie at 407-678-4163.
Nicole Hugues mentioned that she has been in contact with a representative for Access Lynx by e-mail. It is recommended that members who do attend the monthly General Meetings reserve rides by the Thursday before each meeting. She added that information about Access Lynx is being made available in more accessible formats soon.
Even though it is still a few months away, Rachel Bader wanted us to plan ahead for the Annual Christmas Luncheon in December. A committee was formed to explore possibilities of the venue for where we hold it. Those members are Nicole Hugues and Chuck Graham. Some places that were suggested by members at the General Meeting are Red Lobster on Colonial Drive (across from Fashion Square), Logan's on John Young Parkway and Sand Lake Road, Friday's and Bennigan's on East Colonial Drive, east of Bennett Road, and Houlihan's on Colonial Drive, east of Bumby Avenue.
Rachel also brought up a few other topics. With a desire to make MFCB a more prominent voice for the blind in our community, a change may be made to the name of the MFCB Newsletter. Members were asked to begin considering a name that, unlike MUMBLES, better fits what we as an organization, stand for. And with all that she has done in printing and distributing print issues of MUMBLES, it was decided by the members at the General Meeting that Linda Lynch at All-Ways Typing would receive an extra $10.00 per month in compensation. Thanks for all your help, Linda!
Activities have taken a back seat in the past year in MFCB. Rachel wants to change that and needs the members' help in doing so. Since the MoPix technology for hearing- and visually-impaired is in place at the AMC Altamonte Mall 18 in Altamonte Springs, it would be great if we can all Show our support by planning a day in the near future to catch a movie there. (One member's experience with this technology will appear later in this issue.)
And as a membership, Rachel asked the Telephone Committee to help with a very important issue. With all the members MFCB has, which is over 100, why are so many people not attending our General Meetings? The obvious answer that came up was due to transportation problems. Rachel asked all members who were in attendance to keep in touch with those who are not attending the meetings, and it is possible that the Telephone committee may assist in this process as well.
Finally, it is becoming more important for our MFCB files be kept up-to-date. Rachel announced that a Constitution & By-Laws committee would be formed to look at the foundation of what we are doing as an organization. This will be revisited at a future General Meeting.
The following Door Prizes were given out:
1st Prize Umbrella Dan Spoone
2nd Prize Plastic Relish Dish Nicole Hugues
3rd Prize Glass Candy Dish Betty Sparrow
4th Prize Coffee Cup with Coffee Chuck Graham
5th Prize Glass Candy Dish Scott Larson
6th Prize Cookies Louis Williams
Leslie Spoone also announced that there will be a Bake Sale for the October General Meeting. Congratulations to all the Door Prize winners and let's hope the Bake Sale will be a great fundraiser for the next meeting!
ACCESS LYNX DIRECT MAILINGS SENT OUT
MFCB member Chuck Graham attended the Lynx Transportation Meeting on Wednesday, September 17th, 2003. He reports that at that meeting, Lynx announced that for over 800 Access Lynx users, there would be a direct mailing sent out after that meeting. This mailing asks the users what format they would like to receive their information about the Access Lynx service. The choices are in large print, cassette, CD or in braille. This is something that has been important to members of MFCB for a long time as up until now, the only choice has been regular print. Please make sure that if you receive this mailing, complete and return it promptly. Your quick response will be proof as to the urgency of having Access Lynx do what its riders request.
WHITE CANE WEEK APPROACHING!
October 15th, 2003, is the annual "White Cane Day," but Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has declared the entire week of October 12th "White Cane Safety Week" in the city. "White Cane Day" is a day to educate people about the laws that protect the blind when it comes to walking the streets. With Mayor Dyer's announcement, MFCB is holding an event at Orlando Fashion Square, the shopping mall east of downtown Orlando, on Saturday, October 18th.
This White Cane Safety event will be held from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. MFCB members will have a chance to sign up for 2-hour shifts to man a booth we will set up near the main entrance to Orlando Fashion Square, handing out flyers about MFCB as well as copies of the White Cane Law. For those who can get to the mall early, plans are being made for people on the Orlando Fashion Square staff to let us walk around and become familiar with the layout of the mall before the event begins.
If you would like to participate in this important event for MFCB, please attend the October General Meeting and sign up for a shift to man the MFCB booth. If you cannot attend the October General Meeting, or if you like more information, contact Dan and Leslie Spoone at 407-678- 4163 before October 4th, 2003.
We are looking forward to seeing as many members as possible be part of the MFCB White Cane Safety event at Orlando Fashion Square on Saturday, October 18th!
MY MOPIX EXPERIENCE by Nicole Hugues
(In the September 2003 issue of MUMBLES, it was noted that the AMC Altamonte Mall 18 in Altamonte Springs, which just opened early in the summer, was the first theater in the state of Florida to have the MoPix technology, which allows the hearing- and visually-impaired to enjoy first-run movies. MFCB member Nicole Hugues recently attended the theater and this is her account of that experience.)
Scott Larson and myself, along with this taxi driver Michelle, went to see "Seabiscuit" at the AMC Altamonte Mall 18 on September 8th, 2003. It was a very neat experience, once we worked out a few glitches.
Michelle tried out the closed captioning for us. She said that it is a little device that sits on your cup holder and the words appeared on the device. It actually looks like the words are appearing on the movie screen. We thought that it was really interesting that one could see a regular movie at the theater as opposed to at home.
The description works through a headset, which can be picked up at the Customer Services area, and a narrator describes what is happening to you. The headset is wireless, so you can sit wherever you want in the theater and listen. It told us where the horses were, for example, and what was going on onscreen very clearly.
Scott, Michelle and I would strongly recommend that a group of MFCB members go and see a movie there. You do not need to call ahead to make reservations. However, we strongly recommend calling the theater in advance or looking online, if possible.
(AMC Altamonte Mall 18 is located at 433 E. Altamonte Dr., Altamonte Springs, FL 32714. If you would like more information about how you can use MoPix, their phone number is 407-551-2262, which is an actual voice line, not a recorded message. You can go online to www.amctheatres.com and follow links to see what movies the AMC Altamonte Mall 18 will be showing, but if you want to see what movies at the theater are showing with MoPix, check out www.mopix.org. Movies usually change weekly and sometimes the ones they show with MoPix are in closed-captioning only.)
MEMBERSHIP
Notes from Jay: The MFCB Annual Membership Drive is underway. There has been good response so far with our mailings that went out last month in cooperation with the Talking Book Library service. Just a reminder that in addition, we are asking you, the current members, that if you know anyone who would be interested in becoming a member of MFCB, have them contact me at 407-658-2479 or e-mail mfcbinfo@bellsouth.net and I will follow-up with what information is needed to become a part of MFCB.
Also, we are taking renewals on current memberships. The cost for MFCB Membership continues to be $10.00 for the year. You can renew at the General Meeting and pay by cash, check or money order. If you cannot attend the General Meeting, please only pay by check or money order. Make that check or money order payable to MFCB. The deadline for new and renewal memberships is January 7th, 2004.
Please welcome the following new MFCB Members:
JOSEPH MUSIL
630 Cranes Way, Apt. 204
Altamonte Springs, FL 32701
(407) 673-2981
JEANETTE RHODES
4158 Oak Grove Dr.
Zellwood, FL 32798
(407) 880-4274
GERTRUDE (TRUDY) BRUMFIELD
813 Carolina Ave.
St. Cloud, FL 34769
(407) 892-2895
EDYTHE ANN PAPERA
1303 Countrywind Dr.
Apopka, FL 32703
(407) 884-5690
KATHY HUTCHINGS
(This member has requested that her information not be posted online.
We respect her wishes.)
JOYCE NELSON
2077 Penguin Ct.
Oviedo, FL 32765
(407) 359-3793
ELIZABETH (LIZ) FREEMAN
1099 Clay St. #1410
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 644-2122
Also, please make a note of the following member's ADDRESS CHANGE:
MATTI HICKSON
4936 Cason Cove Dr., Apt. 103
Orlando, FL 32811
(407) 420-5859
And a reminder that I am accepting any submissions to MUMBLES. All submissions must arrive by regular mail or e-mail to me by the 15th of the month as issues are prepared shortly after that. I will make sure you are credited with the submission. If you have any further questions, please call me at 407-658-2479 or e-mail at mfcbinfo@bellsouth.net.
Looking forward to seeing many of you at the October General Meeting!
BIRTHDAY PEOPLE
OCTOBER
1 - Dean Flewwellin
2 - Geroma O'Neal
3 - Joyce Nelson
3 - Kaloutie Sankar
4 - Edward Kunse
5 - Zeena Hogsbro
5 - Jack Jordan
6 - Bill Chatlos
17 - David Hillebrandt
18 - Bill Freeman
18 - Tommie McGowin
22 - Marie Mayers
27 - David Brown
30 - Alice Wolf
31 - Joyce Hull