American Council of the Blind of Colorado-Longmont Chapter

Mrs. Angie Anderson
Home: 303-772-5841

Sandy McAviney
Email: acbcinfo@Yahoo.com
PMB 292
2255 North Main Street #108
Longmont CO 80501
Home: 303-772-7119
Office: 303-772-7119
Fax: N/A

American Council of the Blind of Colorado-Longmont Chapter

OUR MISSION

We strive to improve the community so that it allows full access to people with limited sight or blindness, as well as to the sighted in all areas of life: consumerism, information, communication, art, recreation, athletics, employment, housing, cultural exchange, volunteerism, and so on. We encourage partnerships and participation.

MEETINGS

Our next organizational meeting will be Saturday, January 24, 2004 at the Central Presbyterian Church on the corner of 4th and Kimbark Sreets, Longmont, Colorado, in the upper meeting room at 9:00 AM. We do not meet in July or August. Quarterly, we hold board of director business meetings. The remainder of the meetings are geared for sharing, socializing, learning, and mentoring activities.

PROJECTS

1. Large Print and Braille
We encourage Colorado restaurants and other businesses that serve food or provide printed consumer information to offer Braille and large print menus for their customers.

QuikScrybe Transcription Services (1-888-820-7845) is local to Longmont and can provide Braille and large print transcription services to businesses nation wide. They have two commercial high-speed Braille printers that can each produce 600 pages of Braille per hour.

2. Sports and Recreation
Several of our members like to participate in athletic activities: bowling, tandem riding, hiking, water skiing, snow skiing, skating, tae-kwan-do, lifting weights, running, swimming, and so on. Many of these activities involve the assistance of a sighted partner; we'd like to encourage more of these partnership-type activities.

Our bowling team, the Longmont Bowler Coasters, welcome anyone to come bowl some games. We also need sighted ''spotters'' to help keep our blind bowlers informed about which pins are still standing. Come, see the innovative bowling rail designed for blind and low-vision bowlers and join in the fun.

3. Speaking Engagements
Our members enjoy speaking to other groups about low-sight or blindness issues, our cultural exchange to Japan, teamwork, and motivation.

4. Cultural Exchanges
Our members believe that meeting others, exchanging and sharing ideas promotes understanding, self confidence, knowledge, synergism, and innovative solutions.

In November 1997, six of our members paid their own way to attend a cultural exchange and workshop with people in Tokoyo, Yamagata, and Chino, Japan, who were partially-sighted, blind, or who worked with this population. We are still corresponding with some of these people and hosted an exchange in Longmont in December 1998 and 2002 with one of the teachers for the blind in Yamagata. We've learned much from each other.

In the summer of 2003, four of our members traveled to England and Scotland for 10 days to visit the Royal National Institute for the Blind facilities. We were impressed when staying at the Bull Hotel in Petersburgh, because the manager knocked on our door, introduced himself, and asked if we would like to have any magazines or reading materials delivered to our rooms during our stay, offering to contact the local RNIB facility.