Vol. 36, No. 2
September 2006
VOLUNTEER NEWS
Spring Celebrations
Spring seems to bring out a celebratory spirit. April was marked by two special celebrations honoring volunteers. Talking Book Library volunteers were recognized at the AVACA luncheon in early April and during National Volunteer Week towards the end of April.
The Association of Volunteer Administration of Central Arizona (AVACA) is the local membership organization that offers educational and networking support to anyone involved in coordinating a volunteer program. Currently about 100 volunteer programs in Maricopa County, including the Arizona Braille and Talking Book Library, are represented. Each program can select an individual volunteer or group to be recognized at the Annual AVACA Luncheon. Long time volunteer Cora Baker was the BTBL volunteer recognized this year. Cora has volunteered since 1990. She was a reviewer in the Mesa recording studio for many years. In 2002 she switched to audition evaluation. She has volunteered over 2,200 hours for the Talking Book Library. Another BTBL volunteer, Toni Ackley, served as reader of the award nominations at the luncheon which was held at East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) in Mesa.
National Volunteer Week was April 23-29. The date each year is established by the Points of Light Foundation, a national organization headquartered in Washington, DC, which engages and mobilizes people to volunteer. At BTBL we honored volunteers each day of that week with special refreshments in the lounge. A display board highlighting the accomplishments of volunteers was placed in the library lobby. The library followed the national theme which was Inspire by Example.
Volunteers Adeline Cirvelis, Janet Spielman and a group from The Gompers, Inc. received letters from the governor in recognition of 1,000 hours of volunteer service. Volunteers Lois Brock and John Zlatich received etched crystal paperweights and letters from the governor in recognition of 5,000 hours of volunteer service. The library created a new award this year – the Honor Award, to recognize volunteers who have given 30 years of service or more. Three volunteers received an Honor Award. Ann Fogarty, director in the Phoenix studio, was recognized for 30 years of service and the completion of 90 recording projects. Catherine Holler, reader at the Recorded Recreational Reading for the Blind studio in Peoria, was recognized for 31 years of service and 76 recording projects. Phoenix studio reader Joan Lincoln was recognized for 33 years of service and 72 books added to the library collection. Each of the Honor Award volunteers received a plaque with a gold cassette attached and wording specific to their area of accomplishment, and a letter from the governor.
If you would like any more information about the glass armonica, you can visit http://www.glassvirtuoso.us/.
Field Trip
Most of us probably remember some field trips from our school days. The AZ Braille and Talking Book Library was a recent field trip destination for 11 students and several teachers from the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind in Tucson. Talking books are used frequently in classrooms at the school and some of the students individually receive library service at home. There were several purposes for the visit: to give them a first hand look and better understanding of the Talking Book Library; to educate them on the vast collection available to them and invite them to expand their reading; to explain the summer reading program which parallels that offered by public libraries; to have them meet the youth reader advisor, Kim Bell, in person; to participate in recording a talking book.
The students were all 6th, 7th or 8th graders. Several students are totally blind and others have various levels of visual impairment. Several are braille readers and some can read large print. All are eligible to use audio books.
The students and teachers were divided into two groups. Librarian Kim Bell toured half the group through the library while the other half of the group worked in the recording studio. The groups then switched. The students had a chance to meet a volunteer recording team and learn firsthand how much work it takes to produce talking books. The students recorded two books in the four track library format, Lizards for Lunch: A Roadrunner’s Tale and Don’t Call Me Pig: A Javelina Story by Arizona author Conrad Storad. The students had practiced their reading ahead of time and did an excellent job. The recording they completed will be available to younger students in their school.
The students and teachers were enthusiastic and very appreciative of the range of services and variety of books offered by the Talking Book Library.
Welcome to New Volunteers
We welcome new volunteers who have joined us since the last newsletter.
Leonard Brenza – reader, Mesa
Molly Brenza – director, Mesa
Mike Coleman – machine repair, Phoenix
Catherine DeWeese – book inspection
Volunteer of the Quarter
Joan Miller got her first look at the Braille and Talking Book Library on a tour. Her brother-in-law was a member of the Lions Foundation and Joan attended a luncheon with him that included a tour of BTBL. Joan was eager to take the tour because she was aware of reading for the blind programs and thought it was something she would like to do after she retired. Following the tour Joan lost no time in becoming a BTBL volunteer. That was 11 years ago.
Since her initial placement in the recording studio, Joan has volunteered as director, reviewer and final reviewer. She currently directs two long-time readers, Jim Yeater and Louella Marshall. Joan has worked with many different readers and her tact, patience and skill always ease the process of creating a successful recording team. She is a ‘regular’ on the annual recording project Great Decisions, a series of foreign policy essays which this library produces and sends to 48 other libraries around the country. At times when extra help has been needed with final reviews, which is the last step in the process before a book is duplicated, Joan has been willing to take on this extra work. She says she prefers directing over reviewing because of the interaction it offers with other volunteers but she is happy with reviewing as well. She describes herself as “a word person, a book person” so the studio is a good fit for her interests and temperament. She likes the variety of books and having several different projects in process. Joan has been director or reviewer on 92 books and 8 issues of Great Decisions.
Before retiring and moving to Arizona, Joan spent most of her life on Long Island. She has degrees in French and Latin and went into high school teaching after seeing her seventh child off to elementary school. After teaching both French and Latin for five years, Joan served another 15 years as chairman of the language department with responsibilities for programs in five schools. While chairman, she continued to teach Latin because she felt so strongly about the value of Latin in helping students improve their reading and writing abilities in English.
Joan’s grown children and seven grandchildren now live all over the US and in England. She enjoys visiting them and plans to continue traveling as long as she can. Joan also enjoys movies, learning about art, touring museums and gardens, hiking and reading, reading, reading. Joan encourages anyone approaching retirement to have a plan for their future that includes volunteering. She credits her library volunteering with keeping her active and engaged and contributing greatly to the happiness and good health she is experiencing in her senior years. We are so grateful that the library has been a good match for Joan’s skills and talents and we are pleased to thank her for her dedication and 2000+ hours of volunteer service by recognizing her as Volunteer of the Quarter.
Machine Repair
The poem below, The Volunteer, was written by Kathi Kappel and staff at the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in honor of one of their long-time machine repair volunteers. It is shared here as a tribute to the individual about whom it was written and to all the volunteers who do such outstanding work repairing talking book machines in Arizona. The volunteer in the poem repaired record players, which have not been used much in recent years, but were the primary equipment for listening to talking books for many years. Many Arizona volunteers remember repairing record players.
The Volunteer
He strode into the building on a warm spring day
Bundled in coat and hat – it was just his way.
“Hi, Ray!” we called. “Good morning!” his reply.
A ready smile, a wave of hand from this genuinely kind guy.
Up the stairs nimbly to the third floor he went
To tear apart and put together players broken and spent.
There they stood waiting, smiling at him.
As they did each Wednesday – his pals Fred, A.J., Jim.
Tossing cap and jacket, he perched on a stool
To poke and prod each machine with a tool.
“This one’s hopeful, that one’s a goner,”
he reports to himself as he inspects each with honor.
A tiny screw undone rolls onto the floor.
He retrieves it and then he reaches for more.
Recordings that stick, needles that drag –
These are the things that challenge and nag.
But not for Ray.
He leans in closer to the player at hand
And watches the wheels and checks for the band.
“Aha,” he whispers to the record machine
As he resurrects it and then renders it clean.
He places the player on the truck deep and wide
And retrieves yet another from the stack at his side.
One week later, a reader intently
Changes the side, then oh so gently
Gives silent thanks to the one who repaired
This machine that allows a book to be shared.
– In memory of Raymond Kulikowski –
Meeting the Author
Joe Giumette, volunteer reader in the Phoenix studio, has recorded 15 books. He and his partner, volunteer director Marsha Young, were enjoying their most recent project, The Wild Girl – the Journals of Ned Giles, 1932, so much that Joe decided to write a letter to the author and let him know. When author Jim Fergus received Joe’s letter, the timing was fortuitous. Jim, who lives in southern Arizona, was scheduled to appear at the Arizona Book Festival at the Carnegie Center in Phoenix on April 1. He was delighted to learn that his book had been selected for recording. Joe, Marsha and Jim met at the festival and discussed the writing and recording of books.