Vol. 37, No. 2
June 2007
VOLUNTEER NEWS
EVENTS HELD TO RECOGNIZE VOLUNTEERS
In the world of volunteering, spring is a special season of thanks. National Volunteer Week always falls in April and many organizations choose to have their formal recognitions in the spring.
The Talking Book Library’s 27th Annual Volunteer Recognition Luncheon was held March 4 at the Camelback Golf Club in Scottsdale. One hundred sixty-nine volunteers and guests enjoyed lunch, chamber music and an inspiring talk by Steve Welker, library patron and author of The World at My Fingertips. Ted Anderson, long time Phoenix machine volunteer, was recognized for 5,000 hours of service. Glenna Atwood- duplication, Keith Holler-Phoenix machine repair, Barbara Pastore-catalogs & technical services, and Doris Walker-reader, director, self-monitor received 1000 Hour Awards.
On March 31, many talking book volunteers attended the Annual Volunteer Luncheon sponsored by the City of Mesa Public Library at the Mesa Country Club. Between the recording studio and the machine repair group, 24 talking book volunteers give their volunteer time at the Mesa Library. Linda Hurlbert-reader and Melody LaGue-reviewer were recognized for 5 years of service.
National Volunteer Week, April 15-21, was celebrated by all who came into the Braille and Talking Book Library during that week with refreshments in the lounge. If you complete your volunteer work at home or some location other than the Talking Book Library consider stopping in at the library next year for National Volunteer Week, April 23-29, 2008.
PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF AND IT IS TIME TO CELEBRATE
| The Desert Is No Lady was no ordinary recording project. Ask experienced studio volunteers Judy Johnston and Marilyn Pentkowski who recently completed it. After just over two years in the works, The Desert Is No Lady is finished. Fortunately for us, Marilyn and Judy are not. They have already started on another book. The Desert Is No Lady, Southwestern Landscapes in Women’s Writing and Art, edited by Vera Norwood and Janice Monk, is a scholarly work comprised of eleven essays. The editors produced an overview of how women’s creative responses to the Southwest, from 1880 to 1980, have helped to define the region. They included work of women from Hispanic/Mexican-American, Native American and Anglo cultures. |
 Volunteers Judy J. and Marilyn P. celebrate the completion of a two year recording project. -- photos by D. Farnsworth
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After an unsuccessful start on this project by another recording team several years ago the book languished awhile on the shelf. Other teams considered it but declined to tackle it for one reason or another. Then Judy and Marilyn said okay. Because of the subject and scope of this book and the many and varied perspectives included, the library wanted it to be part of the Arizona Collection. Both women felt they learned something but found the long involved sentence structure challenging. Marilyn commented that Judy “is a pro!” in her interesting presentation of difficult material.
Judy and Marilyn both hold full time jobs during the day and record on Tuesday evenings. Marilyn has 24 years volunteer experience as a monitor/director and Judy has 21 years experience as a reader and audition evaluator. As a recording team they had already completed over 50 books for our collection before starting The Desert Is No Lady. They are both ‘pros’ in the recording studio.
IN MEMORY OF CHUCK KRUPPE
Library staff recently received a lovely letter from Dr. Claire Kruppe regarding her father, long time machine repair volunteer Chuck Kruppe. Her letter let us know that Chuck passed away peacefully on April 19 in California at the age of 94.
Chuck was instrumental in the formation of the talking book machine repair program in Arizona. In 1961 the Library of Congress solicited help from the Telephone Pioneers of America to repair talking book machines all over the country. As an officer in the Arizona Chapter of the Telephone Pioneers, Chuck became very involved in building volunteer support for machine repair.
In 1995 Chuck was honored at the library volunteer luncheon with a ‘lifetime’ achievement award for his 34 years as a machine repair volunteer. Little did we know that he would continue to repair machines for another 10 years! In all, he gave 42 years, and over 15,520 hours of service to the Arizona Braille and Talking Book Library and celebrated his 90th birthday with us before moving to California to be closer to his only daughter. In California he gave another two years repairing machines before health issues made it no longer possible.
In her letter, Chuck’s daughter wrote “he should always be remembered as a strong, at times teasing, but always caring man.” He was a colleague, a friend, a mentor, a tireless supporter of the Talking Book Program. We are honored that Chuck chose to give so much of himself to the Arizona Braille and Talking Book Library.
WELCOME TO NEW VOLUNTEERS
We welcome new volunteers who have joined us since the last newsletter.
H. Brotemorkle – RRRB (Recorded Recreational Reading for the Blind)
Rosalyn Deserano – Phoenix, director
Gary Weberg – Phoenix, reader
VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
| “I’m from a family of readers” Varina says, talking about her long-time love of reading and her early childhood memories of being read to by her grandmother and both parents. She recalls that just before her family moved from Ohio to Arizona at the end of her 4th grade school year, she tested at a 7th grade reading level, even though she was born with usable vision in only her left eye and had some problems with that. In her early years in public school, Varina was placed in special classes for the blind and partially sighted. One of the concerns her parents had in moving to Arizona was that she would be in a school district where she could learn |  Volunteer Varina M. uses both keyboard and Braille display to work on her computer. She sends home reviews to the library by email. -- photo J. Pawlowski
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Soon Varina was introduced to the Arizona Braille and Talking Book Library .She laughs as she recalls that sometimes books would arrive that she didn’t order. Initially her grandmother, who was a retired 7th grade English teacher, was the person who went through the talking books catalogue with her. In addition to Varina’s requests, her grandmother was slipping in titles that she thought were important for any young person’s education. Varina’s dad also helped her with ordering books until she was ready to take it on herself.
Varina graduated from Saguaro High School in 1987 and attended Scottsdale Community College for two years. She then moved to Tucson where she completed both an undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies with minors in English, French and history and a master’s degree in history with a concentration in early U.S. history. As is the case for most students, upon completion of her degrees Varina began looking for work using the skills she had developed. She considered teaching and took the certification class she needed to teach at the community college level. For several semesters she was a guest lecturer and then team-taught U.S. history with another professor. During this time she says she checked out lots of history books from the Talking Book Library so she could brush up on specific subject areas. Teaching positions at the community colleges are extremely competitive and a full time position did not materialize.
At the same time, Varina decided to volunteer for the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Papago Park. The small museum staff was thrilled. They had a backlog of 300 oral interviews with Arizonans from all walks of life to transcribe. Varina has completed about 100 transcriptions so far. A few of the more well known include Congressman Harry Mitchell when he was Mayor of Tempe, Dr. Peterson Zah, former President of the Navajo Nation, and Ladmo of the Wallace and Ladmo Show. Some of the transcription developed into paid work for Varina, because of the complexity of the project, the need to meet a deadline or requests from private individuals who have work they want done. Varina does most of her transcribing at home thanks to her up-to-date computer including audio software and a Braille display that her brother and a friend have built and installed.
Varina sees her 14 years of volunteering at the Talking Book Library, first as a book inspector and in recent years, as a home reviewer, as a way to give back, to say thank you for all the books and service she has received from the library. As a home reviewer, she listens to the first copy of a locally recorded book. Then she either calls Studio Director Carol Watson with her report or sends it via the computer. One thing she enjoys about home review is the variety of books she reads, not necessarily subjects she would choose on her own. A recent favorite was Valley 101 – Clay Thompson’s Great Big Book of Life. She said that had her laughing all the way through. She has reviewed over 50 books and plans to continue. She intends for reading to always be an important part of her life.
AMERICAN EXPRESS LENDS A HAND
At the end of April sixteen employees from American Express spent four hours volunteering at the library. They split into two groups and helped in both technical and machines services. They compacted and shifted books in the basement, stripped labels from 242 cassettes so they could be used for magazines, boxed 90 cases of machines to be sent to other volunteer repair centers and cleaned and play tested 111 talking book machines.
American Express encourages its employees to volunteer as a means of team building and reaching out into the community. We thank the employees for the excellent job they did helping us catch up in both sections.