Help Promoting Braille Literacy

Help promoting Braille literacy while taking a Caribbean cruise!

The following announcement is from the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia:

The National Federation of the Blind of Virginia needs your help. Last summer, the Federation offered an early Braille literacy experience for young blind children in Arlington. The program, known as BELL (Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning), was a 2-week summer program for blind and low-vision children from ages 4-12. Braille is the 6-dot system, two columns of three dots, used by the blind in the same ways as print is for the sighted. Blind adults planned a combination of tactile craft activities, stories read aloud by blind adults, and field trips to the drugstore and a trip, using public transportation, to a library in Washington, DC housing a large children's Braille book collection. The children were either exposed to Braille for the first time or strengthened their current Braille reading and writing skills and experienced the excitement of going into a library and browsing a collection of children's books; most local public libraries do not house collections of Braille materials. These students also had fun working with blind instructors who taught by experience, independent travel by all using canes to walk to the local drug store to purchase candy on their first trip, and an item needed for the closing ceremony on their second trip. For some of these kids, it was their first time being with other blind peers and after the first few days, were looking forward to seeing their friends the next morning.

Here is how you can help:

The Federation is selling drawing tickets for a Caribbean cruise to raise money to expand the BELL program next summer.
Tickets are $10 each. The winner will win a cabin for two people for a one-week Caribbean cruise leaving from Baltimore. If you cannot go on the cruise, you can opt for a cash prize of $1,750.

If you can help by buying a drawing ticket or two, please contact Fred Schroeder, NFB of Virginia president at: fschroeder@nfb.org

Your help is deeply appreciated.