A2012-05: Regarding Commendation of Representative Tom Rukavina

Adopted In : 2012

Topics : Braille

WHEREAS, Tom Rukavina was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1987; and

WHEREAS, one of Representative Rukavina’s first official acts after his election was to meet with members of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota; and

WHEREAS, throughout his 26 years in the Minnesota legislature, Representative Rukavina never wavered in his commitment to making a better life for blind Minnesotans, lending his support to myriad issues of interest to blind Minnesotans including serving as chief author of the very first state Braille literacy bill passed in The United States, advocating staunchly for a separate agency for providing rehabilitation services to the blind, helping to bring NFB-Newsline® to the state of Minnesota and securing funding for it, and developing requirements for adjustment to blindness training for rehabilitation counselors at State Services for the Blind; and

WHEREAS, despite the controversial nature of some of these issues, Representative Rukavina's efforts were unflagging and stalwart; now, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota in convention assembled this twenty-eighth day of October, 2012, in the city of Duluth, Minnesota, that this organization wholeheartedly commend Representative Tom Rukavina for his twenty-six outstanding years of service to all blind Minnesotans and thank him for his dedication to helping blind people become independent, productive members of society; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we wish Representative Rukavina well in his retirement and extend to him an open invitation to join the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota at any time.

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