(Editor’s Note:  English is the second most difficult language in the world with only Chinese being harder.  Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions (BLIND) has the only English Language Learner program for blind people in Minnesota.  Sharon Monthei teaches this course to blind immigrants as part of BLIND’s adjustment-to-blindness program.  Here are a few examples of what we native speakers take for granted, but Sharon must teach her students.) 

By Emily Zitek

By Hannah Furney

Being blind means that I can do anything that I put my mind to except driving.  My mother, who was coming to wake me up from a nap, discovered my eye condition, and she had noticed that my eyes were going back and forth, so she knew that something was wrong.  My parents took me to the eye doctor and Bilateral Retinoblastoma was diagnosed at age four-and-a-half months.  Since 2007, I have been a member of the NFB where I have learned to consider myself blind.

By Chris Kuell

By Patrick A. Barrett

(Editor’s Note:  Pat is a member of the NFB of Minnesota Board of Directors, and an active member of the Metro Chapter.)

By Lori Peglow

Message from the CMC President

A Tribute to an NFB Member

By Jennifer Dunnam

At this writing, more than 80 Federationists from all over Minnesota have just returned from the 2013 national convention of the National Federation of the Blind in Orlando, Florida, where we worked, played, worked some more, and otherwise actively participated in the largest and highest-impact gathering of blind people anywhere.  The agenda and all space between was packed with opportunities to gain and share information, to celebrate our collective victories, and to plan the work to come.

Volume 79, Number 3

Quarterly Publication of the

National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota, Inc.

100 East 22nd Street

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404

Voice:  (612) 872-9363

Website:  www.nfbmn.org

Tom Scanlan, Editor

E-mail tom.scanlan@earthlink.net

WE ARE CHANGING

Many people are involved in getting this issue to you.  The writers can write and the editor can edit, but until the material is printed, brailled, recorded, and distributed, it is just a computer file.  Therefore, we owe great thanks to the following people for the work they do in producing this publication.

Metro Chapter — Twin Cities area; meets at 10:00 a.m. on the third Saturday of every month at NFB of MN Headquarters, 100 East 22nd Street in Minneapolis

Riverbend Chapter — New Ulm area; meets at 9:00 a.m. on the third Saturday of every month in New Ulm; contact Monica Buboltz at 507-354-5680 for meeting location

Rochester Chapter — Rochester area; meets at 7:00 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of every month at Peace United Church of Christ in Rochester