Newsletter Fall 05

In order to save space here, we will often abbreviate “DB” for Deaf-Blind.

It has been a rewarding experience and an honor to have been DBSC’s Executive Director for the past 6 years. It seems to me that life often happens like traveling in a circle. You know, where you start doing something then stop, but then maybe a few years later you start doing that same thing again. The summer before I became DBSC’s Director, the DB London 2000 Committee members asked me if I would volunteer to write a grant to help pay for interpreter expenses. I said sure but only if DB people on the committee would work with me. So, Patrick Cave and Caryn Tenin agreed to work with me on the grant and we did it! We got $5,000 from Elizabeth Lynn Foundation for London 2000 trip. Now, it is 6 years later and my new job at DBSC as part-time Development Director involves writing grants! See how life sometimes is like traveling in a circle. Smile.

There is a long list of people I want to thank for their support while I was Director of DBSC, but there is not enough room to add all of your names, but I especially say thank you to the following people: Debbie Sommer, Danny Delcambre, Jeff Foster and Caryn Tenin for their support and work as DBSC Board Presidents. Special thanks to Don Meyer, Dorothy Walt, John Romish, Jean Healy, Lorie Noel, Pat Cave and Janie Neal for many good ideas and discussions. Also big thanks to all the amazing staff who worked with me and all the SSPs and volunteers who worked for DBSC during the past 6 years!

Hello everyone! I am pleased to share with you the news of what’s happening with DBSC Board members. First, I’d like to introduce our newest member Jennifer Moore, we call her Jen. She’s hearing but has taken some ASL classes. She works at the Lighthouse and has knowledge and experience that will benefit DBSC. We are excited to have her on our team. Welcome Jen!

Unfortunately, I also have sad news….Alex Lee, a long time Board member and Treasurer has decided to resign because he has a new baby in his family and an increased workload with his job. We will always have wonderful memories of our time working with Alex over the past years. We all wish him the best of luck!

The Board wishes to thank Gail Ploman very much for her hard work serving as Executive Director for the past six years. Her many accomplishments have helped make DBSC run more smoothly. One of the most successful goals we accomplished during her time as Executive Director was finding a new office location on Capital Hill. Everyone is happy with the new office location that has better bus accommodations and more space. Gail has done many great things for DBSC. Hats off to her!

Gail will train the new Interim Director, for 6 weeks and then Gail will transfer to her new position as part-time “Development Director”. The Board fully supported Gail’s transfer to this position.

DBSC has desperately needed a Development Director for a long time. The Development Director is responsible for writing grants, expanding and managing donations, obtaining state/federal funds, and assists the Board with fund-raising events.

The Board has started working on finding a new Executive Director to replace Gail. The job announcement for this new opening is in this newsletter.

We our proud of the second successful annual Walk-A-Thon held in May, 2005. Thanks to the committee chair Kathy Steiner, who worked very hard on this event. The 3rd Annual Walk-A-Thon will be in May 2006. Clapping, waving and stomping to everyone who supported this event! We look forward to seeing you again in May 2006! Watch for the announcement coming soon!

Now, I want to welcome Jelica Nuccio, as DBSC’s temporary Director! Jelica will manage DBSC until a permanent Director is found. (You can read more about Jelica under Welcome New Staff.)

Jelica, originally from Croatia, now lives in Seattle and has been very active in the Deaf-Blind community since she moved here from Atlanta, GA in 1997. Jelica was former President of WSDBC and a Board member of AADB. She also is a volunteer development officer for ASLIS. Jelica has an MA in Public Health from Emory and a BA in Biology from NTID/RIT. Her most recent employment was working as an employment placement specialist for DVR and HKNC in WA State. She has also worked for the University of Washington in fiscal management and research. Jelica says she is enthusiastic about working for DBSC and will do her best for the Deaf-Blind community.

Pam Milham: Hello, I am the new office manager at DBSC; I am hearing and a recent ITP graduate of SCC. I was born and raised in the Everett area and have spent most of my life here. I now live in Roy, WA (Pierce County) I am married and have 3 children ages 25, 18, and 16 and one wonderful 4yr old grandson. I have been working in the DB community for close to 3yrs now. I am very excited about working here at DBSC and will do my best to support the DB community. I would also like to thank my family, friends and the wonderful people I have met here at DBSC for all their support and encouragement. When I am not working, I enjoy fishing, camping, hiking and most anything to do with the outside. Yes I am still a huge tomboy. I also am involved in cowboy action shooting (competition shooting), if you are curious about this, please feel free to ask me about it.

Hello everyone! My name is Michelle Perreira. I am the new bookkeeper/staff interpreter coordinator. I am a recent graduate of SCC ITP program. I was born and raised in Hawaii and graduated from the University of Denver with bachelor’s degree in Finance and Marketing. I attended Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, CA. I have been fortunate enough to have traveled the world, but I fell in love with Seattle and settled down here in 1990. I have a beautiful family and I am very proud of my two children, son age 9 and daughter, age 7. My husband works at Boeing. I also work part-time for Northwest Airlines as a Customer Service Agent. I love softball, volleyball, waterskiing, camping and scrap booking. My favorite hobby is hopping on a plane and seeing the world. I look forward to meeting you all and getting to know you. Smile!

Heidi Aulenbach: I am the new SSP Manager here at DBSC. I have only been in Seattle since last July and I already love the people and the wonderful atmosphere that helps me to learn new things on the job. First of all, I am deaf-blind due to Rubella. I was born on Maui, Hawaii and moved from Oahu, Hawaii to Southern California at the age of 10. In my family, there are three girls, with me being in the middle. I am the only deaf-blind child but that didn’t stop the family from being able to sign with me. Later in 1993 I moved from Southern CA to Denver, CO and stayed there for eight years, where I received my BS in Social Work from Metropolitan State College of Denver. I moved back to Southern California for four years before relocating to Seattle. My favorite hobbies are reading, chatting on the computer, socializing and shopping. Hope to meet you around Seattle!

First, I want to express an ENORMOUS thank-you to all of you AMAZING mentors who spent 224.5 hours of mentoring in the past year! Congratulations to all mentees! Many of you received positive feedback & support from your mentors. Stomp, tap, wave to mentors for doing a good job!

It is hard to believe that this mentorship project has been in progress at DBSC for 10 years! We DO want to continue this project. Our goal is to find grants and other funding for continuing the mentorship project at DBSC. There are some major changes in this program since the Rehabilitation Service Administration (RSA) changed the federal grant requirements for interpreting schools, such as the Region X Interpreter Education Center at Western Oregon University (WOU). The change in the grant resulted in DBSC no longer getting any mentorship funds from WOU.

DBSC provided 4 workshops for our DB seniors in 2005. DB Seniors learned about Social Security benefits, different Medicare programs and discussed their medication needs and ways to reduce barriers.

Last year, DBSC put volunteer SSPs on hold for DB people who needed more SSP hours. Good news! The Board approved the SSP Program to develop a list of SSPs who want to do some volunteer SSP work. DBSC will provide this list with the SSP name and contact information and give it to DB people who need an SSP to do volunteer work for them. If you are DB and need a volunteer SSP, you can contact Heidi at ssp@seattledbsc.org.

During the DBSC annual client satisfaction survey last spring, DB Lighthouse workers said they wanted both advocates and the SSP Coordinator there every week during “walk-in hours” (Wednesdays 11:00 to 1:00). We are now pleased to announce that the advocates and SSP Manager are all there on Wednesdays unless someone is on vacation or have a major schedule conflict.

Metro: Metro Customer Stop in the tunnel is moving to a new location. The week of Sept. 19 Pass Sales Office will move to Rainier Square in a new store called The Transportation Connection. The address is 301 5th Avenue, Suite 14, Seattle, WA 98101. The store hours are Monday thru Friday 9am to 5:30pm. The new store still sells the same products. Also, there are timetables and a computer information resource center.

It is very sad that Telesensory, a much respected low vision competitor of ours, is now closed for business due to financial difficulties. We are very keen to help Telesensory's customers and dealers as best we can with products and service, so please feel free to call your nearest HumanWare office for advice.

HumanWare has a direct relationship with BlinkSOFT (in Renton) for WA State (Pam and Jerry Retzloff, good friends of DBSC, LH, and Liz personally).

As of January 1, 2006 the new FCC ruling is that VRS companies will all be available 24 hours a day and will also have Spanish translation available. Sprint and CSD are starting those services November 1, 2005.

TJ's put stop sign in exit from parking garage. Now all cars must stop before go on sidewalk. More safe for everyone now!!!

Bad news: King St. Amtrak station does not have any TTY’s, but Union Station does in the reception office, but (Must ask to use it.)

I have good knives that were getting dull (becoming more dangerous). I called businesses that used to sharpen knives for a fee but they stopped their service. I found Mrs. Cooks at the U Village. They will sharpen knives for a fee and you will have to wait a week. If you need your cooking knives sharpened you can take them to the fish depot at any QFC. They will sharpen your knives for free and in 24 hours. You need to bring your knives wrapped in paper with your name and phone number written on it. That's all! And if they are not busy they MIGHT do your knives while you shop or go get coffee or whatever. There is a limit of three knives at a time.

Did you know that Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has a law requiring the restaurants to provide large print and Braille menus?

Did you also know that ADA does not regulate (rule) for the restaurants to install good lights for visually impaired people?

Red Robin has excellent lighting. At the Outback you can ask someone to change the light to a stronger bulb. Most restaurants; such as the Cheesecake Factory, do not accommodate DB.

Do you want to say something to the government to change the laws with the lights?

Please send me your letter concerning the rights. Email me at cbtenin@comcast.net deadline on December 30, 2005.

DBSC would like to express how much we appreciate all the wonderful people who have spent their time helping us during the spring & summer of 2005. Many more of you are not listed here because of space, but please know we appreciate all of your volunteer time for DBSC!

Melissa Kosa - She spent many hours working at the front desk answering the TTY calls, greeting visitors, doing some office work when Deanna (our former Office Manager) was gone for vacation. Melissa and her husband Trevor volunteered many hours to help with DBSC’s 1^sand 2^nd Walk-A-Thons. We will miss Melissa very much - she and her family moved to Sioux Falls, SD. We wish you & your family a wonderful new life in the scenic Midwest!

Kathy and Danny Steiner: Both gave a tremendous amount of volunteer hours to make the 2^nd Annual Walk-A-Thon successful and a fun day! Also many thanks to all the volunteers and Walk-A-Thon committee members! Special thanks to Brogan and Jean Healy for helping with the set-up. Good job, crew members! We are looking forward to another successful Walk-A-Thon in 2006!

Scot Ginsberg – DBSC’s new IT who has donated many hours of his time to DBSC while working on installing our new computer server and other technical equipment.

Liz Halperin - She designed and spent many volunteer hours managing DBSC’s Website and assisted Scot with the installation of our new server.

Dawn McKenna - She gave many volunteer hours assisting DBSC’s bookkeeper and with the reorganizing or our accounting system on QuickBooks.

DBSC Phone: (206) 323 – 9178 TTY
DBSC Fax: (206) 328 – 8497
Email: info@seattledbsc.org

Jelica Nuccio, Interim Exec. Director
Phone: (206) 325-7241 TTY
Email: jnuccio@seattledbsc.org

Jackie Engler-Morris, Program Director
Phone: (206) 323 – 5463 TTY
Email: jengler@seattledbsc.org

Gail Ploman, Development Director
Phone: (206) 323 – 9178 TTY
Email: gploman@seattledbsc.org

Pamela Milham (Pam), Office Manager
Phone: (206) 323 – 9178 TTY
Email: info@seattledbsc.org

Heidi Aulenbach, SSP Manager
Phone: (206) 323 – 3644 V/TTY
Email: ssp@seattledbsc.org

Dave Scotton, Advocacy Specialist
Phone: (206) 328 – 0613 TTY
Email: dscotton@seattledbsc.org

Michelle Perreira, Interpreter Coordinator/Bookkeeper
Phone: (206) 726 – 1950 V/TTY
Email: mperreira@seattledbsc.org & terp@seattledbsc.org

Caryn Tenin - President
Kathy Steiner - Member
V-Pres- OPEN
Robert Steppler - Member
Jennifer Moore-Treasurer
Adam Novsam – Member
Karen Stueland - Secretary
Jeff Foster – Member

If you are interested in becoming a Board member of DBSC, please contact Caryn Tenin, Board President at cbtenin@comcast.net.

We would like to thank everyone that participated in or donated to DBSC’s May 2005 Walk-A-Thon.

QuickBooks Software Donors 2005: C. Askew, Rosen K. Napolitano, M. Kosa, S. Roberts, P.Pote, C. Johnson, L. Sugars, L. Willard, S. Watkins, Evertrust Foundation

In memory of Daniel Jones: Waterfront Federal Credit Union, Gary and Susan Carlson, Carole Cropley, P. and C. Langelier, M. Frial

Nancy Riley           Karen Ozmum           Ryan Bondroff
Jean Healy             C. Sommer               W. Engler
R. Marcus               M. Simon                  B. Erickson
C. Plancic               Gayloyd Pinder         S. Mohnani
Karen Stueland       Caryn Tenin             Jeremy Sasser
Kathey Steiner        Jeff Foster                B. Taylor

The Deaf-Blind Service Center is a non-profit organization. We are funded through government contracts and individual donations. All contributions are tax deductible within the rules and regulations set by the IRS.

Yes! I would like to make a donation to DBSC. Enclosed is a contribution of:

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Other amount________

I want this donation to be anonymous.________

Name: _____________________________________

Address: ___________________________________

City/State/Zip: _______________________________

Phone: _____________________________________

Email: ______________________________________

Yes, the company I work for has a Matching Gifts program

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