October 2002                                                       30TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

College Bound

Over half of our current students attend classes at nearby Contra Costa College. Some are working toward a college degree. Others take exercise or music classes for fun. Students meet once a week for a group class: “How to Succeed in College For Those Who Are Visually Impaired,” a Living Skills Center curriculum.

Student Scott Zhang travels independently to his college classes

Nichole Santamaria, LSC graduate, has been hired as a staff writer for the award-winning Contra Costa College newspaper, The Advertiser, and has already had several articles published. Way to go, Nichole!

FOOD NETWORK VISITS LSC

Last fall the Food Network cable television channel decided to produce an episode of the Ultimate Kitchen show, demonstrating how a non-sighted person manages in the kitchen. Living Skills Center graduate, Dionne Quan, famous for her role as the voiceover actress for “Kimi”  on the Rugrats and in the Rugrats in Paris movie, was chosen to star in the segment.

Dionne requested that the segment be taped at one of the Living Skills Center apartment kitchens, where she felt most comfortable cooking. The day of the taping, the television crew moved in with huge lights, electrical equipment, and cameras. First the crew recorded Dionne walking confidently with her cane through the apartment’s courtyard. Then they moved into our computer lab to show how she scans a print recipe and then embosses it into Braille. They recorded Dionne pouring boiling water from a teakettle, using a talking microwave, explaining ways to label foods in the kitchen, chopping an onion, and preparing a lovely chicken curry for her  friends. Dionne talked about how the Living Skills Center had given her the skills and confidence to move away from her Bay Area home and family down to Los Angeles, where she can be near her studio work and attend college.  Needless to say, we are very proud of Dionne, and we thank her for giving back to the community by showing the world that visually impaired people can be accomplished cooks, travel independently, communicate with Braille and computers, and have independent lives and careers.

It was wonderful to see this positive image of a confident, skilled, visually impaired person on national television, and we were thrilled to be a part of it. THANK YOU, DIONNE!  AND HATS OFF TO THE FOOD NETWORK FOR PRODUCING THIS SHOW!

STAFF NEWS

Office Manager Chris Runde, a recent U.C. Berkeley graduate, has to be a jack-of-all-trades.  Not only does he pay the bills, he also helps move furniture, plays basketball with our students at the YMCA, assists Ron in the computer lab, and is friend to all the students. It’s Chris who was responsible for getting the Skills Center accepted into the eScrip web-based fund-raising program (see next page). We are so excited about that. Thank you, Chris!

Newest Living Skills teacher, Nancy Phinnessee, is a whiz at financial management, and some students are now paying their bills online! Nancy served as a volunteer at the Skills Center for several years before coming to work full time. We are so glad she’s here!

Instructors Joyce Lopez and Patti Maffei have developed a new Braille assessment and curriculum. In addition, technology instructor Ron Hideshima has also started teaching Braille in the computer lab via our refreshable Braille displays. That’s teamwork!

Carol Hepsley was our Office Manager for two years, then became inspired to go to graduate school at San Francisco State for her orientation and mobility credential. We were thrilled to welcome her back in January in her new position as O&M Instructor!

The lovely and talented LSC staff:  (left to right) Carol Hepsley, Patty Williams, Ron Hideshima, Nancy Phinnessee, Joyce Lopez, Chris Runde and Patti Maffei

Thank You Paula & Jim!

Our dear friends Jim and Paula LeDuc helped start the Living Skills Center in 1972.  Paula was our cooking/living skills teacher; Jim was a mobility/cane travel instructor and later our Executive Director for several years.  Paula eventually went on to follow her passion for cooking and started a marvelous, creative and very successful catering company.  Jim joined her to help run the business.  However, they never stopped caring about the Living Skills Center and its mission.

In February of 2002, rather than their usual practice of giving Valentine gifts to their best clients, Paula and Jim decided instead to make a generous contribution to the Living Skills Center in their clients' names.  Each client was notified of the contribution with a beautiful Valentine card.  The faith that Paula and Jim have in this program and their love and support is so energizing; it inspires us to reach for the stars!

Paula LeDuc

Congratulations Bill!

Student Bill Gillespie single-handedly raised over $1,000 for the Skills Center through the Human Race fundraiser! Every day for a month, when we heard Bill coming into the office whistling a tune, we knew he had found yet another supporter. Thank you, Bill! And congratulations on your new apartment in Santa Rosa! You are starting a whole new life, and we are so proud of you. Like all of your many, many friends, we wish you the very best.

Bill Gillespie, Fundraiser Extraordinaire

We Have T-Shirts

Hank Taylor, father of student Dylan Taylor, contributed t-shirts to the students who walked in the Human Race Fundraiser in May. This stylish fashion piece (seen here modeled by Bill Gillespie) features the Skills Center name in print on the front, and in both print and FEELABLE Braille on the back! Thank you, Hank!

Tech Talk

LSC WEBSITE LAUNCHED

     Board member Scott Duncan is our technology guru and webmaster.  We are thrilled to announce that our web site, www.livingskillscenter.org is now up-and-running. Friends of the LSC and interested applicants can now find out about the program, get directions to the Center, fill out an application, buy holiday cards, and sign up for eScrip (see below), all on the world wide web. Best of all, Scott is making sure all of it is accessible to interested parties who are visually impaired. THANK YOU SCOTT!

We are participating in a powerful new fundraising program called  

What is eScrip?

eScrip is a hassle-free way to support the LSC through everyday purchases made at eScrip merchants.

How Does it Work?

eScrip and over 150 merchant partners have created a system that rewards customer loyalty by contributing a percentage of purchases to your chosen group (in this case, the Living Skills Center!). You shop the way you like to shop (grocery shopping, buying clothes, travel and entertainment). It’s simple and convenient, and IT DOESN’T COST YOU A PENNY!!!

How To Register:

-Log onto www.eScrip.com and go to “sign up.” You can also go to our web site, www.livingskillscenter.org, and click for details. (Or just call Chris at the LSC office for details. He can sign you up if you like.)

-Designate the LSC to receive contributions (Make sure you spell it “Living Skills Ctr for Visually Impaired”) Our group ID# is 66191.

-Register your grocery club card from a participating merchant, your Chevron card and/or your debit/credit cards.

That’s it! Signing up with your Safeway or Chevron card alone could potentially earn hundreds of dollars!

LAB UPDATE:

PROUD TO BE CUTTING EDGE

Ron Hideshima, our technology lab instructor, works hard to keep the equipment and software in our lab as current as possible. Our latest aquisitions include both a Voice Note QT and a Voice Note BT.  These newest of the electronic notetakers have Windows CE operating systems and allow students to use MS Word files and access email. The QT has regular computer keyboard, and the BT has Braille keys. We also have a new Parrot Voice Mate. This small voice-recognition personal organizer has more memory than the old one. Our new BAT one-handed keyboard is a life saver for students with limited use of one hand. We are proud to say that the Living Skills Center has six screen magnification programs, three screen readers, seven elctronic notetakers, a Braille translation program, two Braille embossers, two OCR scanning softwares, an OCR stand-alone reading system, interactive tutorials, a laptop and a CCTV.

Students are becoming computer literate, trying out various software to see which are best suited to their needs, communicating via email, printing out envelopes and address labels, typing papers for school, printing out information from BART, finding recipes, and doing research. Students use notetakers not only for taking notes in class, but also for keeping check records, schedules, phone numbers and mobility routes. Technology has proven to be an invaluable asset for effective communication, access, and organization. It is exciting to watch the students use technology to help them take control over their own lives! We are determined to keep our tech lab on the cutting edge so that we can serve all of our students’ varying needs.

Instructor Ron Hideshima with student Connie Wright

THANK YOU FOR DONATING TO OUR TECH LAB!

San Pablo Community Foundation

Access Ability, Inc.

Scott Duncan, Board Member

Dolphin Computer Access, Ltd.