The National Braille Association

The NBA’s quarterly publication just arrived today; I am a life member and have been active in the field of blindness, low vision and suchlike since 1974, perhaps earlier around 1970. But 1974 is my major starting date, when a lot of things started happening.

When I joined the NBA, I already had completed the 5,000-hour volunteer service requirement for the Distinguished Service Award. I never looked at it that way; it was just service I could give to people in need. Apparently, I hit the ground running as far as the NBA was concerned. Then, in five year intervals, I received Continuing Service Certificates.

Time passes when you are busy with projects. There was Braille transcribing, a print magazine I recorded and distributed every month, another that fell into my lap, the Radio Reading Service I started back when, odds and ends of things. You just do them and don’t think of looking at the calendar.

Today, as I said, the NBA’s bulletin arrived and there is my name under the heading, “Thirty Years,” after the five year initial award. 35 years, one day at a time, one project at a time. It’s amazing what you can do if you don’t know what’s ahead of you.

Had I known what was to come, I’d have said, “No, thanks.” Not knowing it, I just grew with the challenges of being a one-man band, juggling a life, a career, piles of cassette taped magazines and a lot of Braille dots.