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LightHouse News

Giving Blood, Giving Life: Be Part of the Bay Area Blind Community’s 1st Annual Day of Giving Blood Drive

In honor of the Martin Luther King Day of Service 2013, American Red Cross (ARC) Bay Area Chapter and SF LightHouse will launch the 1st Annual Bay Area Blind Blood Drive on January 9th, 2013 in partnership with other Bay Area blind services agencies.

Who: Blind and sighted blood donors
When: January 9, 2013 from noon to 5:00 p.m.
Where: LightHouse for the Blind, San Francisco, and other locations (see below)

American Red Cross (ARC) Bay Area Chapter has agreed to dedicate its entire mobile unit fleet, brick and mortar sites, and much of its associative staff to this unprecedented event. This is truly an exciting opportunity for the entire Bay Area blind community and its constituents to come together for a day and mobilize as a single, cohesive alliance with one common goal: to give back (via a potentially life-saving contribution) to the community.

Our goal—albeit an ambitious one—is to break the single day ARC Blood Drive donation record of 350 units of blood. We feel this is quite doable when taking into consideration the geographical reach of the Blind Blood Drive (Sacramento to San Jose), the sheer number of potential blind and low vision donors and their supporters, and of course, the inexorable power of the blind community when sharing a common cause.

According to ARC data, every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood, a staggering statistic indeed. This singular act of community service and civic engagement will not only help replenish this heavily relied upon, life-saving resource, but it will also instill in each of us a greater sense of community pride.

For more information about this exciting event, please contact John Liang, Director of Community and Volunteer Services at jliang@old.lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7334.

Donation center sites:

  • LightHouse for the Blind, San Francisco headquarters: 214 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco
  • LightHouse for the Blind, Marin: 930 Tamalpais Ave, San Rafael
  • Orientation Center for the Blind: 400 Adams Street, Albany
  • Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired: 2470 El Camino Real, Palo Alto
  • San Jose Blood Donation Center: 2731 North First St, San Jose
  • Oakland Blood Donation Center: 6230 Claremont Ave, Oakland
  • Contra Costa Blood Donation Center: 140 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill
  • Pleasanton Blood Donation Center: 5556-B Springdale Ave, Pleasanton
  • Fremont – Newark Blood Donation Center: 39227 Cedar Blvd, Newark

Volunteers will be on site at each location to help with paperwork and to make the process seamless. Join us on January 9th!

LightHouse News

Giving Blood, Giving Life: Be Part of the Bay Area Blind Community’s 1st Annual Day of Giving Blood Drive

In honor of the Martin Luther King Day of Service 2013, American Red Cross (ARC) Bay Area Chapter and SF LightHouse will launch the 1st Annual Bay Area Blind Blood Drive on January 9th, 2013 in partnership with other Bay Area blind services agencies.

Who: Blind and sighted blood donors
When: January 9, 2013 from noon to 5:00 p.m.
Where: LightHouse for the Blind, San Francisco, and other locations (see below)

American Red Cross (ARC) Bay Area Chapter has agreed to dedicate its entire mobile unit fleet, brick and mortar sites, and much of its associative staff to this unprecedented event. This is truly an exciting opportunity for the entire Bay Area blind community and its constituents to come together for a day and mobilize as a single, cohesive alliance with one common goal: to give back (via a potentially life-saving contribution) to the community.

Our goal—albeit an ambitious one—is to break the single day ARC Blood Drive donation record of 350 units of blood. We feel this is quite doable when taking into consideration the geographical reach of the Blind Blood Drive (Sacramento to San Jose), the sheer number of potential blind and low vision donors and their supporters, and of course, the inexorable power of the blind community when sharing a common cause.

According to ARC data, every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood, a staggering statistic indeed. This singular act of community service and civic engagement will not only help replenish this heavily relied upon, life-saving resource, but it will also instill in each of us a greater sense of community pride.

For more information about this exciting event, please contact John Liang, Director of Community and Volunteer Services at jliang@old.lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7334.

Donation center sites:

  • LightHouse for the Blind, San Francisco headquarters: 214 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco
  • LightHouse for the Blind, Marin: 930 Tamalpais Ave, San Rafael
  • Orientation Center for the Blind: 400 Adams Street, Albany
  • Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired: 2470 El Camino Real, Palo Alto
  • San Jose Blood Donation Center: 2731 North First St, San Jose
  • Oakland Blood Donation Center: 6230 Claremont Ave, Oakland
  • Contra Costa Blood Donation Center: 140 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill
  • Pleasanton Blood Donation Center: 5556-B Springdale Ave, Pleasanton
  • Fremont – Newark Blood Donation Center: 39227 Cedar Blvd, Newark

Volunteers will be on site at each location to help with paperwork and to make the process seamless. Join us on January 9th!

LightHouse News

Nation’s Blindness Executives Hosted by LightHouse

For a few days in November, the LightHouse hosted the nation’s largest gathering of blindness CEOs held anywhere. The CEOs from 62 blindness agencies, from Maine to Washington State, from Florida to California, all members of Vision Serve Alliance, gathered to learn leadership skills, discuss best blindness practices and to network with agency heads facing similar challenges. The LightHouse hosted the conference with the support of the Vista Center for the Blind, the Santa Clara Lions Blind Center, Guide Dogs and the Hatlen Center. A key LightHouse partner was Google, who hosted the gathering for an entire day at their San Francisco offices. Google showed the executives the latest accessibility features of many of their new products. The CEOs were especially pleased to learn about how Google implements a culture of creativity and innovation.

A particular highlight of the day with Google was the chance to meet many of the Google car team, pioneers in the field of autonomous vehicles. Google understands when they roll out a commercial version of their driverless vehicle it will be a boon to millions of blind and visually-impaired citizens. The chance to apply the highest technology to real human problems is what Google is all about, and the nation’s blind executives were strongly supportive of their research and development. When will the car be available commercially? No promises, but let’s just say it may give new meaning to the word 2020.

Notable speakers throughout the conference included Dr. Zachary Shore, a historian who teaches at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. Dr. Shore’s latest book, “Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions”, is about how to avoid cognition traps which get in the way of effective leadership. Shore, who is blind himself, shared lessons from history and urged the agency heads to maintain the highest expectations for blind students in their own organizations.

The executives were also treated to a reading and discussion about James Holman, a remarkable 19th-century British explorer and travel writer who became the most widely-travelled human being in his time – and did it blind. Jason Roberts, a Marin county author who wrote about Holman in “A Sense of the World”, delighted attendees with his deep knowledge of blindness and our little-known history dating back 200 years.

The large group of CEOs also learned about some improvements recently made at the LightHouse. Many were impressed by the new iPad-based retail system just implemented in Adaptations, our blind products store. Now store clerks, whether sighted, low-vision or blind can use the same sales and inventory system to do their work – a first in our field.

While at the LightHouse the executives were fed and served breakfast by an amazing team of LightHouse staff and volunteers, who pitched in above their regular duties to show true San Francisco hospitality to those who were visiting the LightHouse for the first time. The CEOs, who collectively oversee more than a billion dollars in private philanthropy, were particularly touched by the warm personal and giving staff welcome.

The conference concluded with an awards banquet on Forbes Island, a private dining establishment moored in San Francisco Bay and reached by small boat. It was a cozy finale to a close and interconnected conference that brought many new ideas and practices into the field. The LightHouse is honored to have hosted this important national gathering.

Author Jason Roberts talks about his biography of blind explorer James Holman

 

LightHouse News

Employment Successes: Vita Zavoli Consults With Oracle

Vita Zavoli is an expert at accessible technology and has put these skills to good use for more than 28 years. Vita, who is fully blind, studied computer science in college and has had a long career in technology as a help-desk person, in computer sales and as Training Supervisor at Baruch College in New York. More recently she held the position of User Support Specialist for American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) for more than eight years.

When AFB eliminated her job, she found herself in the situation so many hard working people have experienced recently – jobseeking in a difficult economy. Discouragingly she spent much of the last two years looking for her next steady gig, but with no luck.

Her luck changed when LightHouse Employment Immersion Program Leader Kate Williams responded to a request from high-profile, high-tech company Oracle to forward resumes of those with an in-depth knowledge of accessible technology. Kate included Vita’s resume in her response, and Vita was chosen for an interview. Just this week, she accepted a part-time position reporting directly to Oracle’s Accessibility Evangelist, an opportunity that will expose her to new skills and open the door within the company.

“This is steady work and it’s a huge networking opportunity with an established company,” Vita told us.

Kate Williams said, “I credit Vita’s success in her ability to achieve a balance between her personal life and her job search activities. Not an easy thing to do! Her method was to schedule time in-between job search efforts for healthy activities such as walking and treating herself well. Then she returned to her search refreshed. Her method was so practical that I asked her to talk about it during our Employment Immersion sessions.”

Vita, who served a several-year stint on the LightHouse Board of Directors and continues to work in the blindness community through California Council for the Blind offers this advice about her experience in the job market:

“I encourage people looking for work to go on as many job interviews as possible – just to do it! Even if you don’t get the job, it builds self-confidence and you get a more complete list of your accomplishments. After every interview I would come home and write down the new things that came to mind that seemed to get a positive response from the interviewer. And with each interview I might remember some accomplishment I hadn’t thought of before, such as a hobby that came up in that conversation. I wrote these down and reviewed my notes before each and every interview.”
Do you know someone who could benefit from the career development programs of the LightHouse? Give someone the holiday gift of a bright and self-reliant future. Refer them to the LightHouse Employment Immersion Program. The next session begins on Tuesday, January 8 and takes place at our Ed Roberts Campus office in Berkeley. For information call Kate Williams at 415-694-7324 or email kwilliams@old.lighthouse-sf.org.
Vita Zavoli and Violet

LightHouse News

CANCELLED: Eschenbach Magnification Day at the LightHouse

Please note this event has been cancelled.

Let the folks at Eschenbach show you the latest advancements in personal magnification devices. From desktop video magnifiers to monoculars to compact handheld magnifiers, we will be showcasing a wide range of products to suit your personal magnification needs.

When: Thursday, December 13, 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Where: LightHouse San Francisco Headquarters

Everyone in attendance will be eligible for a raffle to win an Eschenbach Magno handheld magnifier. Also, anyone purchasing a Presto Lite Desktop Video Magnifier will receive a $100 gift certificate eligible towards any purchase in the LightHouse’s Adaptations Store.

Early registration is encouraged! Seating is limited. For more information or to register contact Rich Russo at rrusso@old.lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7352.

LightHouse News

Sing in the Season!

You are all invited to join us on Monday, December 10 at 5:00 p.m. as the Junior Apprentice and Apprentice Groups of the San Francisco Boys Chorus sing at the LightHouse for the Blind. This free performance will showcase many of the songs from their Winter Concert.

When: Monday, December 10, 5:00 p.m.
Where: LightHouse San Francisco Headquarters

The Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Boys Chorus (SFBC) was founded in 1948 to provide trained singers for the San Francisco Opera. Today the chorus is led by Artistic Director Ian Robertson who also serves as Chorus Director for the San Francisco Opera. The San Francisco Boys Chorus tours extensively to Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and has performed at Giants games, Carnegie Hall in New York and in 2009 was honoured to sing at the inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington D.C.

We are in for a delightful performance! Please RSVP with Molly Irish at mpearson@old.lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7334.

LightHouse News

To Prospective NASA Student Interns with Disabilities,

1 Commenton To Prospective NASA Student Interns with Disabilities,

NASA is looking to increase the number of students with disabilities pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers through our internship programs. Students can apply for summer internships now! The deadline for submitting applications is Friday, March 15, 2013. However, NASA will begin extending offers to students as early as February 2, 2013. So, apply early because the best opportunities are likely to be filled early. Plus, the likelihood of being selected decreases the longer students wait.

If you are interested you can register for an account and look for internships anytime at the One Stop Shopping Initiative (OSSI): NASA Internships, Fellowships, and Scholarships (NIFS) at http://intern.nasa.gov. Summer 2013 internships run for ten weeks for college students and six to eight weeks for high school students, from early/late June through early/mid-August. College students receive a stipend of $6000 and high school students $1800. NASA internships for college students are also offered during spring, fall and year-long sessions.

Internships are available at all NASA centers nationwide.

For more information or for help with applying, please contact Kenneth A. Silberman, Esq. by phone at (301) 286-9281 or by email at kenneth.a.silberman@nasa.gov.

LightHouse News

Survey For Mothers With A Disability

Are you a mother with a physical disability?

Do you have at least one child 3 years of age or younger?

Through the Looking Glass and The National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families is conducting a national survey of mothers with physical disabilities who have at least one child 36 months of age or younger. You must be 18 years of age or older. Eligible participants who complete the survey will have a chance to win a $250 gift certificate. The Deadline for completing the survey is December 17, 2012.

This survey is anonymous. No names or other identifying information will be asked. Take this survey now.

For more information about the survey or to request a survey be mailed to you, please call 1-800-644-2666 or email: survey@lookingglass.org.

LightHouse News

Are You Blind Or Low Vision And Do You Live In The Bay Area?

If you answered yes to both of these questions we want you to participate in an online survey!

The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco is conducting an online survey to better understand your experience, and concerns, of the travel risks and dangers associated with using public transportation. For this study we are focusing on BART travel. Regardless of whether you use BART or not, we want to know what you think.

Fill out the survey now, or If you prefer, call Megan Lawrence at 415-345-2006 to take the survey by phone. If you have any question or comments please send an email to Megan at: megan@ski.org.

LightHouse News

Passing of LightHouse Teacher David Baioni

1 Commenton Passing of LightHouse Teacher David Baioni

It is with great sadness that the LightHouse announces the recent passing of much loved teacher and colleague, David Baioni.

David began his Rehabilitation Teaching career long before the LightHouse, and we were so glad he joined our team in September, 2000. David was a true educator, teaching with passion, patience and gusto. He was honest and straightforward, generously sharing his personal experience with low vision, and he always looked to create a connection with his students. From teaching cooking and independent living skills, working with patients in the low vision clinic or hopping on Muni and hiking up the stairways of his students’ apartment buildings with a backpack of bump dots, magnification aides and teaching tools, David truly shared and demonstrated options and possibilities with each student. He will truly be missed by his colleagues and students.

There will be a Funeral Mass celebrating David’s life on Wednesday, November 21 at 10:00 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Chapel, 3255 Folsom Street, San Francisco.

In the new year, the LightHouse will establish a fund in David’s name to support the work he so believed in, training people to be as independent as they wanted to be. We will follow up with information on this at a later date. In addition to his work as a teacher, David was a wonderful musician and a musical fixture at Café Trieste in North Beach. While he played many instruments, he was well-known and revered in accordion circles. Here is a YouTube video which demonstrates David’s musical side.

As Time Goes By … Trio Davide

David’s family sent us the following, which we are grateful to be able to share:

David Julius Baioni passed away at the age of 62 in San Francisco, where he lived all of his life. David was the beloved husband of Deborah Atencio Baioni, loving father of Sequoia and Melodie Baioni, and proud grandfather of Spencer Baioni. He now joins his parents, Julius and Margaret Baioni, who preceded him in death. David leaves behind adoring family members and friends with whom he celebrated his love of life and music. We will remember him as a devoted, loving person, and as an accomplished accordionist and pianist. His memory and his music will live forever in our hearts.

Dave Baioni and client Alma Kremer