Capitol Dome, Olympia Washington

CCCB of Washington
Capital City Council of the Blind


In the Media

Sight-impaired voters can get ballot help
Brad Shannon, The Olympian May 15, 2008

 
OLYMPIA — Voting machines designed to help the disabled cast ballots will be available for three hours Friday at the Panorama retirement community for the May 20 North Thurston Public Schools levy election. The AutoMARK machines let a sight-impaired voter listen to ballot options and vote in secrecy. Machines will be available from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Panorama's Quinault auditorium in Lacey. The machines also are available at the Thurston County Courthouse and by appointment before Tuesday's all-mail election. People wanting to use a machine should call the county Auditor's Office at 360-786-5408, and a machine can be brought to the voter's home or workplace. The machines read the ballot choices to sight-impaired voters and also magnify the print, Auditor Kim Wyman said. Voters using AutoMARK need to bring ballots with them. The auditor's elections office also is running logic and accuracy tests at 10 a.m. today on the ballot-tabulating machines that will count votes Tuesday evening. The test is at the elections shop at 2915 29th Ave. S.W., Suite E, in Tumwater.

Go to our In the Media page to find out what is happening in the blindness community.


Upcoming Events

Our speaker for April 19 will be Matt Harnyak who will be speaking about the 211 system which links callers with social-service agencies, such as a shelter for battered women, food bank or mental-health counselor.

We have cancelled the May 17 chapter meeting so that many of our members can again work at the Lacey Sunrise Lions booth during the Lacey Spring Fun Fair.  They will hand out hundreds of CCCB flyers, WCB brochures and Braille alphabet card with children's first names brailled on them.  Members will also be at the Olympia Host Lions low-vision fair, scheduled to take place at the Olympia Community Center. The fair will feature hands-on displays of low-vision resources as well as panels and speakers. We are to make a fifteen minute presentation and Mike Cunningham will be on a low vision panel at the close. Mike and Howard Ferguson will be manning a table to hand out brochures and flyers.

Saturday, May 31 at 2 p.m. will be our chapter's bowling event at the Westside Lanes in Olympia.

On July 19 Sam Hunt, State Representative from the 22nd district, will address our chapter giving us his views on the recent legislative session. 


Olympia Readers Book Club
by Alan Bentson

The Olympia Readers book club met on May 10 at the Colley home to discuss "The Nine Tailors" by Dorothy L. Sayers. Everyone seems to have enjoyed it, and the discussion was lively. I for one am going out and reading a lot more books in this series!

We will meet again on Saturday June 14, at 2 p.m. to discuss "My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. This has been a selection by book clubs all over the country, and since its appearance Jodi Picoult has come out with several other successful novels. The NLS annotation reads: When Kate is diagnosed with a rare leukemia her parents create test-tube baby Anna to save her life. After years of medical procedures Anna, now thirteen, is expected to donate a kidney. She files for medical legal emancipation and throws the family into a fundamental moral crisis. 2004.

If this seems interesting to you read the book and join us for our discussion.


From the President's Desk
by Berl Colley

On the Monday before our October meeting one of our newer members, Bob Lewis, passed away. Bob and his wife Suzanne joined the chapter last January. Seven CCCB members attended his funeral.

Our guest speaker at the November meeting was Dorothy O’Laughlin. She has served as the outreach person for the Timberland Regional Libraries for 28 years. This was after she retired from her regular job of 34 years. Dorothy will be 97 next spring. Also at the November meeting we had our 2007 elections. Gloria Walling was re-elected to the position of Vice President and Alan Bentson was elected to the position of Secretary, replacing Denise Colley. Our officers for 2008 are Berl Colley President, Gloria Walling Vice President, Alan Bentson Secretary, Howard Ferguson Treasurer and Terry Atwater Immediate Past President.

We had eight members attend the WCB convention in Spokane. Our congratulations go to Denise Colley who was elected WCB’s President for 2008/2009. Congratulations also to Alan Bentson who was re-elected to the WCB Board of Directors for the same period and to Terry Atwater who was elected as the Alternate Delegate to the ACB National Convention in Louisville next July.

On Tuesday, November 20, six CCCB members met with city of Olympia Public Works administrators to look at the Campbell audible signals that Olympia wants to install in 2008. We identified three intersections to audibilize and two more that will be done if the money is available.

Each December we have our community Christmas party for blind and visually impaired people who live in the area. Over 30 people came to this year’s party to eat and exchange gifts. The party was held at the Chambers House Restaurant, located at Panorama. After good food and a lot of gift opening, stealing and teasing we went home feeling like 2007 was successfully closed.

At our January 2008 meeting Jean Gallo, head of the Business Enterprises Program for the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind, spoke to us about the potential for blind and visually impaired people in Washington State to earn a good living. Vice President Gloria Walling gave CCCB members a very ambitious social schedule that goes through the summer. It includes such things as a pizza party, a bowling night, a wine tasting function, and partnering with the Lacey Lions for a pancake feed, the Lacey Fun Fair and joining with them and other organizations in a cancer awareness walk.

The CCCB did not conduct any fundraising events in 2007 but we will be focusing on doing one or more in 2008. To this end we have had an executive committee meeting and two fundraising committee meetings so far this year.

We want to welcome two new members to our chapter who both joined in January. They are Michael Cunningham and Jamie Bates.


Getting Around Our Website

At the bottom of each web page a navigation bar links you to information about our chapter and its officers and committees, upcoming chapter events, meetings, links to helpful and interesting community resources, fundraising efforts, chapter documents including the constitution and bylaws,  website policies including our privacy policy, contact information, and finally a site map listing all our pages with an option to search the text of the entire website.


WCB Vehicle Donation Program


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This site in The Blind and Visually Impaired Ring is owned by the
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