APRIL CALENDAR
24-Turn in flower orders at McAllisters West Town 1:00-4:00pm
30-Belk Charity Sale 6:00-10:00am-details below
MAY CALENDAR
2-
Flower Delivery
7-Indoor Rock Climbing, 10:00am-12:00pm, River Sports, Sutherland Ave
8-Mother's Day
15-Open Streets Knoxville, details below
16-Wine Tasting Fundraiser; details below
19-Last Day of School, Knox County
22-Tandem biking, Cherokee Blvd, 2:15; RSVP Sue
JUNE CALENDAR
4-Indoor Rock Climbing, 10:00am-12:00pm, River Sports, Sutherland Ave
14-Board Meeting, 6:00pm
25-
Pool Party Fundraiser, details to follow
26-Pool Party Rain Date
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WHAT IS NEW THIS MONTH ON OUR BLOG PAGE?
THE CHALLENGES OF RAISING A BLIND CHILD
Almost every "successful," (and you may define that however you will), blind person I've ever known gives a large part of the credit for their success to the parenting they received.
R
ead More
HOW TO FIND YOUR NICHE AS A BLIND STUDENT
As a blind or visually impaired student, there are all kinds of things that the others kids do that people say you can't, and, to be honest, there are a few you will have to cross off your list.
Read More
I KNOW I'M NAKED BUT...
Coming to terms with the emotional part of vision loss is vastly more difficult than mastering all of the physical stuff you need to learn. The physical stuff really isn't very hard, but the emotional is, typically, one of the hardest things you'll ever do.
A BLIND PERSON'S MAP OF THE WORLD
If someone who is blind were to draw a map of your city, what would you think it would look like? What would be highlighted? What would be left out? Read
More
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THE NALLS SHERBAKOFF GROUP IS AGAIN ONE OF OUR GOLD SPONSORS
Club VIBES is proud in 2016 to once again welcome The Nalls Sherbakoff Group as a Gold Partner. We are so glad to have them supporting our program efforts in many ways.
In the past few years they have not only given us financial program support but also have assisted us in hosting some Family Nights regarding setting up Special Needs Trusts, which our parents found quite informative.
This year Nalls Sherbakoff nominated Club VIBES to receive the "Be More" award given by the local PBS network. Club VIBES was honored by the nomination and very proud of the award that included having a short video clip played on our local PBS station for an entire month telling about the VIBES program and what we do.
Thanks to the Nalls Sherbakoff Group for continuing to believe in our mission and our service to all our families and visually impaired young people. Club VIBES loves having your Partnership.
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DELTA JAMMA
The April 3 Delta Jamma fundraiser held by the ladies of Delta Gamma was a fun filled afternoon enjoyed by Delta Gamma ladies, many other UT students and Club VIBES families and friends. Activities included live music, tandem rides, corn hole, a piƱata, and painting the UT "rock" in recognition of the event. Tasty food was provided by Salsarita.
Thank you ladies for another great event for Club VIBES.
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CLUB VIBES MEMBERS ARE GETTING A LOT OF EXERCISE!
JOE'S BIKE RIDE
VIBES member Joe Tibbett spent his spring
break
riding a tandem to Bristol and back, 330 miles.
His pilot was his roommate at Johnson
University, Andrew. This was part of a fundraising effort for youth in Myanmar organized by the group Encycling. Joe and Andrew were the first tandem riders to participate in an Encycling event. They are also proud of another accomplishment-completing a century-riding 100 miles in one day. The bike ride was almost doomed on the first day when the tandem, loaned by Club VIBES, developed mechanical troubles. The ride was saved by Craig "grease monkey" Shell who was able to guide the pair in correcting the problem via Face Time and text messages. Club VIBES is proud to see members giving back to the community.
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RYNE RUNS MARATHON
VIBES member Ryne Goodrich participated in the Knoxville Marathon for the second year. Read his story in the Knoxville News Sentinel. R
ead More
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LET'S PLAY GOAL BALL
Ty is a VIBES member who moved to Knoxville from Florida where she had enjoyed playing goal
ball. She was disappointed that there was not a goal ball program here so she decided to start one. With support from Coach Allen at Bearden High School, Sue Buckley at Club VIBES, and Delta Gamma, a demonstration game was played in the gym at Bearden High with 30 somewhat apprehensive participants. To "even the playing field", all players wear blindfolds and play using an audible ball. The game is fast paced with teams of 3 players trying to score a goal by getting the ball past 3 defending players. All are welcome; blind, low vision, or sighted so come and play April 28 from 5-6:30 at the Bearden High School gyml.
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OPEN STREETS KNOXVILLE RETURNS!
Open Streets Knoxville was a huge success last October, and it returns to Central Street in downtown on Sunday, May 15th. Due to popular request, the hours have been extended
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Bike Walk Knoxville |
and will be from 1:00-6:00pm. The route will also go further north to include one of the hippest spots on Central St.-the area with Mid Mod Collective, Wild Love Bakehouse, and Smoky Mountain Vintage Lumber. Come with your bike, skateboard, inline skates, strollers, or just your feet and enjoy the community spirit as well as the offerings of food trucks and vendors.
Click here to go to the Open Streets Knoxville website.
Club VIBES plans to bring tandems to give rides to the public so that they can experience riding as a stoker. Pilots will be needed to give rides to the community. Please RSVP to Sue before April 27.
VIBES REPRESENTATIVES ATTEND NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL
Caroline Knight's documentary, Visionary,which tells the story of Club VIBES, is an entry in the Nashville Film Festival following its win at the College Media Film Festival in New York. Those attending
opening night on
April 14 and providing support from Club VIBES, were Sue Buckley, James and Beth East and John, James and Tom Jarnigan. The results will be in next month's newsletter.
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EXPLORE DC
Plans are underway for a Club VIBES trip to Washington DC in October 8-11, 2016 during
the area schools' fall break. We will be taking our tandems and we will explore by both bicycle and the Metro rail system to visit museums, memorials, and other sites. A highlight of the trip will be to meet with Blake Bivens, a blind graduate of Knox County Schools who lives in Washington DC and works for the FBI. He will show us how he navigates the metro system, travels as a pedestrian, and tell us his experiences about moving to a new city far from home.
We hope you will all make plans to join in on this trip.
INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS FROM HADLEY INSTITUTE
Has anyone tried any of the videos from the Hadley Institute that were introduced in last month's newsletter? We would like your feedback. Did you find them useful and easy to follow? Please try one or two, if you haven't already, and share your comments with us. Send your feedback to
i
nfo@club-vibes.org
Here is the information about the videos.The Hadley Institute for the Blind has prepared a large assortment of instructional videos called iFocus on such topics as "How to Use VoiceOver", "Using DropBox" texting, emailing, and many other topics.They range in length from 10 minutes to over an hour and are de
signed
for use by those with out vision (even though they are videos).
To watch these videos,
Hadley videos for those with low vision are the Low Vision Focus @ Hadley. These address areas such as bathroom organization, managing clothing, and using IOS devices as a low vision user. To watch these videos,
click here and for the audio version,
We look forward to your feedback.
NETFLIX FOLLOWS CAROLINE'S LEAD...
We always knew Caroline Knight was way ahead of her time. In her recent award-winning documentary, Visionary, she included an audio described version allowing folks who are blind and visually impaired to know what is happening in scenes without dialog and in scenes with significant visual elements. The descriptions are synchronized with the video.
We are happy to hear that Netflix will also soon be offering audio descriptions for many of its streaming and disc rental titles.
Additionally, Netflix will make its website and mobile applications accessible to individuals who are blind and use screen-reading software. With the changes Netflix is making, users who are blind or low vision will be able to independently use the Netflix website and mobile applications.
Go Caroline and Go Netflix! You won't regret your efforts to make the world more accessible to all.
To see Caroline's documentary, Visionary, click here and for the auditory version
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SPRING FLOWER SALE
Our spring flower sale is now underway. Club VIBES will be taking orders until April 24 with deliveries made on May 2, in time for Mother's Day. Flowers offered will include Fuchsias, Lantana, Blue Angel, New Guinea Impatiens, Boston fern, and Asparagus Fern. The plants, from Stanley's greenhouse, are very large and come in hanging baskets for $18.00. These will be beautiful on your patio or porch all summer. To order, contact a VIBES board member or email Sue.
Blue Angel-needs full to part sun
Fuchsia
-partial shade, frequent feeding
Lantana-full sun-not a lot of water
New Guinea Impatiens-morning sun
available in Orange, White, Red, Lavender, Medium pink
Boston Fern-full shade
Asparagus Fern-sun to part shade
BELK CHARITY SALE
Come to your favorite Belk store from 6-10am and save 20-70% on specially discounted items. You can purchase the $5.00 ticket from Club VIBES board members or email Sue. You will receive $5.00 off of your first purchase and Club VIBES will receive the $5.00. You can also purchase tickets from a VIBES representative at the door of Belk's West Town, Turkey Creek, or Maryville the day of the sale. Tickets are good at any Belk store in Tennessee.
WINE TASTING
It is time to buy your tickets to out May 16 wine tasting at Pero's On the Hill in Rocky
Hill. This event often sells out so to be sure of a spot, get your tickets at Northshore Wine and Spirits, 9405 Northshore (just east of Pellissippi Pkwy), or at Pero's, 7706 Northshore just west of Morrell Rd. Tickets are $20.00, or $30.00 per couple, and include 5-6 generous samples of wines accompanied by pizza. You can also order food from the menu. In addition to the tastings, you will be entertained by interesting facts about the wines.
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SAVE THE DATE--JUNE 25 POOL PARTY
We thank the Holmes for again hosting a pool party fundraiser for Club VIBES at their home. Last year we enjoyed an afternoon hanging out in their pool and patio and enjoying wonderful food. There will be a limited number of tickets so watch for the ticket sales details next month.
This is an event you will not want to miss!
REMEMBER TO USE AMAZON SMILE
You can help Club VIBES every time you shop at Amazon.com by signing up for Amazon Smile and selecting Club VIBES as your chosen charity. From then on, you sign on to
smile.Amazon.com when you shop and .05% of your purchases will go to Club VIBES. This does not seem like a significant amount, but it adds up when we all use it on all of our Amazon purchases.
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FREE COMPUTERS FOR THE BLIND
Arianna Calesso operates a program for people who do not have a computer and are totally blind. They offer Windows 7 laptops with Office 2007, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer and Radio Sure installed. They also provide lessons on cassette tapes for teaching the basic use of a computer. P
lease email Arianna Calesso at
acalesso@cox.net
for more information and be sure to include your phone number. She calls all who inquire before she sends the application for the computer. She asks that you be patient as she gets a lot of inquiries.
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