Volunteers Lean Sideways to Help Make Reading a Joy
Melinda Palacio -- August 25, 2005
Audio books are an important tool for people with print dissabilities. Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) is changing the lives of people who have trouble seeing or decipher squiggles on a page others can recognize as alphabets and words.
Frank Ostini (left)
and Tim Owens
Tim Owens, Executive Director of RFB&D, says the organisation helps 2.1 million kids and adults who can't read because they can't see or can't remember what they've read: "It helps to even out the playing field."
On Wednesday, August 18, 2005, RFB&D hosted a wine reception and reading of Sideways, the Rex Picket book and award-winning screenplay by Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne that put Santa Barbara's County's sleepy wine community on the global map. Owens, a wine aficionado, enlisted the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association and The Hitching Post, a restaurant made famous by the movie, to bring winemakers to the microphone to record the books for people with reading disabilities or blindness. "We wanted to pick a subject that was near and dear to our community," said Owens. "So we decided that "Sideways" with its love letter to the Santa Barbara wine country would be an excellent way to begin."
Santa Barbara winemakers
with Tim Owens
photo by Melissa Musgrove
The experience was a thrill for winemakers and the press who had the opportunity to contribute to a good cause and partake in the sumptuous hors d'oeuvres provided by Frank Ostini of the Hitching Post.
Jodi Boulet-Dauthers, Genral Manager of Consilience wines, stumbled through a few tongue-twisting lines, but was proud to lend her voice. She plans on reading some more for RFB&D. "The coaches are great," she said. "I'll read anything except a textbook."
Jodi Boulet-Daughters
of Consilience
Monitors coach the readers. Their job is to follow along and stop the recording after a chapter. They operate the recording machine and serve as proofreaders. Volunteers must remember to read everything on the page, including page numbers, footnotes, and stage directions.
Pamela Harris is a regular at RFB&D. She and her husband left Hollywood careers to produce Viognier through their vineyard, Calzada Ridge. For the past two years Pamela has crossed the ridge every week to read books for RFB&D. Pamela used to work as an associate film producer. When she read about the RFB&D readathon, she decided to volunteer. "I thought that's something I can do and I'm a good monitor," she said.
Sideways was a special treat for Harris. "I read the best scene in the movie when Miles says why he loves Pinot," she said. Harris has enjoyed the volunteer work at RFB&D. "Every week when you come, you don't know what you're reading. Everyday, I feel like I've learned something." She's even had a friend thank her for her services--RFB&D allowed her friend's son to stay at the local high schools.
Reading for RFB&D is easy. It takes as little as 30 minutes to read a chapter from a book. Do you have a field you are knowledgeable in? Can you pronounce scientific terms with ease? RRFB&D needs specialists, such as engineers and surgeons, to read textbooks.
Pamela Harris
of Calzada Ridge
The studios in Goleta, California is the hub for RFB&D's central library in Princeton, New Jersey. RFB&D maintains the largest collection of audio books, over 100,000 volumes available to students from Kindergarten to graduate schools.
RFB&D's Santa Barbara Unit was founded in 1976. It is a volunteer driven, donor-supported organization whose vision is for all people to have equal access to the printed word.
For more information about Santa Barbara's Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, contact Tim Owens at 805-681-0531 or email towens@rfbd.org or www.rfbd.org.