Lighthouse of Manasota

Don’t forget to visit our Low Vision Store for holiday gift-giving ideas. We have many helpful items including talking clocks and watches, wallet organizers, Lighthouse note cards, jumbo playing cards, low vision kitchen aids, magnifiers, and more! Our craft group is also taking orders for hand-made beaded holiday ornaments and trinkets for decorating your home, including a lighted Christmas tree for $45. Store hours are 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Spring Forward to the Lighthouse Visionary Walk

Our annual spring fundraiser will be held at Sarasota Jungle Gardens on Saturday, April 14. Once again, we are grateful for the generous support of major sponsor the May K. Houck Foundation. All your favorite featured artists and performers will be on hand to autograph T-shirts, create personalized caricatures, take team photos, and entertain the kids. Funds raised at the walk benefit Lighthouse programs and services. Contact event coordinator LaRetta Yarbrough at 359-1404 for more information.

Transition Program Begins a New Year

The Transition Program for high school students ages 14-22 entered its second year in October. Students meet regularly every Wednesday from 4:00 to 6:00 to learn skills that will prepare them to make a transition from high school to continuing education or the workplace. Guest speakers discuss topics of interest. The students also participate in a monthly field trip to apply their learned skills in the community. In October, the group visited the Hunsader Farms Pumpkin Festival and in November they will travel to Mote Marine for a behind-the-scenes look at aquarium operations and management.

Lighthouse Welcomes New Staff Member

Tammy Habjan joins the Lighthouse rehabilitation staff as our Transition Coordinator/Rehabilitation Teacher. The Transition Program is designed to assist young people ages 14-22 who are blind or visually impaired to make an effective transition from secondary school to adult life and the world of work. Tammy graduated in 2010 from Florida State University as a Teacher for the Visually Impaired as well as becoming certified by the Library of Congress in Braille Transcription. When she’s not teaching, she loves to go running, fishing, diving and spend quality time with her fiancé and two beautiful children. She is very excited to join the Lighthouse family and we are all looking forward to a great year ahead!

K-Mart Offers Free Prescription Delivery

K-Mart is offering free prescription delivery to your home or office Monday through Friday within 20 miles of a participating pharmacy. Same-day delivery is available for orders placed before 10 a.m. Sign up by calling your nearest Kmart Pharmacy and placing a credit card number on file. Kmart Pharmacies are located at:

501 North Beneva Rd. in Sarasota, phone: 957-0541;

7350 Manatee Ave. W. in Bradenton, phone: 792-1112;

6126 U.S. Highway 301 N in Ellenton, phone: 729-7844;

19400 Cochran Blvd. in Port Charlotte; phone 255-5223.

Florida Council of the Blind – Manatee Chapter

The Manatee Chapter of the Florida Council of the Blind will meet on Thursday, November 17 from 2:00 to 4:00 at the Lighthouse Annex, 7328 N. Tamiami Trail. The council meeting for December is canceled and meetings will resume in January at the Annex.

New Products

The Woman's Board of The Hadley School for the Blind is selling its 2011 Braille Holiday Card until mid-December. The cards feature greetings in both print and Braille, and personal inscription is available. Hadley Woman's Board member and Winnetka artist Kay Moffitt provided the artwork for this year's card, featuring three colorful nutcrackers wearing festive hats and costumes. The cards come in boxes of 25 for $30. Cards may be purchased online at www.hadley.edu/holidaycard or by calling 800-323-4238. Every dollar raised will go to support Hadley’s award-winning courses for blind and visually impaired individuals, their families and service providers.

Tech Tips

Freedom Scientific has converted some introductory training webinars that used to cost money into free webinars, and has lowered the prices on others. For example, a one-hour Office 2010 Overview and Introduction is free, and a package of three 1.5 hour webinars on Word now costs $29. Also, basic training for JAWS 13 is available. Using their Internet connection, Webinar participants can experience the training live and ask questions of the trainers. Webinars are archived for those who are unable to attend the live sessions.

Visit the free webinar schedule page at http://www.freedomscientific.com/training/Free-Webinars.asp

Visit the paid webinar schedule page at http://www.freedomscientific.com/training/Paid-Webinars.asp

The free RoboBraille translation service is an e-mail service that can convert digital text documents into Braille or audio files. RoboBraille has added support for American English grades 1 and 2 Braille. You can attach a document in a variety of formats and have the result e-mailed to you as a Braille document. To generate American English contracted Braille, e-mail your print document to banagrade2@robobraille.org . It is also possible to generate Braille documents in several other languages. The RoboBraille Consortium is headquartered in Denmark. For information about RoboBraille visit the website at http://www.robobraille.org/frontpage .

Serotek Corporation is offering all legally blind veterans a lifetime subscription to its popular System Access Mobile Network (SAMNet). SAMNet is Serotek's Internet communication portal that delivers email, news, blogs, podcasts, streaming radio, described video service for thousands of movies and more. Individuals who can provide proof of status as a legally blind veteran will be eligible for the program, which will officially kick off on December 15. In addition to the wide array of content already available on SAMNet, Serotek will further customize the service by creating chat rooms, forums and other exclusive communication channels to help facilitate networking opportunities among veterans. To stay on top of this latest initiative, please subscribe to the SAMNet-vets mailing list at https://secure.serotek.com/mass_mail_optin.php?list_id=13

Lighthouse Calendar of Events

Please call 359-1404 to confirm dates and times for the following groups. Participants must arrange their own transportation to and from the Lighthouse. Unless otherwise noted, groups meet at the main Lighthouse facility, 7318 N. Tamiami Trail.

Mana-Sota Support Group, first and third Friday of each month from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.

EnLIGHTenment Social/Support Group (age 55 and under), second Friday of each month from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. (call Niki Kissell at 359-1404 for schedule of events)

South County Support Group, second and fourth Tuesday of each month at area restaurants (call Joel Bauer at 426-0554 for more information)

Talking Book Club, first Friday of each month from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.

Bridge Club, first Thursday of each month from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Bring a lunch. (Call Francis Maxwell at 966-8130 to confirm your attendance.)

Computer Club, second Friday of each month from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. (Meets at the Lighthouse Annex, 7328 N. Tamiami Trail.)

Craft Club, second and fourth Thursday of each month from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (call Esther Gatto at 371-2151 to confirm your attendance).

Classes in Independent Living, Assistive Technology, and Orientation and Mobility are ongoing. Please contact a Lighthouse Case Manager at 359-1404 for information.

Take Charge of Your Attitude

In October, the Lighthouse mourned the passing of longtime volunteer peer facilitator Liz Ketchum. In her memory, we have reprinted a short piece by Charles Swindoll titled Attitude – a piece that Liz shared with her students and that exemplifies her spirit of resilience.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.”

Leave ‘em Laughing

Two boys grew up loving baseball. They played all through their childhood, into college and then the adult leagues in town. They loved the game. Finally, when they were old and one was on his deathbed, he told his friend, "I will come back and let you know if there is baseball in heaven." A couple of days after his death, his friend had a dream in which his dead pal appeared. He said "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that there is baseball in heaven. The bad news is that you're scheduled to pitch tomorrow."

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Our next e-newsletter will be published in Jan/Feb. If you have comments or suggestions for resources, topics, vision tips, etc. write to Sally at rehab.lighthouse@verizon.net.

7318 N. Tamiami Tr., Sarasota FL 34243

Phone: (941) 359-1404