Happy New Year! I have lots of great posts coming and new projects I’m working on for the next year which I am really excited about. I’m keeping some of them under wraps for a bit longer as I’m not fully ready to make things public, but stay tuned.
As some of you may remember from my outreach efforts last year, this week marks the anniversary of when I went blind twenty-six years ago at the age of 12. For the last couple of years, I have been trying to commemorate this time personally in a more positive light by doing something that “Pays it forward “to the blindness community as a way of saying thank you for the ways in which my life has been so blessed despite this challenge. Last year I started a campaign to raise money for the Louisiana Center for the Blind where I received my blindness skills training twelve years ago. You can visit a post about that effort and read more of my story about how I became blind here on my blog .
Because of the success this had, I am reaching out to all of you again with a similar request this year, except this time there is more benefit to you for your generosity. I also promise that this will be a one-time ask, so you don’t have to worry about me pestering you about this.
Our local chapter of the NFB—the Towson Lutherville, Cockeysville chapter of the NFB is holding a January fund raiser. This is a chapter I helped organize, and of which I was president for a few years. I now serve as treasurer and my husband Jesse is vice president. Our chapter is holding a weekly drawing throughout the month of January to raise funds for local projects. Funds raised will go towards things such as sponsoring local blind members to attend state and national NFB conventions where they can partner with blind mentors and learn about local resources for blind people, sponsor middle and high school students to attend summer training programs, and provide financial support for the Maryland Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning summer program for elementary children.
Here’s how the drawing works:
- Winners will be drawn each Sunday throughout the month. You can join at any time and will be eligible for the upcoming week’s drawing. Your name will also stay in the drawing for the next week’s drawing if you are not selected, so you don’t have to re-enter the drawing.
- The first drawing will be held on January 7th.
- You will be notified via phone and or email if you win. You also do not need to live in Maryland as we will send the prize to you should you win.
- There is no limit to how many tickets you can enter into the drawing.
- Tickets are 1-$3, 2-$5, and 5-$10
- Winners will be posted each week at www.nfbmd.org under the TLC Chapter page.
Now for the fun stuff. Prizes include:
- Gift cards to Starbucks, PF Chang, and the Bone Fish Grill
- $100 gift card to Target
- A Google Home
- An Amazon Echo Dot
- Grand Prize: NFL regulated football signed by players from the two-time Super bowl champions and AFC Champions, the Baltimore Raven’s.
So, if you are interested in participating, here are a couple of options for purchasing tickets:
- Contact and pay me directly
- Purchase tickets through PayPal.
If you choose to buy tickets through PayPal, please visit www.paypal.com. Upon logging in with your own PayPal account or as a guest, You will then select “Pay for goods and Services”. You will then need to enter the email address: tlcchapter@gmail.com as the proprietor to whom you are sending money. Next, select the amount you are paying to purchase the tickets. Below the amount box, you will see a “Note” box. In this box, please enter your name, phone, email, and the number of tickets you are purchasing. Then hit submit. I am the treasurer and keeping track of this, so I will contact you to let you know that we received your purchase.
- Send a check directly to meNFB TLC Chapter30 Haddington Rd.
- Lutherville, MD 21093
- c/o Mary Jo Hartle
- You can send a check made out to the NFB TLC chapter With a note stating how many tickets you would like to purchase. Then mail it to my home address at:
Thank you for your consideration of this and for all the love, support, and encouragement you give me and my family. It truly means so much and helps more than you know! Also, I invite you to subscribe to this blog if you haven’t done so yet, and to help me in my effort to educate others about the capabilities of the blind by sharing it with others. A shameless plug I know. Happy New Year!
