The TAPING RECORDER February 2007 News from & about Taping For The Blind, Inc. Celebrating 40 years of "Turning Sight Into Sound" http://www.tapingfortheblind.org ANOTHER GREAT HOUSTON MARATHON Once again the Taping Marathon team excelled both at running as well as raising money as they ran for a reason. Our sincere thanks to: Paul Daly, Sue Hanks, Steve Hasson, Joe Hugenberg, Alan Ping, Anita Simpson, Dena Marks-Sokolow, Harry Sokolow, Jolie Key-Tissot, Valerie Vallot, and Jim Venturini. We want to offer special thanks to HTBR reader Sue Hanks for talking about Taping on her morning gig--she is the news reporter on the "Dean & Rog" show on The Arrow, KKRW, 93.7 on your FM dial. Sue is obviously the brains of that outfit (no offense, Dean or Rog), and she does great work for Taping as well. Let us also single out custom recording volunteer Jim Venturini to say thanks, again, for letting us use his letter to friends in our last edition, and for having a marathon time that qualifies him to participate in the Boston Marathon--WAY TO GO, Jim! We also thank those volunteers that manned the Hoopla Station at the halfway point of the marathon, right in the heart of West U. They are: Nancy & Tom Daly, Cynthia Franzetti, Ted Pfister, Carol Pierce, and Pat Pilkington. Our thanks for being there early and yelling for our team (as well as the rest of the ground pounders). NEXT FASHION EVENT PLANNED The planning is well underway for our second annual luncheon event that will feature a fashion presentation from Neiman Marcus. They are still working on a designer but you can rest assured, it will be great. This year's event honors Barbara & Ulyesse LaGrange and it will be held on April 25, 2007. At this writing tables are still available but we feel we will sell out in a hurry. Our thanks to Philamena Baird for her great work in getting this event up and running. More in our next newsletter, but contact Cynthia Franzetti for more information or to purchase a table. TAPING GOLF CLASSIC PLANNING UNDERWAY We have another fund raising event in the serious planning stages, and that is the Taping Golf Classic. It will be held on Friday, November 2, 2007, and is tentatively set to be played at the Longwood Country Club. Event Chairman Jerry Hanlon is being very capably assisted by volunteer Bill Brown in getting the event organized. To this end, we have had Fox Sports helping shoot a new promotional video that will be shown to those in attendance. Get your Footjoys shined and your Pings ready to rumble! Organize a team and play in the first Taping Golf Classic. More information to come in later editions of this newsletter. JEFFERSON AWARD TO TAPING VOLUNTEER The Jefferson Award is given out locally and nationally for outstanding community service, and we are pleased to let you know that Bob Bartlett was selected as a Jefferson Award winner. Channel 2's Jerome Gray did a great story about Bob and presented the award to him. You may still be able to see the story if you go to: http://www.click2houston.com and follow the link for the Jefferson Award. Bob said that the thing he liked most about the story is that his grandson Aidan was in the story (Grandpa had Aidan on his lap for the youngster's first appearance on TV). Bob reports still being astonished by the wonderful recognition. RODEO TIME AGAIN! As we celebrate 40 years of "Turning Sight Into Sound," we are very proud to continue our relationship with the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. This year our rodeo describers include Brian Batenchuk, John Jacob, K.C. Jobe, Valerie Lozada, Fay Peters, Ted Pfister, and Bill White (no, Houston's Mayor is the OTHER Bill White). As usual, we will start by describing the rodeo parade on February 24 at 10 a.m. Then we will describe performances on the following dates & times: Thursday, March 1, at 6 p.m.; Saturday, March 3, at 3:45 p.m.; Sunday, March 4, at 3 p.m.; Saturday, March 10, at 3:45 p.m.; Monday, March 12, at 6 p.m.; and Saturday, March 17, at 3 p.m. (rodeo finals). Thanks to our describers for their hard work making these descriptions happen, and thanks to Cynthia and her staff for their hard work in making our rodeo coverage so excellent! LIGHT THE CANDLES Time again to congratulate Taping volunteers that celebrate a birthday in February. They are: 02/02 Kelli Cooke; 02/04 Phyllis Rice; 02/05 Cullom Connely; 02/10 Robert Arnold; 02/14 Jim Holliday; 02/16 Nancy Davis, John Jacob; 02/18 Geetha Martin; 02/21 Joan Gallo; 02/23 Cathi Cannon; 02/26 Mort Fefer, Kay Schill; and 02/27 David Gillmore. If your birthday is in February and you don't see your name on this list, please notify any staff member so we may update our records. FREE SUBSCRIPTION Yes, if you are reading this newsletter from the bulletin board, you can actually have a FREE subscription--all you need is an e-mail address (we recognize that this also implies access to a computer, but you knew that). To subscribe send a blank e-mail note to: Tbi-houston-subscribe@yahoogroups.\ com Then simply respond to the verification message Yahoo Groups will send back to you, and you will be subscribed and receive this newsletter whenever it is posted to the list. The list is one way and generally this newsletter is the only item ever posted to the list so volume should not be a problem. Alternatively, you can read this newsletter on our website (URL given above), so there simply is no excuse not to read the RECORDER! RLB