Saturday, May 31, 2008

Bima baskets

Ok
at my temple we have these baskets put on a step in front of the bima on both sides. Some people put flowers in them, some people put food to donate, some people put toys, and some people even put in dog or cat food and toys. Not many people ever put in books though, especially not braille books, but i am. We went to the national Braille Press website and chose books that i had liked when i was younger or that i know people will like. We chose things like Harry Potter, and Shel Silverstein books. We obviously chose the book that i helped to make, Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. After my Bat Mitzvah these books will be donated to Perkins School for the Blind, the school where my cousin Sawyer goes.

byee<33
Rachel

2nd training session

Hi
On Thursday i went to a second session at the Roberto Clemente field. The track there is the final stretch of the race. We practiced running without the blindfold and just being tethered together. Then we did 2 laps with the blindfold and tether. My mom and i still need to work on our communication but we are going to practice all week. After running the laps we practiced running from the sidewalk to the grass because there will be one part of the race where we need to run down a ramp to get to the track. Lisa, one of the instructors, told us that if we hadn't practiced that piece of the run it would be much harder for us on race day.

Before we ran we learned some courtesy rules for when you are with a person that is blind. Joe, one of our instructors that was blind, taught us that you should introduce everyone in the room so that the person who is blind knows who else is their and can get to know people by recognizing their voice. I also learned that when someone who is blind is talking to you, you cannot just walk away. That would be BEYOND rude. just tell them that you have to leave so that they know you are going. He said that you shouldn't come up to someone and ask if they need any help just because you know they
are blind, that's like saying that you don't think they are as capable of things as a sighted person. It's nice to know these things because you would never want to offend someone without realizing it.

Just to give you guys an update, I have raised $1,976 and that's just online!This means so much to me and i am glad to be able to participate in such a cool thing

byee<33
Rachel