OF THE
BLIND
Annual Report August 1, 08-July 31, 09
Twenty Eighth year
This meeting is dedicated to the memory of our founder, Nelson Leonard Malbone who died July 7, 2001 and to all of the other members that have passed during this year. A great supporter of VAB Mr. Moon, George Carroll and Franklin Kingdom also went to be with our heavenly father.
Our year began with the Annual Meeting on August 2, 2008 held at the Towne Bank Community Center on Mt. Pleasant Rd in Chesapeake, Virginia. Dr. Alan Krasnoff, Mayor of the City of Chesapeake welcomed the group and gave a delightful message of working together in spite of the obstacles you may encounter. Melanie Brunson, Executive Director of ACB gave an inspirational talk on what it takes to have a successful affiliate and gave advice to the new Executive Director. After a delicious lunch the program continued with special award presentations.
The “Nelson Malbone Award” was presented to Ronald L. Hepler at the 2008 ACB convention by Melanie Brunson for service and advocacy for persons who are blind.
The “Alice Malbone Award” was presented to Mr. Herb Patterson for support services to Blind persons and help with VAB. We also gave out Perfect attendance awards to Franklin Kingdom and Steve Dean. Their award was a portable TV. Special recognition was given to our van pickup coordinators Judy Edmonds, Laverne Archer, and Zeke Hinnant.
Executive Director Alice gave the 2007-08 Annual Report.
President Hazel jumped right in and by the September meeting committees were set up and the years agenda was announced. My wife Terrie and I however worked with the City, State and Federal government entities to ensure all the proper taxes, employer and corporate issues and all needed registrations were completed. I can state at this time that VAB is in compliance with all agencies and proper payments have been made. The IRS has agreed that the taxes that were paid on the previous Bingo operations will be returned to VAB and as of this date we have received $50,232.29, however we are still in appeal with the IRS concerning taxes on wages and these funds must stay in a special account until this matter is settled.
White Cane Awareness day was celebrated on October 13 as we crossed George Washington Hwy and we were delighted to have Mayor Holley of Portsmouth to stop by and speak to our group.
A Thanksgiving feast at the November meeting of Turkey BBQ was prepared by President Hazel and enjoyed by all.
2nd Vice President Susan Davis arranged a catered Christmas Party in December and VAB made every effort to help a needy family, but all the members did have a great time. VAB also voted to help Jodi Hepler a Liberty University student with her missionary trip to Senegal West Africa this past June.
February brought the third annual VAB/Little Creek Lions Pancake Breakfast which was absolutely spectacular. VAB also a large group of members showing support for Jodi Hepler’s missionary trip by attending the chili fundraiser at Faith Baptist Church. Faith Baptist also made a donation through our car donation program.
March was the 1st and hopefully an annual Chili fundraiser. Everybody had plenty of Chili and cornbread. If I may so, the venison Chili was great. Also the morning of the Chili fundraiser, Reliance Concrete of Chesapeake installed a Handicap ramp at the VAB house.
May’s monthly meeting got all the Ladies a basket with a stuff animal to celebrate Mothers Day. On May 25th a proud group of VAB members attended the Veterans memorial at Chesapeake City Hall for the dedication of the brick for George Carroll who passed away this year. VAB now has bricks for Nelson, Joe Thompson, George Carroll, and Cory Hepler. We are so proud of our Veterans.
The annual VAB picnic on June 8th was held at the Deep Creek Ruritain Club and the Board of Directors for the 2009-10 terms were elected. President Hazel passed out gifts for all the men to celebrate Fathers Day. The Ruritain Club and Vice President Donna Silberholz provided the picnic to VAB at no cost.
At this time I would like to show several individuals that what they do for VAB is appreciated. As I stated in our activities for May I stated that Reliance Concrete poured a Handicap ramp at the VAB house, Jim Stanton, President did this work for no cost showing businesses support for VAB. Jim could not be here and I will deliver this Outstanding Service award to him. Next I would like give an Outstanding Service Award to Billy’s Auto Service which has without hesitation maintained all the VAB vans for a reduced cost. I would also like to give Linda Jackowicz a special Thank You for coming to our rescue more than once during the year. Now we give the Nelson Malbone Award, this year it goes to Hurricane Edwards for his work and support for VAB and the Blind community and this month retires after years of work. The Alice Malbone Award goes to Irma “Pete” Brauer for her dedication to VAB.
Today August 1st, the VAB annual meeting is at the Towne Bank Community Building in Chesapeake, VA. And the Board of Directors will be installed by Anna Staton.
VAB has a office now known as the VAB House which has a security system, a half bath with accessible hardware downstairs, 10 conference tale chairs that were purchased to go around the newly purchased conference table. The Virginia Association of the Blind and has an e-mail (vablind@cox.net) and a local phone number of 757-465-7230 a toll free number of 800-426-2144 that are located at 4209 George Washington Highway, Portsmouth, VA, 23702. VAB also has a web site (vablind.org) maintained by our contractor.
As of August 1, 2009 the VAB general “Charity” checking account has $2,978.55 less any outstanding checks, and the VAB house account has $17,401.87. VAB has two CD’s, one in the amount of $25,051.00 and one in the amount of $7364.00.
VAB’s assets include one 1998 15 passenger Dodge Ram Van, one 2000 15 passenger Ford Van, one 2000 wheelchair accessible Ford van, and we also have a lien on the 1997 Dodge Ram van that was sold and not yet paid off. We also have a telephone, one 1999 Panasonic Copy machine, one telex 3 slave duplicator, one 2001 Computer with no adaptation one Epson printer, one computer equipped with JAWS speech recognition, scanner with open book software, and a newly donated Dell printer. There are two door cabinets filled with assorted supplies, four filing cabinets with current VAB files, two electric staplers, Nelson’s desk and crates full of past records that have been properly stored at the VAB House.
I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Officers, Directors and members of The Virginia Association of the Blind for their dedication and service to help all persons who are blind cope with the barriers of vision loss. I also want to thank President Hazel for her hard work this year and being available for VAB many times during the year. I thank all of the members for their participation and support.
Finally, we have accomplished a lot this year but with the current economy it is difficult to get by. I wish to encourage all to spread the word on the car donation program as this is a major source of income for VAB.
Submitted to the Virginia Assoc. of the Blind Membership this day by Ronald L. Hepler, Executive Director.