Page 8 — SUSQUEHANNA TIMES
At Hostetter's--
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Scott’s — Play
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Fertilizer A
Turf Builder A
Turf Builder Plus 2
Halts Plus
Starter
Rohrer’s, Burpee’s gz
& Ferry Morse
Wheel Barrows
Scott Spreaders
Ortho - Lawn/Garden/Hous
Weed-B-Gon Systemic
Insect Foggers Rose & Flower
Isotox Chlordane
Malathion Diazinon
Fishing Equipment
“Baseball & Softball
A! Equipment
Tennis Racquets
RAKES, SHOVELS, HOES
ALY AND OTHER GARDENING TOOLS
Hostetter Hondware, Que.
93 EAST MAIN STREET
: 653-1861
MOUNT JOY
April 26, 1978
What the blind association does
The Lancaster County
Association for the Blind
will make a public appeal
for funds for the first time
in its 52-year history, it
announced recently.
The money will be used
to help build a $1.5 million
for county blind and
partially-sighted people.
The present structure at
506 Walnut Street in
Lancaster is too small for
the scope of the Associa-
tion’s activities.
The new building will
house a workshop, activity
and therapy centers, teach-
ing areas, an eye clinic to
be open five full days a
week, a library, pottery
room, and other facilities.
Below is a story, sent to
us by Claire Lombard of
Marietta, about how the
Association has helped one
woman.
“Until I started going to
the pottery class at the
Blind Association five years
ago, I had never gone
anyplace by myself,’ re-
marked Poliy Pennell.
‘Now, I go lots of places
HF
MEMBER
Your Savings Insured to $40 00
24 East Main Street, Mount Joy
Equal Credit Opportunity Lender
First Federal
SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION OF LANCASTER
RAINY DAY MONEY
4% Passhooks
day-in, day-out interest
PHONE 653-8121
First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Lancaster
Next to the Library
and do things with them,
and Mama doesn’t worry
about me. She knows I'll
be 0.K.”
Polly, who- lives with her
mother on West Main
Street, Mount Joy, has had
seriously impaired vision
since her birth in 1918. An
attempt to restore her sight
was made when she was
about twelve years old. She
was operated on for the
removal of the cataracts
she had had since birth,
but the operation was not
successful. At that time,
she was defined as legally
blind because her vision
was less than 20/200 in her
one good eye, and she
believed that nothing fur-
ther could be done to help
her. Then,when she was
about 30, she heard of the
Lancaster County Associa-
tion for the Blind, where
she applied for help.
‘‘Miss Paine was the
head of it then,”’ she said
with her never-failing
smile. ‘‘I got my first
glasses through them at
that time, and that helped
me a lot.” The glasses
helped, and later her vision
was improved even further
with additional visits to the
eye clinic.
The increased activities
and expanded programs of
the Association in the past
six or eight years have
opened a broad new door
for Polly. From going
nowhere alone ever before
in her 55 years, she started
attending pottery classes
shortly after they began in
1972, a weekly event she
rarely misses due to the
Mount Joy Lions Club who
provide transportation for
her whenever class is held.
Because clay is a
medium which can be
controlled by touch, it
allows the blind and
partially sighted to accom-
plish creative work on their
own, once a few basic
techniques are mastered.
That’s why pottery was the
first of the therapeutic craft
classes begun by the
Lancaster Association in its
program expansion.
From its beginning in
1926 until the early 70’s,
the Association had con-
centrated its efforts on
rehabilitation training in
basic living skills for the
blind and partially sighted,
providing them with a
means to be financially
independent through its
sheltered workshop, and
presenting a program to
educate sighted people
about ways to prevent
blindness. These are and
will remain the basic
commitments of the Assoc-
iation. However, the Board
of Directors; its President,
Robert Y. Garrett,Jr.; and
Executive Director, Marion
Campbell, believe an inno-
vative enrichment program
could be introduced without
sacrifice to its original
purpose and are acting on
Left, Polly Pennell; right, Kitty Brown. Photo by Pat Abel.
that premise.
Begun in 1972, the
pottery class has been
taught since its inception
by Mrs. John H. Brown
and Mrs. Robert Lombard
of Marietta, who are
presently assisted by Jess-
ica Sheetz of Mount Joy,
and Mrs. Richard Neiman
of Lancaster. A star pupil,
Polly has long since
mastered the techniques of
managing the clay and
turns out an endless variety
of earthenware pieces,
decorative tiles, candle-
holders, bowls, baskets,
and, most recently, a large
bird-bath. Besides pottery,
she enjoys attending the
Social Club at the
Association.
For the past several
years, she has attended
Beacon Lodge, a summer
camp for the blind near
Lewistown, which is con-
ducted by the Lions Clubs
in Pennsylvania. She is
looking forward to attend-
ing camp again this year.
RTL, the radio station
announced on the ‘‘birth-
day list’’ as she celebrated
her 60th birthday April 14.
another of Polly’s prime
interests. She turns it on
early to hear volunteers
read the daily papers and
listens for news about other
members of the RTLfamily.
This week her name was
announced on the ‘‘birth-
day list” as she celebrated
her 60th birthday April 14.
RTL, or Kadio Talking
Library, is a sub-channel of
WLAN-FM broadcasting on
a closed-circuit to the blind
and partially sighted of
Lancaster City and County.
Polly obtained her special
receiver, pre-set to pick up
only the RTL signal [or,
when it’s not on the air,
:WLAN-FM] at the Associa-
tion headquarters where
they are available to all
blind and partially sighted.
RTL, which was the first
radio station in Penn-
sylvania to broadcast
to the blind, will greatly
expand its operation when
the agency moves to its
new headquarters building
at 244 North Queen Street.
As that location will be
more than four times larger
than the present building,
there will be ample space
.to help meet the increased
demand. Nearly all its
burgeoning programs have
waiting lists of applicants
which cannot now be
accepted because of space
limitations.
An important asset of the
new building will be an eye
clinic, the first in Pennsyl-
vania to be housed in an
agency for the blind.
Staffed and supervised by
local ophthalmologists who
have volunteered their
services, it will have
advanced equipment for
vision testing and provide
low-vision aids now found
only in major cities. It will
be open five days a week
and will serve private as
well as clinic patients.
A capital building fund
drive is now in progress to
raise the $1.5 million
necessary to prepare the
building for occupancy, the
first time in its 52-year
history the agency has
asked for community sup-
port in a capital drive.
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