Feeling the Stars: 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

Mold Making Mayhem

Phew, mold making was certainly a process but it's just about done! For about a two months I've been refining the process and producing 23 detailed molds out of stills from the show. I just have seven constellations to produce and I'll be ready for the next phase.

"What's the next phase," you ask? Well I'm waiting to hear back on a quote for image printing on the Braillon paper, and then once we can get the images printed on the pages I can make them tactile with the molds - and then the books will be FINISHED and ready to go!

A white desk holds a black box (which is the EZ-Brailler) with a white board hanging off the back and a silver cord hanging out of the side. Propped up against it is the new poster for "The Little Star That Could" which shows the yellow Little Star; white star, Pearl; red star with sunglasses, Big Daddy; and blue star, Mr. Angry Blue-White Star. There is a red pen in front of the poster and a grey clay mold of Little Star with silver pins in it to create air holes, a silver x-acto knife. There is a white, green and yellow tub of air dry clay. An off-white phone sits on the desk next to a black tool box. In front of the tool box is a silver ring, a white bottle of puff paint and a picture of a red star with sunglasses, Big Daddy; orange star, Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star; yellow star, Little Star; white star, Pearl; and blue star, Mr. Angry Blue-White Star on a red background. The stars are all outlined in puff paint.

First Attempt at Mold Making: Clay or Puff Paint?

The grey clay mold of Little Star sits with about fifty silver pins in it on top of silver aluminum foil. Next to it on the foil is the image of a red star with sunglasses, Big Daddy; orange star, Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star; yellow star, Little Star; white star, Pearl; and blue star, Mr. Angry Blue-White Star on a red background.

Clay or Puff Paint Molds Drying (the clay had to be pierced with pins to allow air to pass through)

On the white desk sits a black desk organizer with pens, a black stapler, a tan tape dispenser, the black box with a red front and silver dials (the EZ-Brailler), and two pieces of Braillon paper. The Braillon paper in the foreground has a severely raised image of Little Star. The clay mold used to make the raised image shattered in the process. The pieces are sitting on the Braillon paper.

Clay and Puff Paint definitely did not work :(

There is the piece of Braillon paper with the severely raised image of Little Star is hanging on the left side of a cubical wall that is covered with tan fabric. On the right side directly next to the severe image is a new image made from stacking paper. It is the same image but far less severe. It is Little Star Smiling. He has a round face, a fluffy tuft of hair on top, big round eyes, an oval nose and a big smile. He also has rays jetting out from all around his face to show that he is shining. Above "The Little Star That Could" is written in Braille.

Clay is too severe but stacking paper seems to work alright

On Braillon paper is Little Star. He has a round face, a fluffy tuft of hair on top, big round eyes, an oval nose and a big smile. He also has rays jetting out from all around his face to show that he is shining. Above "The Little Star That Could" is written in Braille.

Paper stacking works but it needs to be a little taller than this

On a piece of white paper in size 36 bold black font reads "Little Star is born in a cloud of gas and dust" over two lines, followed by "Little Star (a yellow star)" and "Page 1" over two more lines. Under the second and third lines on light green strips is the Contracted Braille for these phrases.

Our wonderful volunteer Deb has Brailled all the text for the book :D

Sitting in the shiny, silver EZ-Brailler's inside compartment is the first page of the Little Star Follow-Along book on Braillon paper. Little Star is seen as a circle in the center of the page. He has round eyes, a sideways oval nose and a smile with plump cheeks. He has rays extending out all around him and two rays are very long, like jets spurting out. Radiating out and around the afore described, are three half circles on the left and three half circles on the right. Around Little Star and the half circles is a light wavy and crinkly cloudy texture. At the top of the page reads "Little Star is born in a cloud of gas and dust," in contracted Braille.

The first page hot off the EZ-Brailler! Little Star is Born in a Cloud of Gas and Dust

On an off-white L-shaped desk sits a large green mat. On the mat sits a tan metal lunch box with red boomerang shapes, a silver metal travel coffee mug, a manila colored piece of Braillon paper with the image of Little Star being born in a cloud of gas and dust, the mold that made the image which shows Little Star as a circle in the center of the page. He has round eyes, a sideways oval nose and a smile with plump cheeks. He has rays extending out all around him and two rays are very long, like jets spurting out. Radiating out and around the afore described, are three half circles on the left and three half circles on the right. Around Little Star and the half circles is a light wavy and crinkly cloudy texture. At the top of the page reads "Little Star is born in a cloud of gas and dust," in contracted Braille. Also on the green mat below the mold is a black circle covered in red dots with wide eyes and an open mouth to be the Globular Cluster. There is also a square of black illustration board with a circle cut out, and another mold showing several planets and their orbits around a star. Some white Elmer's glue and blue and silver scissors sit on the green mat too. Propped up against the wall of the cubical is a square piece of cardboard with nine circular rays for the stars. On the wall is the image of the Planetarium (a white single sheet hyperboloid) with it's red bow, the Planetarium with fireworks behind it, a picture of the blog author with the plush yellow Little Star in an Apollo Capsule mockup, and two more sheets of Braillon paper. Also on the desk is the EZ-Brailler machine which is a black box with a red handle on the side of the top half of the box and a red plaque with silver dials and a black toggle switch, silver push button, a green light, orange light and blue light on the side on the bottom half.

Getting to work!

On top of the black EZ-Brailler sits many mold pages drying. One is of the spiral Milky Way galaxy which is cloudy and given texture with red puff paint. There is also the globular cluster (round, red and very bumpy) and Little Star (yellow and smiling and small), Little Star (yellow and smiling) meeting Big Daddy (a red star with sunglasses, a large nose and a goatee), Little Star meeting Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star (orange with a white mustache and large nose), and the line up of stars: a red star with sunglasses, Big Daddy; orange star, Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star; yellow star, Little Star; white star, Pearl; and blue star, Mr. Angry Blue-White Star on a red background.

Many pages drying

On the green mat on the off-white desk is a clear oval gladware with a blue lid lopsided inside of it on top of a brown paper towel. On the cubical wall is the picture of the Planetarium (a white single sheet hyperboloid) with a red bow around it and just in front of that is a bottle of white Elmer's glue, a white scrub brush with red bristles, a white can of salt, a white electric tea pot with a blue lid, handle, base and heat-level knob, a white strainer, the tan lunchbox with red boomerangs, a purple and black flyer for the Planetarium, another bottle of Elmer's glue, the black and red EZ-Brailler, and a yellow piece of paper with the blue papier-mâché valley and moons of mars drying.

Making the last major mold out of Papier-Mâché... Or maybe just making a mess...

On the green mat is a piece of yellow abrasive tape. On the tape is one of the Mars moons made of blue papier-mâché. There is a fine powder around the moon and the tape from the moon being sanded down.

The Moons were a bit big... Sanding them down to work a little better in the EZ-Brailler (thanks for the materials Al!)

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Little Star and Friends Have a Photo Shoot

Once again I apologize for the hiatus in posting. I've been hard at work on the accessibility projects, but with the end of the semester I just didn't have time to post. This will be the first update with another to follow tomorrow.

The Feeling the Stars Planetarium Accessibility Program will be featured in a large article in the next edition of New Science! This is great because it will start letting our members and visitors know that this will soon be available for them. Hopefully it will help get the word out to this new audience!

The plushes of Little Star (yellow), Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star (orange), Big Daddy (red with black sunglasses), Mr. Angry Blue-White Star (blue), and Pearl (large white star) sit grouped together in the center of a large terrazzo yellow sun. A man in a blue dress-shirt and light brown pants kneels in front of the stars with a professional camera to take pictures. A terrazzo Mercury, Earth and Mars are around him on the floor and a large gold "N" is seen designating which direction is North.

Little Star and Friends' Photo Shoot (Thanks Chris!)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Little Star and Friends Come to Life

This post will be more pictures than writing. I've been working on creating the five main stars from The Little Star That Could and I've finally worked out patterns and created a prototype for each one.

The five main stuffed animal star characters sit on a table. They all have human like faces (eyes, noses, mouths and some have hair). A softball sized red stuffed animal star (Big Daddy) sits on a desk. He has a black goatee and wears sunglasses. Next to him on the right is an orange stuffed animal star (Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star) which is slightly bigger than the red star and has a white mustache and looks tired and old. To the right of the orange star is a yellow star (Little Star/Sol) who is about the size of a baseball and is smiling. To the right of the yellows star is a basketball sized white star (Pearl). She has eyelashes, a pointy nose, is smiling gently and has cheek length hair that is also white. Next to the white star on the right is a blue star (Mr. Angry Blue-White Star) who looks angry. He has a bulbous nose and squinting eyes. Behind all the plush stars is a picture of the stars all lined up together in the same order (red, orange, yellow, white, blue) pulled from the planetarium show, "The Little Star That Could."

Big Daddy, Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star, Little Star/Sol, Pearl, Mr. Angry Blue-White Star

Some will have some changes made in the future (i.e. the first couple made will look better). My sewing skills have definitely improved since I started (at least I think they have).

Three versions of the Little Star plush character sit next to each other on a white desk. The first version on the left is the original hand sewn version. It is a darker yellow than the other two. His nose is very flat, as are his eyebrows and hair. His mouth is just a simple sewn line of thread, but his eyes are the same as the other two versions, big white ovals with brown irises and black pupils. There are rays/prominences shining out from around him. The second version is in the middle has a lighter yellow color than the first. His nose is now prominent and he has noticeable cheeks. His lips are also bigger but his eyes remain the same as the first version's. His rays are much smaller than the first version's and he lacks eyebrows. His hair is very big and obvious. The third version is on the right is very similar to the second version but with much more obvious rays and eyebrows. The lips are toned down to a normal size and the hair is also smaller.

Little Star Version 1 (hand sewn, was with me all the way through being awarded the grant), Version 2 (first attempt at pattern making), and Version 3 (the one that came to Space Camp that the kids tested out for me)

Anyway, without further ado, let me introduce you to the Little Star character prototypes...

Big Daddy

Red satin fabric starting to be sewn into a ball shape sits on a sewing machine with black sunglasses nearby.

The red satin ball now looks more like a star. The black eyebrows and goatee are attached and the face is complete with a nose, mouth and eyes. The black sunglasses are nearby.

The red satin star has been filled with stuffing and awaits his sunglasses. A silver needle with black thread sticks out of his nose waiting to sew the glasses in place.

The red satin star is now complete. He has rays protruding out from him, a large nose and lips, a black goatee and eyebrows and black sunglasses. This is Big Daddy.

Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star

Some orange fabric is being sewn together into a ball shape. It has a piece missing from the bottom of the ball as that is where the star's mouth will go. Above where the piece is missing is the nose which sticks out a little.

The orange ball is now sewn together and white eyes and a white mustache have been added to give the star a face.

The final stitches are been machine sewn into the orange ball. Some white and black pins stick out from the orange fabric.

The orange ball now has rays protruding out from it. The eyes are old looking with brown irises and black pupils. White eyebrows have been added and the whole character has been stuffed.

Pearl

A large piece of white fleece is draped over an off white sewing machine.

The large white fleece now has a pointy nose and cheeks. It is being held in front of the off white sewing machine.

The star is now sewn together, has eyes and eyelids. There are rays along the sides of her and she has a mouth that is smiling and hair that goes to her cheeks now too. She remains flat however as she is unstuffed.

The white fleece star, pearl is finished. The star is now stuffed and has eyelashes (which are the false kind one finds in the cosmetics department) and brown eyebrows.

Mr. Angry Blue-White Star

The star has a scowling mouth, squinting eyes, angry white eyebrows and small black pupils with brown irises on the whites of his eyes. He has a wide nose and puffy cheeks.

Little Star/Sol (version 2)

Many small pieces of yellow fabric lie on a table and sewing machine. Several are pinned with white and black pins and there is a pair of blue scissors and a green seam ripper on the table as well.

Two halves of a ball of yellow fabric are complete and hang from the sewing machine. One has a nose and cheeks on it.

Little star is stuffed and gets eyes and a tuft of hair. He is smiling and has plump cheeks and no eyebrows. He has very small rays protruding from around him.

The finished yellows star sits in front of a board that shows his cartoon image and a swatch of yellow fabric under it. The star is smiling, small, with small rays, plump cheeks, and big eyes. He has no eyebrows (however the cartoon version does have brown eyebrows).

Little Star/Sol (version 3) and the Blog's Author look down a ladder (both smiling) from up in the cockpit of a Space Shuttle simulator. The author is blonde and wearing a grey tshirt with planets on it and holding Little Star out down the ladder. Little Star is yellow, and looks much like version two with big eyes, a nose, plump cheeks, and a smile, but this version has smaller hair, brown eyebrows and larger more noticeable rays around the sides of him. In front of the author and the star is the grey and white rung of a metal ladder. Behind the pair is a white ceiling with grey panels of metal switches, buttons and knobs. White writing and Braille label every switch.

Little Star/Sol (version 3) and the Blog's Author in the cockpit of the Space Shuttle Endeavour Mockup at U.S. Space Camp

The blog's author, a woman of 5'4" with blonde hair, sits in a chair in her cubical. She is wearing a blue NASA flight suit and is holding all of the plush star characters. On her right leg is Pearl, the white star with eyelashes, white cheek length hair and brown eyes. On the author's left leg sits Mr. Angry Blue-White Star, the blue star who has angry white eyebrows and squinting eyes. On top of Pearl sits Big Daddy, satin and red with black sunglasses, a big nose and big lips. On top of the blue star sits Mr. Old-Timer Orange Star with his white eyebrows and mustache and tired looking eyes. On the author's head sits Little Star version 3 - smiling with big eyes and plump cheeks. The blog's author is looking up at Little Star and smiling. Behind the woman is an original poster for The Little Star That Could from it's second run in 1990. The black background features cartoon images of the character that sit as plush toys in her lap and the words "A Children's Planetarium Show the Whole Family can Enjoy" in white. A pink stripe runs across the top of the poster that says, "The McDonnell Star Theater Presents..." in white as well.

Blog Author with the Little Star Family (that is a poster for the show from its second run in 1990 behind me)

It was a lot to come up with the patterns since I haven't really sewn for close to 10 years, but it was also a lot of fun. It was great to work out the patterns, see the characters come to life and figure out what needed to be tweaked here and there. I can't wait to make the final versions in more durable upholstery fabric!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

It's Here! It's Here!

The EZ-Form Brailler and Tactile Duplicator is here! I'm so excited to start making books! This machine will be what I use to produce the books that will contain tactile images from the show as well as tactile star charts. It was like Christmas morning!

A 5'4" blonde woman in a blue flight suit is opening a very large brown cardboard package. The package is about three feet tall and two feet wide and across.

Opening the EZ-Brailler

A 5'4" blonde woman in a blue flight suit is pulling dark grey packing foam out of a very large brown cardboard package. The package is about three feet tall and two feet wide and across.

Unpacking the EZ-Brailler

The EZ-Brailler (a square black object) sits in the large 3 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot box. It is surrounded by clear bubble wrap.

Wondering how I am going to get all 108lbs of the EZ-Brailler onto my desk (thanks for your help, Justin and Andrea)!

The EZ-Brailler (an object that looks like a black box with control dials on one side on a red plate attached to the box. The top part of the box slides back to reveals the inside where the Braillon paper goes to form tactile book pages which currently has a tan piece of Braillon paper in it with Braille instructions on it), sits on an off white desk with the instruction booklet (which has a red binding) sitting next to it.

Ready to produce books!

Hopefully I will start creating the tactile follow-along books on Friday!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Little Star Goes to Space Camp

Little Star as Flight Director
in Mission Control

After being awarded the grant for "Feeling the Stars," the president of Lighthouse mentioned he takes a group of children who are blind and have low vision to Space Camp every year through SCIVIS
(Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students). He then asked me if I would like to chaperone. He mentioned that it would of course be great for me to learn from some of the children "Feeling the Stars" will aim to serve when it grows past Little Star, and also to learn from and network with the Teachers for the Visually Impaired (TVI) and/or Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Teachers who I will most likely start seeing next year (at least the Missouri ones) with their students at the Planetarium. Of course I said yes and prepared to help chaperone 32 children to Huntsville, Alabama for a week.

The entire week was INCREDIBLE!

Little Star contemplates the
climbing wall the Mach III
Aviation Challenge teams
are about to climb

I don't just mean being at Space Camp and Aviation Challenge (although that was fantastic too). The kids. I learned so much from them and the wonderful other chap-erones who were all TVIs and/or O&Ms. The teachers were very kind and

supportive, and some have already expressed interest in the program! The kids there threw themselves into everything and grew so much during the week. It was the second day that they all learned that I work at the Science Center and why I was there with them. They were excited to hear about the program being created for them. They also then started offering me advice and were so sweet in helping me learn as well!

Little Star under Apollo XVI

They learned that I'd been wanting to go to Space Camp for 20 years and that it was my first time there too which was exciting to them as well. By just a few days in they were checking to make sure I was going to try all the simulators with them and asking me questions
about space
and astronomy.
They explained to me what they could see in the way of stars (i.e. no stars, a few of the brightest stars as faint pinpoints, most of the stars but no color), and how those stars appeared to them as well.

The Blog Author and Little Star in the
Apollo Mockup

Of course I brought my prototype microwaveable plush of Little Star with me. Some of the kids were really kind and helped me out by field testing one of my prototypes. They studied Little Star, feeling his features and holding him close to their eyes. HE PASSED THEIR TEST! They said they could feel his features and tell that he was smiling and had cheeks and eyebrows and everything (although they suggested thicker eyebrows and using stuffed animal fur for his hair). They liked Little Star and said he was good as he was and would be better with their two suggestions. I was ELATED to know that the plush characters are heading in the right direction.

Thank you doesn't even begin to say enough to Lighthouse for the Blind - Saint Louis. Your generosity and kindness are very much appreciated!

The week was something I'll never forget and will always treasure. These kids were some of the best teachers I've ever had.

Everything is moving forward!

Sorry for such a hiatus from posting. For a while there was not much to update and then all of a sudden things became very hectic! I'm going to break it up into a few posts over the next few days.

In my last post I mentioned that we would like to have some tactile models of the Mercury and Gemini Capsules, as well as of the Blue Angel. In the end it turns out that our own fantastic in-house production staff can create the models! I'm very excited about this, since they do great work. The first model will hopefully be started next month and I can't wait to see how amazing it will look.

While waiting for everything to work out with purchase orders, I've been prototyping the microwavable plush characters. They're getting better (I think) and with each one I'm learning. I'll have a whole post on them later in the week (hopefully) once I unite the last character with the rest of the bunch at work and can take many pictures.

I did have a surprise waiting for me on my desk on Saturday when I got into work; the electronic Brailler we ordered had arrived! I didn't expect it to get in so quickly and was quite excited.

I thought I'd received the Braille Paper we ordered but soon discovered otherwise...

A smaller brown box with black writing that reads, "Braille Labeler" sits on the same off-white desk.

Yay! It's the Braille Labeler!

Now upon the same off-white desk, the small brown box is open and inside is a blue oval object which is the Braille Labeler, some black wires and white Braille tape, extra brown cardboard, a cd to install the program for the labeler with a white label on it, an instruction manual with a white cover and another instruction manual sticking out of another brown box that was inside the first box and contains the manual in Braille and has a blue plastic binding.

Everything needed to get started and the labeler itself (the blue object); there was even an instruction manual in Braille included.

Our wonderful volunteer, Deb, who does all our Brailling (and has been teaching me to read and write Braille) will be so happy! She's been labeling everything in Braille by hand! This will allow her to do more in a short amount of time and will keep her hand from cramping and hurting.

Okay, I promise there will be more updates this week. Until then!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Just a quick update this time...

I got word today that the invoice has gone out and come back which means that I'm one step closer to getting the green light on purchasing materials! I even might get to this week!

In the mean time I've been trying to do what I can. One of the things we want to have available for our visitors are tactile models of the big items they cannot touch. I mentioned in the previous post that we will have a model made of our projector and the StarBay, but we also would like models of the Mercury and Gemini Capsules we have in our lobby

The Gemini capsule is a cone shape with a blunt nose. There are two hatches to allow two astronauts inside. On this capsule one hatch is missing to allow a view inside to see the two ejection seats and the control panels. The capsule is very dark grey and the inside is mostly beige. It is surrounded by a Plexiglas aquarium.

Our Gemini Capsule

as well as one of the F/A-18A Hornet Blue Angel we have out front.

The author of the blog is standing in front of the Blue Angel fighter jet. This particular jet is an F/A-18A Hornet and is painted a royal blue with yellow lettering reading, "Blue Angles."

At the Blue Angel's Opening Ceremony

We might be able to find some donations to help with these models in the future too. The generosity and kindness of people is amazing!

That's all for today, but I'm sure there will be more soon!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Months of hard work turn a labor of love into a reality!

I've decided I'd like to chronicle my journey of making planetarium shows at the James S. McDonnell Planetarium at the Saint Louis Science Center (where I have the joy of working) accessible for our visitors who are blind or have low vision. I've already done so much work but there's also so much more to be done. This post will serve to recap the last 9 months of work since the conception of this project to now, with future posts following along through our first visitors getting to experience the program.

The project actually started with a class I took in Museum Education for my Masters in Museum Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. We had to create a proposal for an education program that was either new or adapted a current program. Upon looking around my planetarium where I was at that time a volunteer, I noticed that we had ways to make our shows and exhibits accessible for our visitors who had physical exceptionalities and for our visitors who are Deaf or who are hard of hearing, but nothing really for our visitors who were blind or had low vision. I decided then that my program would focus on changing this.

The program I proposed, "Feeling the Stars," will serve as a pilot to adapt all our other shows, but the show I picked, The Little Star That Could, I picked for a few reasons: 1) It has fantastic content that no matter the age of the viewer (even though it is intended for young children) one can learn something. 2) It is shown in planetariums all over the world (thus we could offer the program to other planetariums, helping them become more accessible too!). 3) It has been in planetariums since 1986 when it was first written, produced and shown in the McDonnell Star Theater at the Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC), which means that it has held its appeal for almost 27 years now (and will most likely continue to hold that appeal). 4) It was the first star show I ever saw as a child and holds a very special place in my heart (and I've seen it have the same effect on visitors year after year).

The visitors would first be introduced to the space through a tactile model of the theater, allowing them to safely learn about the projector through touch. The show the students/visitors would be seeing talks a lot about stars colors and how they relate to temperature. Since these visitors may never have seen colors before, it would be necessary to help prime their schemas and make sense of it in a concrete way before the show begins (especially since they would have probably heard analogies that red is hot and blue is cold (which is the exact opposite when it comes to stars). To do this, plushies of the characters (stars) would be made so that the students/visitors could feel the facial features. These characters would also be microwaveable though (like a Bed Buddy or Rice Sock) and heated to different temperatures. That plus the different textures from different fabrics would help get the ideas across and build this new schema before experiencing the star show. Visitors would also be given tactile books with raised images of the show so they could follow along with the program by feeling what was going on on the dome. There would also be an iPad option for visitors who had low vision. Descriptive audio would also be available to enhance the experience. Lastly Braille and large signage would be added by the regular signage on all the exhibits as well, facilitating the self-guided visits (with optional guided tours available upon request.

At the end of the class, I approached my boss and showed him my proposal. He was beyond supportive and we immediately started working with other staff throughout the museum to make my proposal a reality. For nine months we've been polishing and perfecting the proposal and toying with prototypes like this little guy (forgive my sewing skills... the actual product will be much better):

The original yellow plush toy prototype of the main character, Little Star (or Sol) is sitting in the middle of an artistic image of the sun on a terrazzo floor.

Little Star (Sol) on the Sun

and this prototype mini model (bottom) of our planetarium's projector based off of my rendering (top) made by one of our amazing preparators (actual will be a much larger model with a lot more detail):

The projector looks like a blue egg with bumps all over it raised up on crutches in the middle of a room that has an enormous dome. Half of the dome has been cut away in this image to reveal the room better.

Google SketchUp Model of the Zeiss Universarium IX in the StarBay

The projector looks like a blue egg with bumps all over it raised up on crutches. This sits upon a black large black box in the shape of the letter Y. On the long stem of the Y are 8 rectangular boxes. The egg projects the stars while the boxes project the planets, sun and moon.

Mini Prototype Model of the Zeiss Universarium IX Projector (Thanks Ian!)

After months of working so hard and pulling everything together, it came time to ask for funding. On Monday we were awarded a grant by Lighthouse for the Blind - Saint Louis to cover the first part of the proposal (which will get us rolling and able to reach our target audience). They've also agreed to match donations to cover the second and third parts of the proposal up to half of the cost! This is going to happen!

I definitely owe special thanks to my boss, John, to Suzanne and to our wonderful volunteer Deb for all their support and work in this process. I'd also like to give a very big thank you to John, Stephen and Angie at Lighthouse for the Blind - Saint Louis. You have all been extremely kind with your time and resources!

What started as a simple idea, turned into a labor of love and finally ended up becoming a reality. We're hopefully going to open up a whole new world for our audience!