Volunteers from Sovereign Bank collating Sandra Boynton's A to Z.
National Braille Press offers a wide range of volunteer opportunities for both individuals and groups. Projects range from collating print/braille books as part of the Children's Braille Book Club, fulfilling Alphabet Card requests, to working at our Hands On! Books for Blind Children gala event.
Volunteer projects are held on selected dates in the afternoons (1:00 - 4:30pm, Monday through Thursday), on Saturdays (10:00am - 2:00pm), or in the evenings (5:30 - 9:00pm, Monday through Thursday).
For more details on how to get involved with National Braille Press by volunteering your time and enthusiasm, please contact Kimberley Ballard at kballard@nbp.org or (617) 266-6160 ext. 37. Please include your name, organization, e-mail address, and area(s) of interest in your correspondence.
National Braille Press hosts "Community Volunteer Dates" twice per year, where individuals complete volunteer projects involving the assembly of print/braille children's books. Children 12 years and older are welcome, if accompanied by a parent or guardian. Come learn about National Braille Press and help put books into the hands of blind children!
The next Community Volunteer Date is November 21, 2009
at National Braille Press.
Volunteer Need: We need 15-20 volunteers to help collate plastic braille pages with print pages of the monthly selection for the Children's Braille Book Club. This monthly book club offers popular children's book in the innovative print/braille format so sighted parents of blind children or blind parents of sighted children can read together. Past titles include Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Curious George and the Firefighters, and Knots on a Counting Rope.
| Where: | National Braille Press 88 St. Stephen St, Boston
(2 blocks from Symphony Hall) |
When: | Date TBD - Monday - Thursday afternoons (1:00pm - 4:30pm) or evenings (4:30 - 9:00pm).
Saturday: 10:00 am-2:00 pm |
| What to Expect: | The schedule for an evening volunteer project is: |
| 5:30pm |
Volunteers arrive promptly. An overview of National Braille
Press and a brief tour of our braille printing facility is given. |
| 6:00pm | Volunteer project begins. Wear comfortable shoes!
Volunteers will be standing for several hours. |
| 7:30pm | Pizza break (we ask companies to pay for dinner, if possible) |
| 7:50pm | Volunteer project resumes. |
| 9:00pm | Volunteer project is complete. |
"Volunteering at National Braille Press was a mind-opening experience. I had a preconceived idea that braille was an obsolete system. I came away in awe of the possibilities it offers-from kids reading Harry Potter as quickly as anyone, to accessing the Internet in real time. Braille is here to stay."
- Philip, a volunteer from Mellon New England
A number of organizations in the Boston area have volunteered their staff time to help produce
some of our braille books. Here are some examples:
- The attorneys and staff at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen LLP have been volunteer partners for several years, facilitating the collating of several children's print/braille books and Valentine's Day cards, and are now combining their volunteer passion with the financial sponsorship of the children's book, So Many Bunnies.
- District 33K Lions have volunteered with the Press in collating children's print/braille books and will be hosting a volunteer project to collate the August selection of the Children's Braille Book Club, Rumpelstiltskin, at the 89th International Convention of Lions in July.
- The Fidelity Cares volunteer group has helped assemble over 400 braille books bags for NBP's early education family outreach program, ReadBooks! Because Braille Matters. These book bags are given away free of charge to families nationwide to make them aware of the power of braille literacy.
- MIT undergraduate students from Next House helped us place braille labels on 300 books as part of our Bumpy Basics: Board Books for Toddlers program.
For more information, contact Kimberley Ballard, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at kballard@nbp.org or at (617)266-6160 x37.
