In This Issue

2022 State Training Conference—Preparedness and Safety. 2

Sizzling Hot Summer Picnic in the Park Fundraiser 4

A Night at the Opera 5

In My Life—A Tribute to R. Paul Thompson. 7

UCB Golden Anniversary Discount on Lifetime Memberships 13

General UCB Information. 14

Board of Directors and Management 15

2022 Board Meeting Schedule 16

Disclaimer

Articles and announcements included in this publication are presented for your information and interest. They reflect the opinions of the respective authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the UCB.

2022 State Training Conference—Preparedness and Safety

When: Saturday, May 14th, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Plan to come a bit early, as registration opens at 9:00 a.m., and we'd like to begin the presentations at precisely 10:00 a.m.

Where: Multi-Purpose Room at DSBVI, 250 N 1950 W, Salt Lake City.

Cost: $10.00 per person, includes lunch and prizes

Reservations: Reservations with payment must be received no later than May 4th. Please include the number of persons in your party and whether they prefer conference materials in large print or braille. Mail your check or money order to: UCB, PO Box 1415, Bountiful UT 84011-1415. If you prefer to pay by debit or credit card, call our business office at 801-245-9264 between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Program: Speakers will include a representative from Salt Lake Emergency Management who will discuss how to prepare for disasters; a veterinarian who will talk about how to prepare service animals and pets for unexpected emergencies; a representative from the fire department, who will address fire safety in your home; public safety officers, who will talk about personal safety; and visually impaired Utahns in various stages of life, such as a mother with young children, a bachelor living alone, a mother who has older children, and a working registered nurse, who will discuss how to deal with home safety under various circumstances.

Zoom: For those who are unable to join us in person, a Zoom link will be available on our website at utahblind.org, or you may call our business office at 801-245-9264 to request an email with the link. There is no cost to join by Zoom, but lunch and prizes will not be available.

Sizzling Hot Summer Picnic in the Park Fundraiser

Want to go on a picnic? Who doesn’t! The Utah Council of the Blind is holding a summer picnic fund-raiser on Saturday, July 9th, 2022, from 11:30-2 pm at Liberty Park.

100% of proceeds will go to direct services for the blind of Utah

Lunch is served hot from 11:30-12:30 and includes delicious hot cheeseburgers, baked beans, salads, chips, water, and dessert. Cost of the lunch is $15.00 per meal. (no substitutes, one size fits all)

Discount entrance fees to Tracy Aviary will be available on a limited first come first serve basis when reserving your picnic.

Liberty Park is full of entertainment and adventure with the Liberty Park swimming Pool, Seven Canyons water feature, pedal boat rentals, rides and more. Tell your friends and neighbors to come out and support the UCB and enjoy a delicious picnic in the park.

RSVP at the UCB office 801-245-9264.

A Night at the Opera

Utah Opera invites people who are blind or visually impaired to a special dress rehearsal event of ...

Gilbert & Sullivan's

The Pirates of Penzance

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Doors open at 5:30 pm, Presentation begins promptly at 6:00 pm

Opera starts at 7:00 pm

The Capitol Theatre, 50 West 200 South

A Pirate King and "Modern Major-General" are just the beginning of the farcical fun in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. Frederic, an apprentice indentured to the world's most trusting band of pirates, is celebrating his 21st birthday and leaving in search of love when he encounters the Major-General's group of daughters. Hilarity ensues in this comic opera that begs for a cast of seriously talented singers as the Major-General plots to keep his daughters from the pirates and the Pirate King makes plans to keep Frederic in his band.

This exciting event is offered free of charge to persons with visual impairment, plus a driver. At 6 pm, Education Director Paula Fowler and Artistic Director Christopher McBeth will describe the opera, staging, composer, costuming and sets. Props from the stage and costume samples will be available to touch and inspect up close. Then, enjoy the production with braille supertitle scripts and headsets to describe the action on stage.

Appropriate for children 8+ years or those who can remain quiet during a working rehearsal.

Reservations are required. Please RSVP by Monday, May 2.

Moran Eye Center - Stephen 801-585-2213

Online registration available at https://utahopera.org/events/2022/12673/

Beginning May 2, the Library for the Blind will have brailled supertitle scripts/libretti that can be picked up at the library before the event. Call 801-715-6789. To have supertitle scripts or a synopsis emailed to you please email your request to PFlowler@usuo.org.

Sponsored by the Val A. Green and Edith D. Green Foundation

In My Life—A Tribute to R. Paul Thompson

by Scott Stanger

I’ve had many and various teachers throughout my life, as I am sure many of you have had also. One of the most prominent teachers I remember was a Mr. Paul Thompson, a chorus and piano teacher at the Utah School for the Blind during the 1950s and early 1960s. My respect and reverence for this man bordered on fear.

Thompson impressed me in three great ways that have stayed, and will stay with me for all of my life. His enviable knowledge of the subjects he taught having to do with music, his excellent responses to humor just by his having to work with people who differed widely in their backgrounds and who were visually-impaired, and finally through his helping us who were at the school to become the best that we could ever hope to become, so far as he had power to inspire us.

Mr. Thompson had a wonderful knowledge of music, the chief subject that he taught at the school. He taught both piano and chorus as well as some smaller singing groups. There were times when he also taught band.

After teaching us the words to the song and our parts in any song we were learning, Thompson would play piano accompaniment and we would all sing.

I’ll never forget his asking me that first time I sat down to take piano from him, "do you know any music already?"

"I know "Chopsticks" on the piano" I said.

The first thing he showed me then was about octaves on the piano. The first song he had me play was nothing but 4th-octave C followed by 5th-octave C; back and forth, back and forth for the entire song, and Thompson played an amazing accompaniment to these two back-and-forth notes. I’ll never forget the smile that lit up my face because of the wonderful way that this man made that little exercise sound. Later on Thompson would teach me extensively on braille music, which was a challenge for me, since braille music has to be coded differently from the literary braille code.

Before I was finished at the School for the Blind, Thompson would teach me numerous piano pieces as well as some Haydn concertos. It seemed that he always found music that was timely and also well-suited to whatever our abilities and requests to sing and play happened to be at any given time.

I loved Thompson’s insightful responses to humorous situations that occurred from time to time. Once I said to him: "I bet you can't play the difficult selection "Dizzy Fingers" on the piano.

"I bet you I can,” he said to me, and he did so right then.

One time I got through playing something for him I had just learned on the trumpet, and he said out loud to everyone’s laughter who was there: "I guess that would be close enough for jazz."

Another time I asked him: "Are you going to give me an E for Effort on this particular piece I just played for you?" Thompson laughed out loud.

Another time he said he might teach me a piano piece by Bartok. "Bartok!” I said to him in reply. "That sounds like the kind of talk my dad carries on at bars during weekends."

Thompson laughed. "No," he said. "Bartok is the name of Hungarian music composer."

Another day it was announced in band practice that a wife of one of the other teachers had just had a baby boy. We were all happy. Mr. Thompson said: "Did you hear the joke about the two bedbugs who were in love? They had a baby in the spring. Besides these instances numerous other instances occurred.

Finally, Mr. Thompson was the kind of man who wanted each of us to become everything great that we could possibly become so far as he had the power over us.

One time we were leaving a performance our trio had just sung in Bountiful, Utah on Monday night. It was snowing heavily that night. Mr. Thompson said as we piled into the car: "Before we go back to Ogden, we need to have a prayer or else we will not be able to make it up this hill."

In chorus one day, he asked me a question to which I did not know the ready answer. I said to him in front of everybody: "You tell me the answer, and then we’ll both know." I thought everyone would think I was being funny.

Thompson said to me: "Now, I don’t think that is a very appropriate response. You could do better than that, Scott."

Another time Mr. Thompson held all of us back from going home after a long music performance. Someone had stolen some money. "None of you is going to go home today until we find not who took this money," Thompson said. After a long wait, someone in the room confessed to having stolen the money and we were all allowed to go.

Whenever he could, Mr. Thompson would have me play concertos for piano teachers up at the U of U school of music, not to mention the music festivals and recitals that were being held year after year. I experienced a much higher boost in self-esteem from these performances than I would ever experience from law school battles that I would participate in later on in my life.

I love the way that Thompson taught our trio songs from Broadway shows and also from sources of inspiration. I’ve got plenty of nothin'" from Porgy and Bess for example, but also songs such as "Did you think to Pray" and "I heard a Forest Praying", two very faith-promoting pieces of music.

The last chorus song that we were taught before I left the school was "God So Loved the World." It was as though Thompson was trying to gift those of us who were leaving with the most important lesson we could ever take with us.

In conclusion, let me say that R. Paul Thompson seemed to me to be a very innocent man, at least by the standards of many people today. Yet his innocence was never the naive type. I wish I had stayed with him longer than the nine years I spent the school. Although Thompson’s duties gradually began to change from teaching to administration, nevertheless, R. Paul Thompson was truly great in his knowledge of his subject, which was music, his unforgettable responses to humor, and finally in his attempts to have us who were at the school to become all that we could hope to become as we journeyed on through life.

UCB Golden Anniversary Discount on Lifetime Memberships

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the UCB we are offering lifetime memberships at a $50.00 discount anytime during 2022. This means that you can purchase a lifetime membership for $200 rather than the usual $250. We encourage all members to take advantage of this opportunity. To pay by debit or credit card, contact Kate at 801-245-9264. To pay by check, mail your check to: UCB Membership, PO Box 1415, Bountiful, UT 84011-1415.

General UCB Information

Donni Mitchell, our vice president, volunteers in the UCB Office at DSBVI, 250 N 1950 W, Salt Lake City, UT, from 12:30 to 3:30 pm on Wednesdays. She is happy to answer questions, help with purchases, visit with you on topics of interest, and make referrals when appropriate.

We are always looking for articles, book reviews, or interesting tidbits of information from our readers or other interested persons. The deadline for submitting items for publication is the 15th of the month. You may e-mail any articles you wish to submit to tommit60@gmail.com; send Braille, print, or audio to UCB Buzz, PO Box 1415, Bountiful, UT 84011-1415; or drop them off to Donni at the DSBVI office. Please allow extra time for processing Braille, print, or audio.

Members are invited and encouraged to attend meetings of the Board of Directors. Meetings will typically be held the first Thursday of each month at 4:45 p.m. via Zoom.

If you have questions or concerns for any board member, to be placed on the agenda of a board meeting, or just to attend a meeting, e-mail utahblind@gmail.com or call 801-245-9264.

Board of Directors and Management

Anna Jeffery, President

Donni Mitchell, Vice President

Jeana Nielsen, Secretary

Vicki Flake, Treasurer

Sandy Ruconich, Executive Director

Aunilie Hathaway

Monica Youngdell

Sandy England

Kira Larkin

Shelly Hendricksen

Kate Balzly, Chief Operating Officer