Staff Profile - May 2015

The Braille Challenge was held at Main's Conference Center, January 22, 2015. Chris Eaton, Librarian II, Special Services, accomplished no small feat for the disabled and JPL with this project. Chris' supervisor, Scott Adams, still brags on this masterstroke.  Conference Center Manager Mistesh Sangani said, "It was the best attended event of its kind in Florida and mirrored California’s similar event." Chris recently won a Challenge the Process Award and JPL's Employee of the Quarter Award (January-March 2015) for this achievement.  Chris has a story worth telling about the first Braille Challenge at Main. 

   Chris at Disney with wife, Lorraine, and daughter, Lily (of One Spark fame).

Q: You were successful in bringing the Braille Challenge to Jacksonville and the Main Library—a huge win for you and Special Services.  Why have the Braille Challenge here?

A: I felt that it was important to bring the 2015 Braille Challenge to Jacksonville to show that Jacksonville is a legitimate location to hold the Florida Braille Challenge’s North Regional competition, and that our young Braille readers in northeast Florida would have the same opportunity to demonstrate their abilities as do young Braille readers in the rest of the state. The reason that Jacksonville was even considered was because the previous location, Tallahassee, had such low registration that it had to be cancelled as the 2014 North Regional location. A contact at DCPS informed me of this and, in cooperation with the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, we requested that the competition be moved from Tallahassee to Jacksonville. The rest is history. Our first effort produced a very successful event that involved the greatest number of competitors in the state’s history. We had 63 students/contestants registered and we estimate 200 people were involved.

 

      Q: What steps did you take to accomplish this?

A: The first thing that we did was reach out to our community partners and from there, create a planning committee. Thankfully everybody that we reached out to was as optimistic as we were to bring this event to Jacksonville. After that came securing financial support, donations, and volunteer support.

Q: What were some of your challenges in pursuing your goal?

A: There were many challenges in organizing an event of this size but I think that the biggest was securing financing. It’s just something that I don’t have a lot of experience in. I probably sweated the most over where our food and prize donations were going to come from and who was going to provide parking.

 

      Q: What other organizations’ and agencies’ assistance did you need and did you learn things that will be valuable in your future pursuits/partnerships for Special Services?

A: The assistance of the Conference Center staff was phenomenal. I’ve been working with Mitesh and his staff for many years on things like our adaptive movie programs so I knew they would provide solid support. It shouldn’t be forgotten that one of the stars of the event was our building and how awesome it is. I think it can be easy to take our space for granted when you’re here day-in-day-out.

 

For quite a long while I have been communicating with Beth Meyer at the city’s Disabled Services Division to find ways in which we can work together and the Braille Challenge presented the perfect opportunity. Her office’s funding and assistance in promotion via the Mayor’s Disability Council proved invaluable. I learned that working with other city departments/divisions doesn’t have to be complicated.

 

I’ve also been working with the Duval County Public School System’s Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVIs) for many years and this gave us the opportunity to collaborate in ways that we never had before. I’m now working with them on adaptive equipment training workshops that would involve their teachers and the students they serve.

This event presented our first real opportunity to work with the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind where many Braille readers from Jacksonville attend. The enthusiasm of their teachers and staff was great and the way that they organized their student competitors was very helpful in making for a smooth running event. I learned that, even though they are an institution that can rival JPL and DCPS in facilities and funding, they are willing to work with us to achieve a common goal. Actually, I was concerned that they might be granted the opportunity to host the event instead of us but they must have decided that it was in their best interests and decided to defer to us.

 

The state Braille Challenge coordinator, Ms. Sue Glaser, and her staff at the Florida Instructional Materials Center for the Visually Impaired provided a much-needed framework for the event and the experience to manage many of the minor hiccups that we had along the way. Should the North Regional Braille Challenge continue in Jacksonville their efforts will again be needed.

 

There were so many other organizations that supported us that I could go on-and-on in singing their praises. The thing that impressed me the most was how willing and eager these organizations were to work toward creating a successful, memorable event for blind and visually impaired youth in our community. It seemed like everyone was just waiting for the opportunity to do something big that would make a statement and prove the value of what we do. But most importantly was to recognize and celebrate the achievements of the young people we serve--and to give them a moment in the spotlight.

Pic to right:  One of the props for the event was a Harley Davidson motorcycle (provided by a gentleman on behalf of Adamec Harley Davidson) with a side car. The event had a Harry Potter theme and, in the books, the character Hagrid rides a motorcycle (not an HD but a Royal Enfield) with a sidecar that Harry rides in. This was our version of that and the man who owns the bike let the kids sit on it, touch it, and ask questions about it.

Q: Tell us something about yourself that we probably don’t know.

A: If I had to mention just one thing it would be that I have recorded an official hole-in-one on an 18-hole golf course. My first job was on a public golf course and I’ve been playing since I was probably 10 years old.