Louis Braille School

Are You Throwing Away Dimes that Could Go to the Louis Braille School?

Probably. You wouldn’t be alone. Lots of people are doing it.

We want to help you stop tossing money into the trash. Give it to the Louis Braille School instead. It won’t cost you a cent.

Interested?

Box Tops for Education

Participate in the program called Box Tops for Education. Since 1996, Box Tops for Education has given more than $250 million to schools across the country.

Here’s how it works: General Mills prints box top coupons on a variety of their food items and kitchen-related products, including certain cereals, frozen foods, snacks, storage bags and paper products.

The Louis Braille School sends the clipped coupons to a Box Tops for Education processing agency and receives 10 cents for each one.

All you have to do is clip the coupons and send them to the Louis Braille School. (The coupons come in different sizes, but most are smaller than a single square inch in size.)

It’s such a simple and easy way to help the Louis Braille School acquire funds that go to support the education of children who are blind, partially sighted, or have other challenges.

Labels for Education

A similar program, started by the Campbell’s Soup Company, is Labels for Education. Redeemed labels, the bar code must be included, earn points instead of cash. Points are then applied to the purchase of useful educational items from a catalog.

Clipping coupons and removing labels doesn’t take much time, and you can send them to the school from anywhere in the country.

It sure beats throwing those sleeping dimes and labels into the landfill.

Contact us for more information about Box Tops for Education and Labels for Education. We’ll point you to a list of products bearing the box top coupons and the labels which qualify for the program, and answer any other questions you may have.

If you already know about the programs, and have some box tops or labels to send us, mail them to:

Louis Braille School
10130 Edmonds Way
Edmonds, WA 98020

Imagine ordering your favorite items at a fast food restaurant and learning that 20% of the money you’ve spent on yourself will become a donation to the Louis Braille School.

That’s exactly what will happen when you visit McDonald’s at 10124 Edmonds Way in Edmonds on June 3rd, between the hours of 4:00 and 7:00 pm.

Everyone who makes a purchase on that day during those hours will support the education of special needs children who attend the Louis Braille School, because the restaurant will donate 20% of each net sale to the school.

School staff, along with select supporters, will go behind the counter at McDonald’s to stand beside the regular crew, showing friendly and familiar faces to patrons entering the restaurant in support of the fundraiser.

The festivities will include a $1 per ticket raffle for the chance to win a $50 QFC gift card. Young volunteers will be out in the parking lot, holding up signs to inform drivers about the fundraiser and urging them to participate. Inside the restaurant, we’ll hand out information about the school.

If you can’t come by in person, call or email us to ask about buying a McDonald’s gift card. You can use it at any McDonald’s in the U.S., and the purchase will result in a donation to the school.

Thank you!

Last week, a long-time friend of the Louis Braille School stopped by with a unique gift, a Louis Braille bicentennial silver dollar. The coin commemorates the 200th birthday of Louis Braille, inventor of the raised dot method of reading and writing used by those who are blind.

The “heads” side of the coin features a portrait of Louis Braille and the inscriptions “Liberty,” “In God We Trust,” “Louis Braille,” “1809,” and “2009.”

The “tails” side features a child sitting at a table reading a braille book. The word “Independence” is depicted on a bookshelf behind the child. “BRL,” the braille contraction for the word “braille,” is shown in the upper part of the coin. This side of the coin also has the inscriptions “United States of America,” “One Dollar,” and “E Pluribus Unum.”

The Louis Braille silver dollar is the first US coin to bear readable braille. The Alabama state quarter, issued in 2003, features a portrait of Helen Keller and her name in print and braille, but the braille is too small to discern by touch.

Mintage of the Louis Braille coin, which is 90% silver, is limited to 400,000, and is available in proof and uncirculated versions.

We will be happy to show visitors to the Louis Braille School our bright, shining Louis Braille silver dollar. We think it is quite special.

“I never heard of soccer balls with bells in them,” Zora Rockney said, despite all the time she has spent as a volunteer with the Louis Braille School and, before the school’s establishment, the many hours she volunteered at the Louis Braille Center (the Center, which provided various services for the blind and partially sighted communities around North Seattle, was dissolved in late 2005 and followed in 2006 by the opening of the Louis Braille School).

Zora’s long association with the Center and the School has inspired her to visit the Louis Braille School’s Web Site, where she learned that soccer balls with bells in them were one of the items on the school’s Wish List. Teacher Beckie has planned a soccer game for campers and their parents at this year’s summer Braille Camp, so soccer balls with audio aids in them were put on the list.

Zora thought the balls could be used during the school year, even before camp starts in July, and donated the money needed to purchase them.

Before choosing the soccer balls, Zora’s desire to give was attracted to art supplies.

One day last month she drove into the school parking lot and removed a large plastic bag from her car. Whatever was in the bag caused it to form stretch marks. She put the bag down on a chair in the lobby, then asked a staff member to carry it the rest of the way to the rear classroom.

The staff member who picked it up said he felt like a cartoon character who winds up pulling himself to a heavy bag instead of pulling the bag to him.

Maybe it’s no mystery as to how Zora managed the feat of strength.

She had lots of goodies in the bag and was determined to deliver them were they were needed.

Out came assorted art supplies, including glue sticks, sequins, glitter, and construction paper. No wonder the bag was so heavy. The paper was high-quality. “The sales clerk at the crafts store told me the higher quality of paper won’t fade,” Zora said.

Zora knows that Louis Braille School students will be making many booklets with construction paper. She chose the non-fading (and heavier) paper so the children’s work will last longer.

When Zora came to the Louis Braille Center several years ago, she was seeking a braille greeting card for a friend. She was impressed at how quickly the job was done. “In five minutes I had a card,” she recalled.

She began volunteering at the Center. Eventually she took up the study of braille.

After the Center dissolved in 2005, Zora resumed volunteer work by reading to children at the Louis Braille School. She also volunteered at summer Braille Camp.

At last year’s camp she spent time with a boy who loves multiplication tables and Beatles’ music. “We had a lot of fun together,” she said. “He would be listening to the Beatles when I would ask him another multiplication table question. He knew the right answer every time.”

As she thought of all her time spent with children at the Louis Braille School and summer Braille Camp, Zora wished she could buy every item on the Wish List.

“But sometimes it takes more than just looking and wishing,” she said. “Other people would probably love to give, but sometimes don’t know what to give. The Wish List gives them the opportunity to buy things that will be useful to the school.”