MUSIC:
Live life you want.
Nobody can stop you.
Shoot for the sun, and break on through.
Speaker 1:
The following message is brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President National Federation of the Blind, live the life you want.
MUSIC:
You can live the life you want.
Yes, we know the truth.
Mark Riccobono:
Greetings, fellow Federationists. Today is Monday, November 24th, 2025, and this is Presidential Release 555, our holiday and end of year edition for the presidential release. I anticipate the last one for this year. I do want to bring you holiday greetings on this release, but it turned out I had more to cover than I thought, so I'm going to dive right in. But specifically I wanted to cover three things with you on this release, the year that we have had together, how to deal with families as blind people during the holidays and the year ahead.
So let's talk briefly about 2025 in the National Federation of the Blind. I do believe this year will be remembered as a special year in our movement. We started the year by talking about some of the financial pressures on the organization and what we were doing about it, and I do want to say that Federation members have answered the call in a really beautiful way this year, both giving feedback on the things that we could do to utilize our dollars in smarter ways and stretch them more effectively.
But also, many of you have made personal contributions to the organization, and more importantly, you've encouraged others to make financial contributions to our organizations. I should also say that we have a number of chapters and affiliates who have gotten on our pre-authorized contribution program. I don't think I'll be able to slip those into this release, but I promise you in January we will celebrate all of the chapters and affiliates that came onto the PAC plan that we haven't announced recently on the release, so we will do that.
Our chapters and affiliates have also been stepping up in other ways to make financial contributions to the organization, covering costs for our national representatives to come to state conventions, covering delegate costs for the national convention, and covering other costs within the organization. All of this I think will bring us to a really good place at the end of 2025 when we wrap up our financials, and we'll be discussing that at the national convention.
Now, we have more work to do for certain, we have to continue to get the word out and find ways to talk to people about giving to our organization, but we've done great work in this regard in this year, and should feel proud of that. And we have been active across the country in so many ways through our programs, not just our federal and local advocacy, all the way down to advocating in local IEP meetings. We have been making connections between newly blind people, and raising expectations for blind seniors.
We continue to build our employment programs and our programs of education, and at the same time, we have been positively influencing the image of blindness in many places in society, and we've been having a little fun with it. At other times, we got our Jernigan Institute recognized and included in the Baltimore Edition of Monopoly this year.
So it has been a good year for the Organized Blind Movement, but more importantly, it's been made great by the great people in our organization. And so I want to thank you for your many contributions to our movement in 2025. Now, before I turn to some other topics, we do have a number of Federation family notes that I'm behind on getting on this release, so my apologies for that. I want to catch up on acknowledging some of the members who we have lost this year, either earlier this year or during the past few months that we haven't gotten onto the release.
Starting with Idaho, where the Idaho Treasure Valley Chapter reports the loss of Veronica Talland. She was reported as having a true spark for life, a sense of humor, and she was a great member of our organization. She was a guide dog handler, and the chapter wants us to know that her guide dog's name was Cash, so maybe her and her guide dog were active in raising money for the organized blind movement.
From Arkansas, our Central Arkansas Chapter reports the passing of Adren Duncan, who was an active contributor to the blind community, and more recently active in the National Federation of the Blind. Among the many notes that I received, one of them notes that he was one of the very first blind licensed social workers in the state of Arkansas.
From Mississippi, we've learned of the passing of Jean Mallett on October 9th of this year. Jean was a long time member of our Mississippi affiliate, and was described as a steady presence and faithful contributor for the at-large chapter in Mississippi. From Florida, we've been notified of the passing of Judy Gibbons, who was an active member in Florida, but also a close friend and mentor to many. From Georgia, we've learned of the passing of Francine Henderson, who was a member of the NFB of Georgia Atlanta Metropolitan Chapter. She passed away on Monday, October 13th.
From California, I have a couple of notes. The first is that the Bakersfield Chapter shares the passing of Brittney Brim in September. Brittany, in addition to being an active member of the chapter, often came to national conventions and always made sure to visit the presidential suite. Our San Diego Chapter reports the passing of Edward Zamudio in early September as well.
From New York, we've learned of the passing of Felicia Karaszewski, hopefully I got that name right, from our Buffalo Chapter. Long time member of the Buffalo Chapter as a matter of fact. Felicia passed away earlier this month. She was 89 years old. From Maryland, we learned of the passing of Frances Walls who passed away in October at the age of 91. She was a member of our Eastern Shore Chapter for over 40 years. We have a number of notes from Ohio that I need to make you aware of.
The first is that Lakisha Tony passed away on October 9th. It's noted that one of the joys that she had was in September. She was part of the affiliates visit to the Jernigan Institute, and everybody was happy that she had that experience before she passed. Susan Turner also shares the passing of Melissa Kennedy on October 3rd from our Ohio affiliate. And finally from Ohio, Eric Duffy reports the passing of Pat Eschbach.
She died on November 6th, 2025. She was 90 years old. Eric sent a number of notes including that in the 1970s and early 1980s, Pat was the first lady of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, while her husband Bob served as affiliate president, and I believe also served on the national board. He notes that her heart remained true to the work of the Federation until she passed away, and probably beyond. From Massachusetts, David Tickey has reported the loss of Jerry DeFranza earlier this year.
Jerry was a longtime member of the National Federation of the Blind from Winthrop, Massachusetts. He was 85 years old when he passed away. He had been active in the Federation since the 1970s, and was particularly active with our legislative and advocacy work at all levels of the organization promoting why blind people should be determining for themselves what the policies are that impact us. I encourage you to keep all of these members and the ones that we've shared earlier this year and we might not have known about also in your thoughts and prayers during this time of year.
I have one more Federation family note though to share as we close the year, and that comes from Oklahoma where our At-Large Chapter reports that Christina Augustine and Elvis Baker became the proud parents of Jocelyn Grace Baker, who was born on October 2nd, 2025. She weighed in at six pounds and eight ounces, and measured 16 inches long.
So I'd like to welcome Jocelyn as the newest member of the National Federation of the Blind. Now, a couple other things I'd like to talk with you about on this release, and one of them is how we deal with family during this time of the year. It's a time that brings great joy, of course, but also for some of us, it creates a level of anxiety because our families often can be one of the hardest to deal with in terms of their misunderstanding about blindness and our capabilities, and this sometimes creates a philosophical struggle for us as we work to raise our own expectations as blind people.
For some, our families might have been the ones that were really surrounding us with low expectations, and so in the Federation we've found something different, something empowering, and when we go home for the holidays, that disconnect confronted with those low expectations from our loved ones can be very hard to deal with, and can hurt even though we've faced it before.
For others, we just may have families who naturally over help everybody, and so we have to navigate what that means for us as blind people and how that may impact us, and our inability to participate in our feelings about that being treated seemingly differently. Yet for others, when we asked to help during the holidays, we are told that there's nothing to do even though we notice that many others in the family are finding ways to help out, and we're just allowed and expected to sit and wait, and that can be a lot to navigate as the family dynamics.
You may not want to push back on that, and of course, all of that and more issues are complicated by the general family dynamics that have nothing to do with being blind. So one of the great things that we have in the National Federation of the Blind is we are connected to this Federation family, and we can share the difficulties of these experiences and what it feels like, and how we try to navigate it as we all might have different approaches.
We can learn from each other about when to push and when not to push, and start to learn about how to keep those expectations high, but most importantly, use the Federation family as a source of strength to remember that we do belong and we can participate. And despite what struggles we may face in our individual family situations, we do have that internal confidence locus of control, and continue to make contributions as we find through the National Federation of the Blind.
We know that blindness is not the characteristic that defines us, and we also know that we want to live in the world and not have our blindness be the source of controversy or strife all of the time. We're going to deal with low expectations, and that often unfortunately, is going to happen in our own families.
So one thing I would encourage you to do if this is an experience you have at the holidays, and it is for many of us, is to center in yourself in your heart the feeling that you get from being in our convention assembled when you're with thousands of other blind people who share your hopes and dreams, and who believe in blind people the way that you do. Remember that when you're with your family, if you feel like you're all alone, you're not. You're not alone.
You belong and you're part of the Federation family, and know that you're not the only blind person having this struggle during the holidays, especially for those who may be in our movement who are newly blind. You're just learning to navigate this, and I want you to know that you do have a source of Federation family to call on in these times. I also want to bring this up because there is an opportunity to do something about it, and help to change those misconceptions when you come across them.
In the past, we have distributed a piece of literature called the Courtesy Rules of Blindness, and you can still find this on our website. It includes 10 simple points that are meant to help non-blind people be a little more at ease in having us around not feel so nervous about it and not limit our opportunities and our participation. You might consider giving this piece of literature out to your relatives or maybe distributing it ahead of time before you show up at home.
But I also bring this up because in 2026, we are going to be revising the Courtesy Rules of Blindness document. And it occurred to me that we should learn from the continued wisdom of our blind community to see if there are other things we should include in the Courtesy Rules of Blindness. How should we change it in 2026? What should be dropped? What should be added? Should some things be emphasized more?
You all are the best source of wisdom for that as you navigate your family situations. What would be helpful to have in a Courtesy Rules of Blindness document in 2026? Love your ideas. Please send them to us. You can send those to [email protected]. Of course, you can always write to me at the Office of the President, but our communications group will also be collecting these ideas.
It might be that there's nothing to be changed in this piece of literature, but we always want to make sure that we're incorporating the latest thinking of the members of the Federation. And I do call to your attention the Courtesy Rules of Blindness as one thing you might use as a tool to help you navigate the family dynamics as a blind person during this holiday season. Now, let's talk finally about the new year. I'm truly excited about what is ahead for our movement in 2026.
As I have traveled this country meeting with blind people this year, I have been inspired and motivated by the level of intergenerational wisdom that's being shared, and the commitment to active participation in our shared movement. Next week, just after the Thanksgiving holiday, our national board will be coming together and discussing our priorities for 2026 shaped by our experience with members across the country.
In addition, we will be thinking about the most pressing advocacy priorities in front of us, but also how do we continue to build a active membership and create opportunities for members to share deep experiences with each other, to leverage the resources that we have created, and to bring to scale the work that we're doing in all parts of this country. And we have so many tools now to do that.
I call to your attention again, our newest podcast, Walking Alone and Marching Together, but also our other publications, our other podcasts. We're going to be thinking about how to continue to improve these tools so that we can build our organization, strengthen it even further in 2026. Each of you as members in our movement have the power to shape what 2026 is like and to shape our success.
As you gather with your family for the holidays, I encourage you to share what excites you about the work of the Organized Blind Movement and bring that back to your local chapter and affiliate for 2026. We should recommit ourselves to the work, and also find new opportunities to build in our local communities.
So I want to invite our chapters to have these conversations. What was exciting about 2025? What motivated us, but what's our priority for 2026, and how can we use our local talent to leverage upward to build our affiliate and our national movement? I do want to thank you in advance for your commitment and dedication to our work in 2026.
I look forward to meeting those members who I have not had the opportunity to meet, and to working alongside so many great friends that I've had the opportunity to work with this year and in other years. And I look forward to hearing the ideas that our chapters and affiliates have about what we should be focusing on, what we should be building in 2026. The members of this organization continue to have the power to build, and I know that we will have a great year in 2026 because we have such great members.
This does bring me to the end of this final presidential release for 2025, and it's hard to believe how quickly this year has gone by. I am looking forward to sharing Thanksgiving with my family, and we will certainly be sharing our gratitude for the tremendous people that we have the opportunity to march alongside with in the Organized Blind Movement. I want to wish all of the Federation family very happiest of holidays. I hope that you do have a joyous time with family, and where there are struggles, I hope that the Federation continues to be a source of strength for you.
And I want to wish the entire organization a very wonderful 2026 based on the great success that we've had together here in 2025. Now, before we close, unfortunately I don't have any singing from the Riccobono Choir to close this holiday presidential release as I've had in some years, but I do have some customary endings for you to consider maybe the best of 2025.
So what do you call an old snowman? Well, that would be water, of course. How do you help someone who has lost their holiday spirit? Well, you should nurse them back to Elf. And finally, what do reindeer say before they tell a joke? This one will slay you. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind. Happy New Year.
Speaker 1:
The preceding message was brought to you by Mark Riccobono, President National Federation of the Blind, 410-659-9314, officeofthepresident@ nfb.org. Follow President Riccobono on Mastodon. Just search for @[email protected]. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.