By the time you receive this newsletter, we will have just one planning meeting left before our first fund-raiser of the year-a BBQ Chicken Dinner at Burn’s Park. Have you told your friends to come on Saturday, April 21^st? Remember if it should rain, we will still have it by providing take home dinners. We had a grand turnout last year, but we hope we have an even bigger one next year. *SEE THE ATTACHED FLIER FOR MORE DETAILS!

If you need tickets, contact Carolyn Jolley at 569-3169 (work). This number is voice and TDD. Tickets are five dollars no matter if for adult or child.

April 11^th- Planning Committee Meeting DA*

21^st BBQ Picnic/Burns Park Social-see flier*

May 4^th Monty Ball (DB) Birthday

19^th Picnic/Hiking at Pinnacle Social

26^th Heather Myers (SSP) Wedding

30^th Geraldine Dennis (DB) Birthday

June 4^th Sherry Cardell (DB) Birthday

16^th Magic Springs/Crystal Falls Social

(*DA-means Deaf Access located at 4601 West Markham.)

We received several letters this time. The first asked, "I would like to hear about hobbies" Well, when space permits we would like to print some. So who would like to be first?

Our friends, Larry and Sharon Wilson sent a few jokes to us. "Money doesn’t talk, it swears!" Another…"A man goes in the drugstore and asks for something to cure hiccups. The drugstore clerk slaps the man in the face. The man then asks why the clerk did that. "Well, you don’t have hiccups anymore do you?" The man says "No, but my wife out in the car still does!" Other letters are found throughout this newsletter.

As I was writing the DBA this time, I realized we don’t have a place for news that just doesn’t fit in anywhere else!

Ann Garner wrote us with this announcement:

Jared Hogue (SSP) and his wife, Allison, are the proud parents of a new baby girl named Kristen Elizabeth Hogue, born on Valentine’s Day! (Editor: I bet she is a real "sweetheart"!)

In the last issue, I printed the Web address for ADBC incorrectly. It should be all lower case. One of our readers, Carel Dunaway, took the time to try it out and discovered the problem. He then sent us an e-mail pointing out the error so I could share the right address with all of you. The correct address is: http://deafvision.net/adbc/. Thanks Carel! I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

This column is intended to tell you of resources around the world, in our own community, on the web, and…

• There is a new national college for the Deaf and Blind being planned and maybe located in Talladega, Alabama.
• Also I read something about the Louisiana Career Development Center that teaches deaf and deaf-blind people to live independently and helps with job placement. To find out more about any of these things you can subscribe directly to:

• There are links to hundreds of websites concerning the Deaf-Blind. One is: www.blindcommunity.com. A unique feature of this website is the walls where you can write messages or you can read what others have written. Larry and Sharon Wilson wrote that they think we should give this a try.
• A good book about a deaf-blind man is titled "Of Such Small Differences." Ann Garner recommended that this might be a good book to read.
• There is a new e-mailing list called SSP_Program. You can either join by visiting the website at:

www.egroups.com/SSP_Program or send a blank e-mail to: SSP_Program-subscribe@egroups.com

• One more place I heard about is called "Chocomelt".

They have chocolate bars in unique shapes. (Braille, sign language, guide dogs, etc.) For more information you can either visit their website at: www.chocomelt.com or mail them at:

The Chocolate Experience

PO Box 540836 150-07 Bayside Avenue

Flushing, NY 11354

I want to re-emphasize one thing that I shared with the general membership. With unforeseen budget changes in the state agencies in the next few years, I want every one of you (DB & SSP) to be prepared. I know you want to attend the next AADB conference in CA (July 2003). We were very fortunate to get some help from Rehabilitation Services for our trip to Ohio last year. I encourage you to try to save some money ($20, $25, or so) every month to build up your own fund just in case you need it. The cost to attend this next conference may be around $1,000 per DB and $500 (for flight) per SSP. I will make sure ADBC will help its members again, but we need to keep our account with a minimum balance of $2,000 if possible. Last year we almost ran out of money after helping out with the trip to Ohio, but fortunately some of you were willing to help by buying your own flight tickets which was greatly appreciated! Thus, I want to make a commitment that we keep a suitable amount of money in our account for other things. It is about 30 months left for the next conference so if you save $25 every month for 30 months, the total would be $750.

What makes it easier for me to do my job is the many people that read the newsletter & send in comments, suggestions, or news to print.

The next issue of the DBA is mailed with your July fliers. The deadline is June 1^st. Wow, as they say spring has sprung!

Remember you can e-mail your items to: ADBCnews@aol.com

Or mail to: The Deaf-Blind Arkansan

4601 West Markham

Little Rock, AR 72205

You can also give them to the secretary at Deaf Access to have them placed in our mailbox or you can put on a diskette-just use either MS Word or ASCII) Always remember YOUR suggestions can help make the DBA better & really represent this community! Let’s close this issue with another funny…

See you in July and …

remember to keep on smiling!