Our Mission Statement

To create, form and established an organization to print, publish and create Braille books and materials to blind and sight impaired individual; to provide financial aid and other reasonable economic assistant to further the purposes of the corporation. The lawful public or quasi-public objective which the above will achieve is to provide Braille books and materials to blind and sight impaired individuals who otherwise not have access to necessary materials.

Our History

1963 The Beginning

The Transcription Program for the Blind was established in 1963 and is now considered to be a special charity for the Columbiettes of New York State. Our humble beginning, Columbiettes volunteered at the Xavier Society for the Blind on 23rd Street in NYC. They learned how to transcribe Daily Mass Missals and Children's Missals and textbooks for grade school children into Braille and large print, it was later conceived that perhaps the ladies could make their own books in Braille for children and so from a small acorn the Transcription Program has become a giant oak.

In June 1964 Our first Chairman was June Strining and our first book was launched called "the Animals Came First ", then in June 1967 the "Funny Alphabet", a new three dimension book was introduced and by Christmas that year the book was distributed to 100 children. And another 100 books were ready to be sent out.

In June 1970 The program introduced a new book called "Our Friends on the Farm".

In June 1975 Memorial cards were introduced for the Transcription Program for the Blind. People can give these cards out when needed and the recipients will be remembered at the Memorial Mass held during the convention. Our ladies continued to hold workshops across the state, where they made the articles, such as aprons, clowns, elephants, rabbits or umbrellas to name a few , that would be placed into the book. Each felt letter is hand traced and hand cut, each Braille cell is carefully made and each item is skillfully secured onto each page of the book.

In June 1982 It was announced that monetary grants would be given to blind children and young adults for educational purposes and Get well cards were now being offered for sale and all proceeds will fund the program and the grants.

In June 1985 A member of a Boy Scout troop presented a cassette story tape to go along with the Funny Alphabet book making this a Read –A-Long book. He worked on this as part of his Eagle Scout project.

In 1989 The Transcription Program moved their equipment to Hempstead Council where it remained for numerous years. Theresa Trumbull and State Past President Theresa Ryan became the new Chairladies of the Transcription Program for the Blind

Each year at the annual meeting twenty – thirty grants recipients were announced.

In 1998 State Past President Janet Novak and Fran Patane became the chairladies of the Transcription Program for the Blind and thirty four grants were awarded at the Convention Session and the program material was moved to Fr Mooney Council in Westchester / Putnam Chapter.

In 2001 Florence McCague replaced Fran Patane as co-chairlady of the Transcription Program for the Blind and twenty seven grants were awarded

In 2003 Donna Shaffer and Loretta Brennan became the chairladies of our Program. Many more workshops were held at the current location. Books continued to be produced and sent out across the US and around the world to the delight of children, parents and educators.

In 2007 the Transcription Program took a exciting new adventure under the leadership of NY State Columbiette President Micki Magee, Past State President Anne Sullivan and Vice President Donna Byron and with the help of Chuck Shaffer Esq., the program was incorporated and became a Non Profit Charity, with continued work by Micki Magee it became a recognized 501 (c) 3 non profit charity corporation. Micki Magee became our first Corporation President. Later that year the program was moved to H Stolzenthaler Council in Staten Island and Vicky Porcelli became the Chairlady of the book program. The program was continuing to grow and it was determined that in order to do this we would have to restructure our program slightly. With Vicky in place to handle the book part (workshops and mailings to our clients), Donna Byron agreed to become the Chairlady of the Grant Program. Books continued to be made and mailed and grants continued to be distributed to those in need. We were able to add grants for members who are sight impaired.

In 2010 we received a grant from The Prudential Foundation, Inc Newark NJ that allowed us to expand our book program into Spanish and we currently make and distribute books in both English and Spanish. It is our continued hope that our books provide a fun educational experience and some joy to the children, parents and educators who need and use them.

In 2013 we celebrated 50 successful years of service to a beautiful and special group of people who have gone on to become successful in many fields of academia, both private and public, serving hundreds of communities and we know of one of our early recipients who became a lawyer. We are very proud of all of our volunteers as we are a 100% volunteer organization who will continue to make and distribute our books at no cost.

Our history is continuing, evolving and exciting. Today we are positioning ourselves for the next 50 years, by continuing our positive approach and remaining steadfast to Respect the Past, Honor the Present and Embrace whatever the Future has to offer us, while focused on doing the best the we can …because We Care.

Our Officers

• Micki Magee - Corporation President