Listener Lowdown

A vivacious listener from Florissant recently reminisced about growing up in St. Louis in the late 1930’s and 40’s and spoke about how Minds Eye Information Service has impacted her life in later years.

Jeanne’s mother and father came to the United States from the old country as children. While her mother and father were both sighted, Jeanne and her twin sister were born with diminished eyesight. Jeanne and her family lived in a St. Louis neighborhood with her relatives close by. Many a summer evening was spent out-of-doors visiting with friends and family. Jeanne and her sister enjoyed visits with her grandparents in Staunton, Illinois, where she spent carefree summer days sunbathing at the reservoir

As Jeanne grew older, her eyesight got progressively worse. She joined an organization called the United Workers of the Blind. At one of their Christmas parties, she met Fr. Boniface Wittenbrink, O.M.I., the founder of Minds Eye Information Service, then called Radio Information Service. Fr. Boni and Jeanne became good friends and in 1982 he loaned Jeanne her first radio receiver so she could keep abreast of local and national news. Back then, Jeanne was able to visit the radio station and met many of the volunteer broadcasters. She was always in attendance at the social events that the station sponsored for its listeners.

Jeanne met her future husband at the United Workers of the Blind and was a first-time bride at age 60. The newlyweds enjoy an active lifestyle participating in the blind bowling league, entertaining friends and attending conferences for the blind. Jeanne and her husband are dog lovers and they adopted a stray Australian Terrier named Mr. Chips.

Many years have passed since Jeanne received her first radio from Fr. Boni, but she still enjoys listening to the reading of the daily newspaper and the grocery store advertisements. Although she doesn’t cook and entertain as much as she use to, she still listens to the Friday “In the Kitchen” program on Minds Eye.

VOLUNTEER PROFILE
Wednesday Morning Crew

Each Wednesday morning, Pat Downen, Vera Burns, and Don Margenau sit down to read from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Belleville News Democrat. The crew starts to assemble, pre-read articles and chat about the week’s events around 7:30 a.m. As the clock inches closer to 8 a.m., they get down to business. For the next three hours, they bring Minds Eye Information Service listeners the news of the day by reading the local news, obituaries, editorials, sports, and the fun part of the paper, the family pages. With three
years of volunteer reading under his belt, Don is the rookie. He retired from Monsanto-Solutia and drives in, rain or shine, from Chesterfield, Missouri. Pat is a member of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). She retired from MCI Communications before she began volunteering with Minds Eye in 1992. She also sings in the Belleville Philharmonic Chorale. Vera, also a retiree from Monsanto, began volunteering for Minds Eye in 1991. She’s also a member of RSVP and enjoys gardening and playing the piano. Longevity is just one of the qualities of this group; commitment is also a major factor to their success. Between the three of them, the Wednesday morning crew has logged over 4,600 hours of service to Minds Eye Information Service!

CONGRATULATIONS

John Weidlich, Minds Eye Program Director, was recently recognized for having completed 30 years of service with the radio station. John has seen the station move from reel to reel tape recorders through mini disk recorders to our current state-of- the-art computerized recording equipment. Congratulations, John!

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