Boston 2008 Record-A-Thon

The New England Regional Unit/Boston Chapter of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic conducted its annual Record-A-Thon from Monday, April 28 through Saturday, May 3, 2008. More than 170 volunteers and guests, including Congressman Michael E. Capuano (see related story and photos) read nearly 7,800 pages of text resulting in 16 completed digital audio textbooks during 2008 Record-A-Thon.

“We reached 92 percent of our goal of 100 percent booth utilization during the six-day event, or 265 of the available 288 recording sessions,” states Christina Raimo, Regional Executive Director. “2008 Record-A-Thon also raised more than $11,500 in vital funding, (see list of 2008 Corporate Sponsors) 100 percent of which is returned to our programs and services due to the generous donations from local businesses that provided food and raffle prizes,” Ms. Raimo exclaimed (see list of 2008 local businesses).

“This year we also doubled the number of corporate volunteers participating in Record-A-Thon,” reports Ron Wudarsky, Director of Development. “Ten corporate teams (list of 2008 Corporate Teams) covered 59 of the two-hour recording sessions during the week,” Mr. Wudarsky concludes, “We are proud to announce that Team Fidelity were the 2008 Recording Stars.”

Another 32 recording sessions were handled by 3 community groups. Leading, in this category were the volunteers from Boston Cares, who covered 25 recording sessions. The City of Cambridge Team was lead by Cambridge Mayor, E. Denise Simmons, who came by the studio on Monday, April 28, 2008 to help ‘kick off’ the event. Returning again this year were representatives from the Rotary Club of Needham, MA.

Record-A-Thon is a week of excitement and fun. It brings together the community in support of the production and distribution of digital audio educational resources for students who have visual, learning and physical disabilities causing them to struggle with the standard written word.