Los
Angeles Times
Tuesday, July 9, 2002
“A
Life of Giving Provides Food for the Soul. Volunteer's chance
meeting with someone she had helped forms basis of story of inspiration.”
By Matthew Chin
Volunteering to record for blind and dyslexic people
isn’t glamorous duty but the rare moments of recognition
can be valuable memories in someone’s life. One such story
from a local writer has even found its way into a best-selling
book series.
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic volunteers
read textbooks onto audiotape for students who are blind or have
other physical disabilities that prevent them from being able
to read.
For more than four decades, Rose Betty Kelber was
one of those volunteers, making weekly trips from her home in
Ontario to the group’s Upland studio. She started in the
1950s, shortly after the organization was founded. She joined
because she saw how it helped one of her nieces, who was blind.
The students who benefit from the group’s work
range from kindergartners to Ph.D. candidates. Its 91,000 titles
include everything from "The Cat In the Hat" by Dr.
Seuss to advanced level physics texts. One of the organization’s
102,000 patrons worldwide could check out a book with your recorded
voice on it, and you might never find out.
It’s pretty rare for volunteers to meet the
people they read for, especially someone who has actually heard
their voice, Kelber’s daughter, Diane, said.
But that’s exactly what happened to Rose Kelber.
The story of that encounter, written by her daughter, is one of
87 profiles on volunteers in a forthcoming book called, "Chicken
Soup for the Volunteer’s Soul."
The best-selling Chicken Soup series profiles stories
of inspiration and encouragement. The series ranges from stories
for lost teenagers to avid golfers.
Rose Kelber’s story begins when she introduced
herself to a young blind man. Diane Kelber remembers the story
from when she was growing up and guesses the meeting probably
took place in the 1960s.
Upon hearing Rose Kelber’s voice the young
man replied, "Oh I know you. You’re the lady with the
smiley voice."
The man had studied a textbook—Diane Kelber
doesn’t know which one—that her mother had transcribed
onto audiotape.
The man’s answer became the title for the short
story.
Besides recording, Rose Kelber was active in the
area with her time. She was the first woman president of the Ontario-Montclair
School District Board, serving in 1975 and 1976. She also learned
Braille so she could type tags on the audio textbooks she had
recorded, then took her knowledge to form a Braille transcriber’s
guild.
"She was so full of passion, that it was really
hard for her to sit still," Diane Kelber said in an interview.
The elder Kelber even earned her college degree
late in life, at the University of La Verne in 1978.
Rose Kelber continued to volunteer her time recording
books, even as she fought a battle with pancreatic cancer in the
last year of her life. The staff at the Upland studio even set
up a recording station at her home so she could continue her work.
Diane wrote of her mother that in those last few
months, what had once been hours of reading had turned to just
15 minutes on the best of days.
"She actually became embarrassed that was all
she could give," Diane Kelber wrote in the story. "Finally
too weak to record and riddled with pain, she spent her last days
proofreading Braille lessons for the blind college students who
had come to depend on her."
The woman with the smiley voice—and a lifelong
passion for helping others—died in June 1998 at the age of
77.
Her story might inspire more people who never heard
of the organization to check it out and perhaps even volunteer.
"Once somebody can see what another average
person does and how meaningful that is, it always inspires them
to at least pick up the phone," said Morgan Roth, a spokeswoman
for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.
There are plans to record "Chicken Soup for
the Volunteer’s Soul" onto an audio format.
©2002
Los Angeles Times.
Reprinted by permission
