Sierra Services for the Blind Newsletter

August 2024

"Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them." ~ Winnie the Pooh

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Adjusting to Changes

When funding an agency like Sierra Services we are consistently having to adjust.  While the economy and the community change, the fact that one in three people will be legally blind at age eighty will not change.  We are the oldest county with people over age eighty in the state, which is also not changing.  An agency that is dedicated only to client service like Sierra Services for the Blind does not have a product to sell.  We also have never charged our clients for our services.  Doing so would make many of them have to go without the education, transportation and counseling we provide.  As a result, we do not have a classic profit margin to build our budget around.  The budget is cost driven, not profit driven.  We depend on donations.

The society that is Nevada County, and its view of the world is changing.  In the past most of our clients were born here and this was their community.  New residents tend to be younger and remain closely connected to where they moved from.  The perception of the community is not that of an inclusive neighborhood as it once was.  The new definition of a suburb is not miles away, it is hours away.  Inflation amplifies the impact.  As with our personal lives, inflation is higher for those commodities we need most.  Things like fuel for the van, energy bills, and insurance have gone up more than the national average.  Our budget rose 35% from inflation alone.  When seniors and families are using their credit cards to buy food it is an indication of how deeply the economy cuts.  Remember, credit cards do not pay for the groceries, you are taking out a high interest loan to feed your family.

We also depend on investments that result from estate donations.  If the stock market drops, the value of our investments will drop.  Corporations have less to pass on to the investor in the form of dividends, who then have less to donate.  As in our case, donations from estates created the investment account in the first place.  They have helped us since but are random by nature.  We hope you will consider us in your planning.  Unless we can find a sustainable funding source funding from our investments won’t last forever.

Monthly donations we hope can become a greater part of our funding.  It also gives us a more stable income, and the funding goes back into the community faster as we pay monthly bills locally.  They add up and small donations do more than you think they do.  Large national organizations make millions asking for $20 or less.  We have a Monthly Giving Program.  A monthly donation of $100 is $1,200 a year and pays several months of the van’s gas bill.  But a $10 or $20 monthly donation by 5 or 10 people will do the same.  A check is a 100% donation and has no bank fees.  Direct deposits from your bank are easier.  Call the office for advice on how to join our Monthly Giving Program.

Another trend is in fund raising events.  There is a reason they are also called “Friend Raising Events.”  You hope to attract a larger donation base.  These events are economy sensitive as well.  Businesses that are suffering cannot give what they once did for the raffle.  People who are not eating out as often are not able to pay more for a dinner to support an agency.  We charged $35 for the dinner that once cost $15 to make, now it won’t cover it.  The dinners cost more to put on as inflation raised grocery costs to a prohibitive point.  The new Eskaton dinner and having Event Helper join us in the golf tournament have helped regain the programs.

For 43 years we have been known as the agency that does what it says it will do.  When COVID stopped the group meetings we adjusted to a more personal connection, our service to the client never stopped.  The staff simply adjusted to the times.  We have a program that simply works.  Government grants are for larger organizations in large cities to “innovate”.  They then dictate your services around those listed in the grant. 

When the economy recovers, and when you can, give locally.  Money sent elsewhere goes elsewhere.  Funding granted to a local agency like Sierra Services stays in the local community and economy, and it circulates locally an average of six times in a year.  That in turn allows our community to sustain itself.

It is our responsibility to observe societal changes when they occur to better serve our community and change with it.  Blindness is not a disability that gains national attention.  We will continue to provide a service of proven worth, and serve as an example of a community serving the community they live in.

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"Aging gracefully is in the art of trading our experience for wisdom, and the realization that a country lane is

measured not in how fast we can run, but how well we see the journey."

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"A man who has no imagination has no wings." ~ Muhammad Ali

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Phantom Vision verses imagination.

We often talk about phantom vision.  When the mind is not getting images it expects due to a loss of vision it makes things up.  There is no real solution, or, maybe there is.  The brain wants stimulation.  If you can’t see to read, talking books is one example, and reading creates images our mind can work with.  Perhaps if we keep it busy with tasks and images created by our imagination we can keep it working to our benefit.

One thing we all do is use our imagination to recall something in our past, and we must direct it at the good things, not the negative.  Especially when it comes to human relationships.  But there were other things we have done in our lives and perhaps wished we had changed it.  Take something simple like when you were living in a different home and always wanted to remodel the kitchen, or have done something with the back yard.  You may not have the home anymore, but you can use your memories and imagination to make those changes.  Use your imagination to create what could have been, and go as far as to bring other members of the family with you.  Do not see the changes as a regret, just as a fantasy we could not afford at the time.

Making due with your imagination is not just for artists who always have the works they never got to do, or were just out of reach of their actual ability.  Many of us have that book we always wanted to write but never had the time, and now you can’t see well enough to get it done.  Use your imagination to create that story, make changes in that art work, or go once more on that vacation now that you know more of the history of the place you went to.  You can appreciate it more now and it keeps the mind busy.  You can sit by the river again, or watch that sunset at the beach with fond moments that can be relived as the images your mind saved for your return.  There were cool breezes that made the leaves dance and the imagination had a zephyr to follow, the smell of the sea or forest, and the sounds that went with it you can also bring along this time.  Controlling the direction your story is going, canceling the negatives to create what could have been rather than just letting it fade into the past to return only in fits and starts.  You could possibly control the fits and starts of phantom vision.  Just remember it is your imagination, not remembered as reality.

And perhaps if you can, just perhaps, phantom vision will at least take a turn for the better.  And perhaps, just perhaps, the imagination will allow us to have a greater appreciation for what we do have.  And do it in a way that we understand and know we are not losing our mind, we are simply using our mind to create what imagination alone gives us as a gift.  We all day dream.  Make an art of it.

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"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who only dream by night."

~ Edgar Allen Poe

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Golf Tournament begins in earnest

The 2024 Gold Country Classic Golf Tournament will take another step into being a major event not only for the agency, but for the community as well.  We will return to the Winchester Country Club, one of the finest private golf courses in the region.  The event will be held on Friday October 4^th, and will be a perfect way to get in one more exceptional round as the golf season winds down.  We are still hearing from those that played Winchester with us several years ago, and it is now available to us with the assistance of the tournament sponsor, Event Helper.  Not only is the course itself a step up, the quality of the facility and the food is also as good as it gets. 

There will also be changes that come with a step up.  Our cost will be greater so we will have to raise the price per player to $195.  This is still below what many tournaments charge for the day of golf, and the dinner, raffle and event awards that finish the day.  Those that have come before are aware of the quality of our raffle, and the unique character of some of our games and prizes.  Another change will be that we will not be offering the box lunch before the event.  For many it was just another sandwich, but we plan to have folks on the course with a variety of offerings.  We are also working on more surprises.

Sponsorships for the event, combination sponsorship and play, hole sponsors and other aspects are again open and a major part of the fundraising aspect.  We must also limit the number of players to 100, so get your name in early.  It is time to put us on the calendar and save the date.  Be one of the hundred.  For more information and to secure a spot call the Sierra Services office at 530-265-2121. UPDATE 8/29/24 We have decided to cancel the golf tournament this year as we did not find there was enough golfer or sponsor support.

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Winnie the Pooh and the Adult Lessons of a Childhood

Winnie the Pooh got his name from the noise he made trying to blow a fly off his nose.  Pooh was a, ”Silly old Bear”.  If he got, “Rumbly in the tumbly”, he could pretend to be a little rain cloud to get up into the honey tree.  If you get a little too far away from home looking for the North Pole and start to worry you can declare a long straight pole as your destination and start for home and play Pooh Sticks from the bridge instead.  If he had a problem he could, “Think, think, think,” until he either found a solution or just did something else.  He could justify his fears and say, “I’m not lost for I know where I am.  But, however, where I am may be lost.”  After all, “If it is not here, it must be out there.”  We learn from him that we can also, “Always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been.”

Pooh was also a philosopher of sorts.  He knew that “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.”  He could simply handle what came his way no matter which direction it came from.  He realized, “You can’t stay in the corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you.  You have to go to them sometimes.”  He could also lament in a positive way, “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard.”  Even a river could be a window to his patience when he said of simple truth, “Rivers know this.  There is no hurry, we shall get there some day.”  On a, “Pooh blustery day” they did find Eeyore’s tail.  Eeyore had lamented at its loss by saying he had been quite attached to it.

He also accepted things for what they were because he believed, “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”  If something does not go well one simply says, “Oh bother,” and moves on. 

Every now and then computers and the new direction artificial intelligence takes make us say, “Oh bother”.  We then like Pooh move on to the next adventure.  In the counseling groups it is a part of the solution to the loss of vision for many of our clients.  When you have a hard time getting the simple things done, “Oh bother,” works quite well.  In the end he says to Christopher Robin, “It wasn’t much good having something exciting if you couldn’t share it with somebody.”  After all, “The things that make me different are the things that make me, me.”

Pooh is a story directed at adults as well as children.  Christoper Robin tells Pooh what we try to tell our clients as they face the loss of vision, “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”  Silly old bear.

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"Hugs are always the right size." ~Winnie the Pooh

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We are now a smaller office

By the time you receive this newsletter we will have finished the move back into our original one unit space.  Due to financial restraints we are having to give up the large unit next to us where we have held meetings for the last two years.  Our address will be the same is it always has been:

546 Searls Ave, Nevada City, California 95959

Like all things we have taken the opportunity to simplify, and clean out forty years of clutter.  We can also move things around some so we don’t have to use a storage closet for peer groups.

At the same time we will retain our staff at the level we took several months ago.  Larger meetings will be off site as they had been for years, and local churches have agreed to participate in that process.  Simply stated, we will retain our present level of service to each of our now 175 clients.  A number that is growing.  We will also retain our tradition of not charging our clients a fee for our service.

We will also hope that we can change our financial position with a new level of fund raising.  Our recent Lasagna Dinner held at Eskaton is but one example.  The golf tournament is also being expanded with a major sponsor, Event Helper, who is more directly involved in creating the event.  We will also continue our Membership Drive, and the kindness of the community and clients who donate regularly.  It is still true that we are dependent on larger donations from estate settlements, and an occasional large donation from an individual or a grant if one becomes available.  Monthly donations help immediately.

Inflation is still the number one change in our funding.  We hope it changes soon.

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"Great acts are made up of small deeds." ~Lao Tzu

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A Changing Client Base

As our community changes it is the responsibility of the agency to change with that community.  In the case of an agency like Sierra Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, that has a clear client base with a specific need that is harder to do than retail stores that can change their product or menu.

What changes for us is the nature of those who need our services, and that changes one client at a time like it always has.  If there is a shift to a younger client base, their needs are slightly different than the elderly.  Their loss of vision is often caused by events such as an accident, or something like Glaucoma which may bring on a sudden change.  Macular Degeneration is less aggressive.  Younger clients are also more active both physically and socially and require fewer services like transportation to a doctor.  The number of clients over age 80 dropped two percentage points in the last year.  The number of clients in the 40’s and 50’s doubled.

Younger clients tend to be new to the community.  They still have strong ties to where they came from, especially those that work at home and order what they need on line.  Often they have never quite become an active part of the community.  Doctors may be elsewhere.  The community will change to accommodate them, like Grass Valley has done with the Mill Street Mall.  Restaurants will simply change their menu.  However service to the blind and loss of vision does not have that ability to find the simple fix.  The elderly are already making changes in their life to accommodate lower income or the loss of mobility, so they are more willing to make the little adjustments and accept the fact getting old has its expectations.  Younger clients want the system to make it go away.  The, “Why Me,” aspect.  They are mad about it and more resistant to changes.

New clients are not as dedicated to the sense of the local community.  They are a community within a community and less committed to participating in, or supporting the broader needs of the community they have moved into.  That changes the agency in terms of individual service.  Traditional aspects like cane training are far more difficult in Nevada County than in a large city.

They are more likely to donate to the larger national organizations than to the local and traditional needs focused on the individual’s specific need they find here.  We are not national.  We are an agency serving a specific community need the old fashioned way.  We are individuals serving the specific need of another individual on a more personal way.  Like communities are supposed to do.

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We are looking for volunteer drivers! Interested? Please talk with Melissa,

(530) 265-2121

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New From BARD

Cotton's War DBC13565 By Phil Dunlap. Reading time: 7 hours, 54 minutes. Read by Nelson Goud. A production of Indiana State Library, Indiana Talking Book and Braille Library. Western Stories When Virgil Cruz and his gang kidnap the woman he loves and threaten to kill her if he interferes with their plans, Sheriff Cotton Burke turns to Memphis Jack Stump, the only man he trusts to infiltrate Cruz's gang, for help. Some descriptions of sex, strong language, violence. __oOo__ Smithsonian Magazine, July 2018 __oOo__ The loss of the S.S. Titanic: its story and its lessons DB 91999 By Lawrence Beesley. Reading time 4 hours, 40 minutes. Read by Steven Carpenter. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Subjects: Travel Description: The personal record of one of the 705 survivors of the Titanic disaster in 1912. His eyewitness account is augmented by those of other passengers who were spared, contributing to a general report of events and behavior the night the ship sank within three hours of colliding with an iceberg. 1912. BARD is a National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. __oOo__