University Daily Kansan, September 9, 1983
Page 7
Blindness is not a deterrent to woman pursuing interests
By SUSAN WORTMAN Staff Reporter
Bonnie Owens cooks, sews and plays the guitar. And she has sky-blue eyes that stare straight ahead. But they don't see.
Owens, 2125 W. 23rd St., has degenerated glaucae. The disease has slowly deteriorated the trace of eyesight she had when she was born.
"But it's not like that ever stopped me from doing anything," she told a group of residents at a Babcock Place gathering last night.
Owens attended the gathering, at 1700 Massachusetts St., to tell the residents what it was like to be blind and deaf. He said he took coping with degenerative sight.
"I like to hike and be outdoors. And I like to go to movies and plays, just like anyone else," she said.
Water is another love of hers, she said.
"I LOVE to swim and go on raft trips. One time, we made a raft out of two-liter pop bottles and floated down the river on that," she said. "But you know you want to travel to county skiing. You would that be a lot of fun."
Being blind does not mean being dependant on someone, Owens said. That is one of the main misconceptions people have about blindness.
She takes care of her own money, reads by tape and cooks for herself.
"You can tell how long something has been cooking by how it tastes," she said. "You can tell when
something is done by the way it smells. And, you can especially tell when it is overdone by the way it smells.
"Like when I bake cookies, I do it all with the phone. It is all in the time. So I put the cookies on the tray and call the time . . . and temperature . . . and call to check on them, and call again to take them out."
OWENS HAS her own system of doing ordinary household jobs. She has invented a system to manage her clothes and show for groceries.
To match her clothes, Owens uses a system of safety pins and clips to discern which clothes match.
Owens was born in California and attended a grade school for the blind. But she went to a public high school and attended college at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City.
"High school was definitely the most difficult. I had been at the blind school and there, everyone else was blind — the students and some of the teachers. They all read braille, and all did the same things I did. But, high school was so much more competitive," she said.
Owens came to the University of Kansas to do her graduate work, and last May she received her doctorate in social work.
"PEOPLE WERE nice about helping me if I asked. But, that was my problem, I don't like to ask: Being blind has never kept her
Being blind has never kept her from doing anything.
"Whatver most people want to do," she said, "that is what I want to do."
Requirements for food aid adjusted for inflation
Guidelines for qualifying for food assistance from the USDA have been updated because of inflation, an official at the Council on Community Services said yesterday.
By the Kansan Staff
and yesterday.
"The guidelines have been adjusted in instruction," said Louise Siliber, interim coordinator for the Council on Community Services of Douglas County. "A lot of people are newly poor because of the job situation and many more people are struggling to make ends meet."
Previously, if a single person earned less than $504 a month, he qualified for assistance from the United States
Aid from the USDA is important to Douglas County residences, Silber said. More than 2,500 families are currently in the program, and the number is constantly rising. The program is popular because people can care for themselves come home after some type of aid, and still be eligible to get cheese and butter from the USDA.
Department of Agriculture. That figure has been updated so that a single person can earn $699 a month and still qualify for aid, Silber said.
"AT THE LAST distribution, which was during the last week of August, we handed out 8,800 pounds of cheese." Silber said.
People already registered for the program should register again under
the new guidelines. New applications will be accepted at the six Lawrence distribution centers until Oct. 1.
The locations include: the Salvation Army, 949 New Hampshire St.; Ballard Community Center, 708 Elm St.; Penn House, 1035 Pennsylvania St.; the Council on Aging, 745 Vermont St.; Mustard Seed Fellowship, 256 N. Michigan St.; Brook Creek Neighborhood Association, 15th and Brook Streets; and Lawrence Indian Center, 2236 Louisiana St.
Douglas County community service organizations will be offering additional aid for food and shelter during the next few months with federal grant money.
The federal government, as part of the Emergency Jobs Bill Act, has authorized a $100 million emergency food and shelter program. $424,000 of which has been granted to Kansas.
ANYONE WHO wants to apply for aid should contact one of the participating agencies for an application. People should bring documents verifying their income levels during the past three months, or notices of eviction or foreclosure.
the aud is available on a one-time basis and will be available through November or until all the money is used. The guidelines for the program are the same as those for the USDA Commodities Distribution Program.
Nigerian Student Association
General Meeting
Funded by the Student Activity Fee
5:30 p.m., Saturday, September 10, 1983 Council Room, Level 4, Kansas Union
Agenda includes: opening and introductions, reading of the minutes of the previous meeting, speeches by guests, annual reports, general elections, commentary by the new president and closing.
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