35 years ago, our son, Jared, was born visually-impaired. 1, I learned from Jared's teacher about Seedlings Braille Books for Children, an organization founded by Debra Bonde. Although she did not plan to 2 a nonprofit back in 1984, she 3 helping blind children all over the globe.
As a 4 woman, she initially wanted to find a volunteer job without having to talk to anyone. 5, she signed up for a braille transcription （转录）class and began 6popular children's books, printing them, and selling them for just the 7 of the paper. Word spread and 8grew for more of her books. Friends helped her to form a nonprofit so she could start getting grants and 9 to help with production costs. That first year, she printed 221 books.
From its 10 beginnings 37 years ago, Seedlings has produced and 11 more than 600,000 books across the world, half of their books given away for free.
As a mother, I12 Seedlings providing "typical" experiences for Jared in school so he could check out books just like his 13 classmates.
Jared graduated from Michigan State University and 14 a telecommunications degree. Since 2012, he has 15on the Board of Directors for Seedlings—making an impactful difference in the lives of children, the way Seedlings did for his.
