The New Jersey Unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic will kick off its 50th anniversary celebration with its annual Record-A-Thon the week of April 16 to 21. The community open house is Monday, April 16, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the unit’s studio in St. Joseph’s Seminary at 69 Mapleton Road in Plainsboro, when people interested in learning how they can get involved with RFB&D or about how its volunteers create AudioPlus digitally recorded textbooks on CD, can tour the facility.##M:[more]##
Clif Giddings of West Windsor has volunteered there for 10 years. “Shortly after I retired I realized that I had to find something to do to fill the time,” he says. “A woman told me that I had a really good speaking voice and a friend invited me to see a recording session at RFB&D.” He began volunteering with the organization in February, 1997.
“I read mostly philosophy, rhetoric, history, religion, poetry, short stories, and any books that have a lot of footnotes in romance languages,” he says. “I do cold readings for the most part.” Giddings takes his work seriously and arrives 20 minutes early to scan through what he feels he can cover in an hour and a half. If he comes across a phrase in Greek he will ask someone familiar with the language to write it phonetically for him.
During R-A-T, the unit’s nearly 400 volunteers donate extra time to record educational texts for individuals who cannot effectively read standard print because of a learning disability or visual impairment. A 10-day Internet auction to benefit the unit begins on April 16 at noon. Auction items include show tickets and autographed memorabilia. The auction can be accessed at www.ebay.com/mbcharity. RFB&D will be listed under “Signed Items for Charity.”
“For the last couple of years I bring food instead of reading extra hours,” Giddings says. Planned culinary creations include chewy cranberry bars, double chocolate cranberry brownies, pears in custard sauce, and a seven-layer dip. According to Tony Gruenwald, the assistant production director and communications coordinator at RFB&D, Giddings has been dubbed the King of Record-A-Thon because he brings in many goodies on days he is not recording.
Born in Dawcett, Vermont, Giddings attended semi-private schools and graduated from Burr and Burton Seminary. His sister still lives in Vermont and works at the Vermont Country Store. His father was a contractor and his mother died when he was very young. His grandmother, who lived with them, was a teacher and his inspiration. She also taught him how to cook.
After graduating from the University of Vermont he received a Fulbright Award and attended the University of Grenoble in France. He then had a teaching fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Giddings taught for a couple of years in Wake Forest, Illinois, before earning his master’s degree in library science from the University of Chicago. He was the associate head of reference at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and later the directory of Library services at the Scott Foresman Library in Glenview, Illinois.
During that time he met Albert Barrett Jr., whose father owned an asphalt and paving company in Mercer County. When the senior Barrett retired, he asked his son to run the company and offered Giddings the office manager position. Giddings moved to West Windsor in 1976. He bought a farmhouse on Line Road that was built in 1785. Shortly after the younger Barrett died in 1996, Giddings retired.
Several celebrity volunteers will appear to record from books they have written. Janet S. Wong of Princeton who will record her recent children’s books, “The Dumpster Diver” and “Twist: Yoga Poems.” Institute for Advanced Study professor emeritus Freeman Dyson will record from his recently published book “The Scientist as Rebel.” Pulitzer Prize winner and Princeton University professor emeritus James M. McPherson will record from his new book “This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War.”
Pete Genovese, who writes the “Eat with Pete” and “Munchmobile” features for the Star Ledger, will serve as honorary Eat-A-Thon chair, record from his book “Jersey Diners” and sample the smorgasbord prepared by unit volunteers.
Volunteers, including adults and high school students with computer skills, are always needed. On regular weeks, orientations for new volunteers are usually on Tuesdays at 2:15 p.m. and Thursdays at 10:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. Call 609-750-1830 for information about volunteering. — Lynn Miller
Community Open House, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, St. Joseph’s Seminary, 69 Mapleton Road, Plainsboro, 609-750-1830. 13th annual Record-A-Thon begins. Monday, April 16, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
