Gloucester residents Janet Ulwick-Sacca, an educator, and 14-year-old Matthew de Brigard will be featured when National Braille Press hosts its annual “Million Laughs for Literacy: Braille All Stars” gala at Fenway Park in Boston on Friday, Nov. 17.
The benefit event for National Braille Press, an organization devoted to empowering the blind and visually impaired with programs, materials and technology to support braille literacy and learning through touch.
During the gala, Ulwick-Sacca, a teacher for 40 years, and de Brigard, will join the other “Braille All Stars” to share their stories about the effect braille has made on their lives.
Comedian Pat McGann is the featured entertainment; the event can be viewed virtually on Nov. 17 starting at 8 p.m. at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6172666160.
A longtime educator, Ulwick-Sacca said she was honored to be part of this gala and support the cause.
“It’s a chance to showcase braille and what it does for people that can’t read print,” she said.
And for students, de brigard said braille has helped him enormously.
“It’s not that hard to learn,” he said.
Although he doesn’t use it a lot in school, he knows how important a skill it is to have for his future, for his own use and on job applications, he added.
“For now, it’s kind of a back-up tool, as my vision deteriorates,” said de Brigard, an O’Maley Middle School eighth-grader.
For now, he uses technology in the form of a laptop-size device and some large print books to access his school curriculum.
Ulwick-Sacca has taught generations of students, from preschool to high school, who grow into successful adults.
Among her favorite memories of braille are when she and a group of second-graders created fortune tellers that were a hit on the playground.
“It’s proof that anything can be adapted using braille and tactile graphics,” she said.
In other endeavors over her career, she started an after-school braille club to encourage students to learn how to use a slate and stylus, and at times she found that her students could pass notes around that no one else could read.
Ulwick-Sacca moved to Gloucester in 2003 from central Massachusetts, and has been working as an itinerant teacher for Gloucester Public Schools.
“I do a lot of training and consulting,” she said. “I go into different schools with students with visual impairments. Sometimes I work directly with students and sometimes I work with teachers. I also do evaluations with children with visual impairment on any level to find a way to get the curriculum into a format that the students can use.
“School is 90% visual, and if you have distorted vision, it’s difficult to perform at your ability. Braille provides an alternative way for students to interact with their curriculum.”
The longtime educator said working as a teacher of students with visual impairments is a very rewarding job, and she has a long list of high school graduates who go on to college, including Harvard.
“They all have been able to do what they wanted to do,” she added.
She has worked with diverse students, from those born blind to all variations in between, including those with impairment from muscles that don’t work in the eyes or those who lose vision over time.
For Matthew de Brigard, he is a thriving student whose vision challenges have not prevented him from playing the sports he loves or from continued academic success.
He is the oldest of six siblings, and loves to compete in the classroom and on the playing field. He currently plays soccer for the Gloucester Riptide and is the lead-off batter for Adaptive Sports New England’s Boston Strong, a beep baseball team, on which he leads his team with the most defensive put outs.
“Matthew loves reading braille with his mother and teaching his siblings. During the summer, he loves surfing and camping. Matthew enjoys taking on any challenge and relishes learning and overcoming obstacles. His favorite books are those in the Harry Potter series. He loves military history and on his own time reads and researches history books,” according to a news release.
“While he has usable vision with most day-to-day tasks, his vision is not good enough to read regular size print or what is on the board.”
His family came to learn about National Braille Press through its ReadBooks! program.
As for Friday night, the eighth-grader said it will be fun to be part of the event attended by “a lot of very nice people who donate” to National Braille Press. He will even read the name of the raffle winner – in braille.
“Braille is extremely useful and I would highly advise anyone,” he said, “even if you’re sighted, to learn it.”
For tickets to “A Million Laughs for Literacy: Braille All-Stars” gala or to donate, visit: https://www.classy.org/event/a-million-laughs-for-literacy-gala-braille-all-stars/e506888.