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Photo of a child reading a braille book outside

January 2006: Seedlings' founder and director was selected for an award by Harlequin's More Than Words Program--"Ordinary Women who have made extraordinary contributions to their community". For more information, please click on the following link: Harlequin More Than Words and then click on "2006 Award Recipients".

May 2002: Seedlings' founder and director was selected as a "Michiganian of the Year" by the Detroit News. To see the newspaper article, please click on the following link: Detroit News 5-19-02

Seedlings Mission

Seedlings Braille Books for Children is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to increasing the opportunity for literacy by providing high quality, low cost braille books for children.

Seedlings History

In 1984 when Debra Bonde founded Seedlings, braille materials were scarce and expensive. Her goals were to increase the availability and lower the cost of braille books for children in order to promote their literacy skills and the love of reading. In 1985, the first year of book production, Debra made 221 books in her basement office. By 1990, Seedlings was producing 5,000 books per year, which precipitated its move out of Debra's basement and into the Bentley Center in Livonia, Michigan, and eventually to our present location on Farmington Road in Livonia. In 2007, with a small staff, and a group of loyal volunteers, Seedlings produced over 23,000 braille books and articles, with a grand total of 255,000 since 1984, equaling over 12 million pages of braille!

In 1994, Seedlings added The Rose Project, which provides encyclopedia articles in braille for student's projects and reports. The Rose Project has become a very popular resource for students eager to work independently. We anticipate requests for approximately 800 articles per year. Thanks to generous donations from our supporters, this service is entirely free to visually impaired students in grades 1-12. (To order an article, please click on "Special Projects", and then on "The Rose Project".)

Seedlings Books

Seedlings braille materials have opened up new worlds for thousands of children. Seedlings Braille Books for Children is keeping visually impaired children in the mainstream of popular literature and is reaching braille readers in all 50 states and several foreign countries. Seedlings contributes to literacy by providing visually impaired children equal opportunity to develop the love of reading. At this time, less than 20% of the 50,000 blind children in the United States are proficient in braille. All too often, the written word has been inaccessible to them, and this is what we are hoping to change.

Braille books are provided at each level of development, from toddler board books to classic literature for older children. Just as sighted children learn to "read" as they are exposed to the printed word, so do visually impaired children who are exposed to the tactile page at an early age. New titles are added every year as highly skilled volunteer braille transcribers spend countless donated hours translating print books into braille and preparing them for computer disk to await production. Once the original translation is complete, additional books can be printed as needed. Exposure to popular, high quality braille literature throughout childhood increases the likelihood of children developing into able braille readers.

Seedlings Funding

As a non-profit organization, Seedlings sells its books for considerably less than it costs to make them. Support is very broad based and comes from individuals, philanthropic groups, corporations and private foundations. Seedlings receives no government or United Way funds. Thanks to hundreds of generous donors and dedicated, hard working volunteers, the price of Seedlings' books remains far below actual production costs, averaging only $10 per book.

Seedlings 2008 Board of Directors

Mark Bosscher, CPA
Nancy Brown, Retired Teacher of the Visually Impaired
Caryn Doehler, Therapist
Johanna Fritz, Teacher of the Visually Impaired
Paula Korelitz, Former Teacher of the Visually Impaired
Linda Long, UPS Community Relations
Sharon Marsh, Parent of Visually Impaired Child
Rose McGlynn, Parent of Visually Impaired Child
Elaine Morse, Retired Bookseller: Borders Bookshop
Emily Petroski, Attorney
Sue Ward, Retired Elementary School Teacher
Jerry Weichbrodt, Project Manager for GM & Braille Reader

Seedlings' Board Members receive no financial compensation for their services.

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