President's Corner
by Nancy Birk, UBPN President

April 2003

To the UBPN Community:

Ah Spring!
In Ohio, it has been a winter of much snow. Thankfully, Spring at last is here with the promise of warmth and new growth bringing change and renewal. Change and renewal have been characteristic of my life in the months since my last President's Column.

After 20 years of enjoyable and satisfying work as a Professor at Kent State University, I retired at the end of 2002. The decision to retire was not an easy one. Based upon the very good advice I have received from my friends on the Adult OBPI message board, I took a very hard look at myself during 2002. While I have had bpi surgery that has allowed me to achieve new functionality, my non-bpi arm and hand were experiencing considerable overuse issues and arthritis had begun to cause problems in both shoulders. The work that I did as University Archivist required lifting boxes on a daily basis, and in September when I flew to California to pack up 40 boxes of rare books for our library from a donor, I knew the time had come. Luckily, the university and the state teachers retirement system, where my pension comes from, agreed with me and after considerable paperwork, medical reviews and tests, I was granted a disability retirement. For me, then, the New Year brought opportunity for change and I finally have time to dedicate to daily therapy.

For so much of my life, I have been driven to achieve, which led me to the university, where I climbed to the highest academic rank. I do believe that my drive was fueled by my injury, by a need to prove myself. And so, there I was, at the pinnacle and it was not as fulfilling as I had thought it might be. Instead I found myself spending more and more time working with UBPN and doing what I could to further its mission.

Our organization is growing and we are thankful for the many volunteers who are working tirelessly to help others. April is National Volunteer Month and I'd like to recognize our many volunteers. You may not realize it but everyone who works for UBPN is a volunteer. To all who give freely of their wisdom and understanding on the message boards, I thank you. To those who work on various committees, from Awareness to InterACTION, I thank you. And to the Board of Directors, who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make this organization viable, I thank you. Words are small reward for the many devoted hours spent furthering our mission, but the gratitude hopefully extends into heartfelt recognition and the satisfaction that this work is significant and meaningful.

Our Board of Directors met at Silver Bay Association at the end of March to make final plans for the upcoming UBPN Camp 2003. The next issue of Outreach is in the mail and will contain our tentative camp schedule as well as answer all those questions you have about camp. We are very excited about Silver Bay - it is an ideal location for the kind of a camp experience we envision for our families. We hope to see you there!

Best wishes,

Nancy Birk, President
UBPN, Inc.

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September 2002 | May 2003