For BVA members and their families who celebrate the holiday, Happy Halloween! Come tomorrow morning, those with leftover candy or excess candy collected from trick-or-treating can donate it to support a good cause, that of providing a few sweets to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers, Military installations, and Guard/Reserve units that have registered and been approved to receive the collected candy. Soldiers’ Angels Treats for Troops is a Halloween Candy collection program where local

Extreme sports athlete, National Geographic 2015 Adventurer of the Year, former Navy Petty Officer 1st Class, and BVA member Lonnie Bedwell has made his dream of reaching the highest peak on each of the Earth’s seven continents a reality, the first blind person ever to do so. On October 17, he and his companions made it to the top of Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya in Indonesian, literally meaning Victorious Peak), the last on his “beyond

Despite the current federal government shutdown, hopefully resolved prior to Veterans Day, the Veterans Day National Committee of which BVA is a member continues to move forward with the planned activities for the annual ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11. The VSO breakfast is a hallmark of the day, but will this year be held away from the White House due to the renovations in progress there. Subsequent activities usually include a traditional

The BVA Book Club Interest Group has recently seen increased attendance at its monthly virtual meetings and greater enthusiasm to read the works selected by the group. The reading occurs via the audio Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled Downloadable Books and Magazines. The book just completed was John Grisham’s 2001 novel The Painted House, a departure from Grisham’s legal thrillers. Having enjoyed one