Audio-Reader Program will celebrate 20 years of broadcasting from Pittsburg
PITTSBURG — Two individuals who helped initiate the Audio Reader program in Pittsburg will be among the volunteers, staff and community members to gather at the Homer Cole Community Center, 3003 N Joplin St., for a 20th anniversary celebration on March 4. The event runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Sheila Marque, the program’s local coordinator, and Lucy Bednekoff, volunteer reader, were both among the volunteers who helped launch Audio-Reader’s first satellite location in 1996.
“We’re proud to be able to help people who can’t read standard print stay in touch with their local community by reading area newspapers for them,” Marque said.
Volunteer broadcasters read newspapers from southeast Kansas, northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri from a studio at the Homer Cole Center from 2-4 p.m. weekdays. Additional volunteers prepare the reading material prior to each broadcast, which is carried on a subcarrier of KRPS Public Radio. Listeners access the Pittsburg broadcast and other programming, including books, magazines and regional and national newspapers, via special radios provided by Audio-Reader free of charge.
Audio-Reader, which has operated on the University of Kansas campus since 1971, serves people in Kansas and parts of Missouri. To register for the service, call Audio-Reader’s main offices at 1-800-772-8898. Applications are also available at http://reader.ku.edu/application.pdf.
To learn about volunteering, contact Sheila Marque at (620) 232-0633 or Jennifer Nigro, coordinator of volunteers, at 1-800-772-8898 or jnigro@ku.edu.