John and Carol McConnell have both been blind since birth. Each was born prematurely and that affected their vision, leaving both to spend their lives in darkness.<\/p>\n
But for the McConnells, who have been married 26 years, that does not mean that they can\u2019t spread a little light of their own.<\/p>\n
Every week, the pair of Kent residents can be found at Tape Ministries in SeaTac, volunteering their time to duplicate tapes for others who are also blind or have physical ailments that keep them from being able to read.<\/p>\n
To the McConnells, the work not only keeps them busy, but allows them to give back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more than just putting tapes in a box,\u201d John said. \u201cIt\u2019s knowing you\u2019re really helping someone with these tapes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple met nearly three decades ago at a workshop for the blind in Phoenix. She was from Chicago and he was from Topeka, Kansas, but the pair hit it off and were soon married.<\/p>\n
The couple moved to the Pacific Northwest in search of work. Presently, Carol maintains the house while John works for American Airlines – no, he\u2019s not a pilot, he takes reservations over the phone for the airline.<\/p>\n
But John also is an ordained minister, with a bachelor\u2019s degree in theology and a master of divinity from Grand Canyon College. He does not presently have a church of his own, but is looking to get back into the chaplaincy.<\/p>\n
The couple met Bill Wippel, executive director of Tape Ministries, while at a Christmas party for the Washington Council for the Blind, of which John is the president of the King County Chapter (Carol is the group\u2019s secretary).<\/p>\n
By February, they were members of Tape Ministries\u2019 board of directors and in April the pair started volunteering.<\/p>\n
Because they are blind, the work they do for Tape Ministries is fairly simple and repetitive, but it is still important work for the group. This week, Carol was duplicating the ministries\u2019 monthly \u201cOur Daily Bread\u201d tapes, 700 of which go out each month and must be erased and duplicated with the new message when they are returned, while John checked each tape to make sure the duplication took.<\/p>\n
Next week they will switch, so John does the duplicating and Carol checks each one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kind of make a game out of it, trying to bury each other,\u201d John said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Both are strong in their religion and see their volunteer work as an extension of their faith.<\/p>\n
But along with that, the volunteer work gives them a chance to get out of the house. Traveling using King County Metro\u2019s Access service (which is not always on schedule, which can be difficult for the couple and the ministries), the pair spends most of their Monday afternoons at the small house in SeaTac, happily working away while John\u2019s service dog, Naja, naps quietly at his feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love it,\u201d said John. \u201cI like this better than my other job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the house feels like a prison,\u201d Carol added.<\/p>\n
The work also gives the couple a sense of purpose and helps them keep a positive outlook.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you sit around feeling sorry for yourself … no one\u2019s going to want to be around you,\u201d said Carol with a shrug.<\/p>\n
According to Wippel, the McConnells\u2019 positive attitude is infectious.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re both so much fun,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve become like our right arm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wippel said 75 percent of the work at Tape Ministries is done by volunteers and having the McConnells adds something extra because of their appreciation for the non-profit\u2019s clients and said the pair is a \u201cwealth of information\u201d about how they can better serve their patrons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s rewarding to have them come and volunteer,\u201d he said, adding that working with John and Carol has also given him a greater sense of what the blind can do. \u201cWe really don\u2019t realize how much they can do until we let them do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the duplicating, the pair has taken it on themselves to personally call all 1,175 patrons who receive tapes to ask if they need support and find out how better the Ministries can serve the blind community.<\/p>\n
For them, staying busy is important, but so is proving that blind people are more capable than some people think.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like the word \u2018can\u2019t\u2019\u201d John said, adding that he doesn\u2019t like being characterized as \u201chandicapped.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only a handicap if you treat it as such,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Council for the Blind<\/p>\n
The King County Chapter of the Washington Council for the Blind meets from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the second Saturday of each month at the Corridor Cafe, 2819 S. 208th St, SeaTac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John and Carol McConnell have both been blind since birth. Each was born prematurely and that affected their vision, leaving both to spend their lives in darkness. But for the McConnells, who have been married 26 years, that does not mean that they can\u2019t spread a little light of their own. Every week, the pair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":11970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11969"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}