SCAVI NEWS A monthly newsletter of the South Central Association of the Visually Impaired SCAVI, P.O. Box 2216, Bedford, IN 47421 Newsletter written and produced by President Rita Kersh. Rita can be reached at 812-278-3038 or e-mail at hoosierrita60@gmail.com July 2023 WHAT'S HAPPENING IN SCAVI Our next meeting will be on Monday, July 10 at 9:30 a.m. at the Free Methodist Church, 630 R St. in the basement fellowship hall. Our guest speaker will be Dennis McKinney with Advanced Low Vision Technology and he will demonstrate the new En-vision glasses with AI technology. SCAVI BIRTHDAYS Loney Gailey July 10 VISION LOSS NEWS Mastercard rolls out its first inclusive credit card for visually impaired consumers in the U.S. Visually impaired Accessible technology - BingNews Wednesday, May 24, 2023 Mastercard Inc. will roll out its first U.S. credit card for visually impaired consumers, done in partnership with Citizens Financial Group. Citizens’ new private-client credit card will feature a square notch on the side of the card meant to signify to blind and partially sighted customers that the card is a credit card, the company said Wednesday. Citizens ultimately intends to roll out the accessible cards across its broader portfolio, including debit cards, which will feature round notches, and prepaid cards, which will have triangular notches. Linda Kirkpatrick, Mastercard’s North America president, said she expects the card to help the 12 million people in the U.S. who are either blind or partially sighted. “It’s something you don’t necessarily think about when you’re not visually impaired, but this unlocks a lot of potential for those in that scenario,” she told MarketWatch, as the notches will allow consumers to distinguish between their cards. Mastercard began working on the Touch Card technology in 2019, and while it’s done some limited programs internationally, the Citizens card marks the first time it’s implemented a globally consistent standard. All cardholders of the new Citizens product will receive cards with the designated notch, not just customers who are blind or partially sighted. Brendan Coughlin, Citizens’ head of consumer banking, said at a media presentation that Citizens started the Touch Card rollout with its Private Client World Elite Mastercard simply because the card is new to the market. “There wasn’t a dramatic strategic reason why private client versus the non-private client versus the debit card,” he said. “The idea is to get into the whole portfolio and this just happened to be the first product that we were otherwise innovating on.” RECIPE CORNER Crockpot Chicken Santa Fe 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed, drained 2 (15 ounce) cans whole kernel corn, drained 1 cup salsa 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, cubed 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese In 4 quart crockpot, combine beans, corn and 1/2 cup salsa. Top with chicken. Pour remaining salsa over chicken. Cover. Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours, or until chicken is tender and white throughout. Remove chicken. Cut into bite sized pieces. Add back to crockpot. Cut cream cheese into small cubes. Add to crockpot, turning temperature to high. Cook until cream cheese melts and blends into sauce. Serve over rice. Top with shredded cheese. Hot Dog And Bacon Roll Ups Cook Time: 6 hours Ingredients: 2 pounds (20) hot dogs, cut in thirds crosswise 1 pound bacon (20 slices), cut in thirds crosswise brown sugar Preparation: Take a piece of hot dog and piece of bacon, wrap bacon around hot dog. Secure bacon to hot dogs with toothpicks. Place one layer of wrapped hot dogs in bottom of crockpot and sprinkle generously with brown sugar. Repeat until all the hot dogs have been used, ending with more brown sugar. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours, or cook on HIGH 3 to 4 hours. Makes 60 hot dog and bacon appetizers. BBQ RIBS IN CROCKPOT 2 lbs. boneless ribs 1 lg. onion, chopped 1 tbsp. garlic salt 1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce Combine all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low setting for at least 6 to 8 hours. Crockpot Ranch Potatoes 2 (24 ounce) packages frozen hash brown potatoes, partially thawed 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese 2 packages Ranch salad dressing mix 2 (10.5 ounce) cans cream of potato soup Place potatoes into crockpot. In bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Add to potatoes, stir well. Cover. Cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. Stir before serving. Party Meatballs 1 (16 ounce) package frozen meatballs 1 (18 ounce) bottle barbecue sauce 1 (10.5 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup In bowl, combine all ingredients. Pour into crockpot. Cover. Cook on low for 4 hours. SCAVI MINUTES SCAVI met on Monday, May 1, 2023 in the fellowship hall of the Bedford Free Methodist Church. Those in attendance were: Cindy Brooking, Sue Fleener, Ida and Loney Galey, Rita Kersh, Leslie Mullis, Denise Mullis, Mike and Dolly Sowder, James and Karen Veen. Rita Kersh, president, called the meeting to order and introduced our speaker, Andrea Rope, optometrist. Andrea shared information about eye diseases such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and others. She feels encouraged that today’s treatments are better than those in the past and research continues. The business meeting began by Rita also. Ida Galey made a motion that we accept the minutes. It was seconded by Karen Veen. The motion passed. Sue Fleener made a motion that we accept the treasurer’s reports for February and March. Dolly Sowder seconded it and the motion passed. The April report will be completed soon. The balance on 3/31/23 was $4,688.08. The ACBI board met on April 29 and will donate an Amazon card for the ACB auction. We discussed adding to the gift card for the convention. Dolly Sowder made the motion that we contribute $25. Sue Fleener seconded it. The motion passed. Our annual picnic will be held on June 17 at noon at Thornton Park. SCAVI will provide chicken, drinks and paper products. Members will provide the sides and desserts. The ACB convention will be held on July 1 in Schaumberg IL, close to Chicago. The registration fee is $35. There will be virtual information a week prior to the convention. Information will also be available through Alexa or Echo.dot. Our regular meeting will be postponed until July 10 due to the ACB convention taking place on our regular meeting day. Cindy Brooking made a motion that we accept the new meeting date. It was seconded by James Veen. The motion passed. Our state picnic will be held at McCormick’s Creek State Park. The date has not been set yet. (NOTE: After the meeting Rita reserved a shelter at the park for Saturday, September 16.) Submitted by Denise Mullis, secretary