Char, I think your approach was a little different, so tell us about you and your background and when you started volunteering.

Thank you.

Well, I also have RP, retinitis pigmentosa, and I started to lose my sight when I was seven.

But I, I lived pretty unhappily for some years until I found that I could be happy and be blind.

And my first introduction to volunteerism was I heard a radio announcement in Portland, Oregon, and they were asking people to volunteer to man a metro crisis line.

And I wanted to do that so bad, and I went to the interview, um, and they liked me okay, but they said, "You know, someone blind couldn't possibly do this," and I said, "Give me a chance." So I was able to do that.

But what changed me was during the training to be a metro crisis line volunteer, they did a training on talking to people who are depressed.

Char, can you talk about that a little?