The National Federation of the Blind Krafters Division was born when a newly blind woman wanted to find others who were blind with whom she could share her love of crafts, and learn from them how to craft as a newly blind person.
How the dream became a reality
by our founder Joyce Kane
I returned home from an NFB Convention in 2007 that was held in Atlanta, Georgia and thought it would be cool to be able to meet up with blind crafters to learn from one another how each other did their crafting. It stuck in my mind.
I contacted Baltimore and talked to Pat Mauer. Then, I called back, and talked to Joann Wilson to get some advice on how to do something like this.
I thought maybe have an email list. So, by September 1st, 2007, this listserv was started. As it caught on, I felt that I wanted to move forward, and there seemed to be enough folks interested, and Joann Wilson gave me advice on how to create a division in the NFB.
We planned our first meeting to be held in Dallas at the NFB Convention in July 2008. I met with Dr. Mauer in Dallas, and he put me together with Ramona Walhof. I spent a whole afternoon sitting in the hotel lobby with Ramona and Cindy Sheets to come up with a constitution to present for our organizational meeting the next day. We had over thirty people show up for that first meeting, and we voted in a board, voted on the constitution, and presented all of that to Dr. Mauer before the end of the convention.
In July of that same year, around convention time, Laurie Porter, our second VP, talked to me about having classes via telephone conference calling. So, she offered to teach a jewelry beading class. She did the research on conference calling, and kicked off our first class around convention time.
The next step, involved waiting for the National Board to meet in November for their regular meeting and vote on accepting the National Federation of the Blind Krafters Division as a new division. After speaking to Joann Wilson in August for some more advice, I asked about waiting until November for being considered a division; much to my surprise, she told me everything was already done and we were official!
In case you are wondering why we use Ks instead of Cs in our division and list name, I had used in the past Krafters Korner and I used the Ks because of my last name being K A N E. When we talked as the board members hoping to be voted in at the start, they decided to keep the Ks as the uniqueness of the division, and I was thankful as it was an honor to me.
So, I have spent a lot of time talking about Krafters Korner to anyone and everyone and the word has spread. I am willing to give any idea a try. All I want is to have sharing, teaching, and a love of crafting grow to touch any blind person that wants to give it a try.
I am so proud of all that everyone has done to make NFB Krafters Division [Krafters Korner] what it is.
In 2011, prior to the NFB Convention in Florida, we adopted the motto: ”
Krafters Korner is for everyone and everyone makes Krafters Korner what it is.”
Note, In January 2023 the NFB National board switched Krafters from a division to a group.