Page 4 - JANUARY2023

Page 4 NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM January 2023
Community
By William nieman
Debbie Doe...Gifts of Sight and Song
“He has sent me to preach recovery of sight to the blind.”
Luke 4:18
“I will sing to the lord; I will make music with the lord.”
Judges 5:3 (The Song of Deborah)
On the afternoon of No- vember 22nd, the sanctuary of the Bristol United Church of Christ was filled with an audi- ence enjoying and participating in a concert given to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. Al- though officially presented by the United Church of Christ, the concert was, in most respects, the result of the efforts of Deb- bie Doe, longtime local resident, and member of Bristol’s historic “Church on the Hill “.
As founder and director of “The Joyful Noise Ukulele Band,” Debbie had chosen the musical selections to be per- formed and had rehearsed well with the band. “Joyful Noise” was joined by Estelle Giarrizzo, the church’s music director and a local songwriter, for the performance. The selections ranged from the lamentation “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” to spirit-raising affirma- tions, such as “Gonna Build Us a Land,” of what good people can do together to confront the specter of an unjust war. The audience included members of cman4ukraine.org, which would pledge funds to match the money raised by the concert. However,
the audience was unaware that one of the songs performed that afternoon was a true signature of Debbie Doe’s life work. The song “Human Touch,” by Spen- cer Michael Free, conveys the vivid image of one person’s hand guiding another person’s hand in a way that will live with that other person throughout life. A half-century ago, Debbie began her life’s work by using her hand to guide the hand of a blind child over the embossment of braille, giving that child the gift of a kind of sight that would last a lifetime.
Debbie’s personal story be- gins in Somerville, New Jersey, the town of her birth. The fam- ily, which in addition to herself, included her mom, Edna, her dad S.W., and brother, Larry, who moved to Plainfield, New Jersey, when she was a year old. Sometime later, Debbie’s sister Sally was born. S.W. worked as a truck driver, and Edna was a nurse. According to Debbie, this meant “kitchen table conversa- tions were about motor vehicles and sick people.”
Debbie’s elementary school days were spent at Grant Ele- mentary in Plainfield and Green Brook Elementary in Green Brook, New Jersey. Two interests developed early. She loved music and singing. She joined her mom and her sister, Sally, in singing in the church choir.
During elementary school, Debbie, always observant, be-
came interested in the challenges faced by a classmate who had a speech impediment, as well as a concern with how classmates treated children with physical limitations. In her case, it was her tallness that elicited teasing. By age ten, Debbie was a Girl Scout
Camper and was determined to learn guitar so she could ac- company the scouts as they sang around the campfire. This helped decrease any shyness she felt, especially when singing solo. Debbie, always a nature lover, would remain an avid camper and counselor for many years.
High School years were at Dunellen High School in New Jersey, where Debbie loved his- tory. She thought about teach- ing that subject but learned there was a glut of history teachers and was advised to pursue teach- ing in a specialized area. So after graduation from Dunellen, Deb- bie traveled to Kutztown State College in Pennsylvania to work towards a degree that would qualify her to teach the visually impaired. To this day, Kutztown, now known as the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, is one of only a half dozen colleges that offer a program designed to prepare students to teach the vi- sually impaired.
Upon graduation, Kutz- town degree in hand, Debbie
responded to an offer to teach the visually impaired at the Utah School For the Blind in Ogden, Utah. She was there for five years. She then moved on to Salt Lake City to help start a program for visually impaired students in the public schools there. Finally, in 1988, after eight years in Salt Lake City, Debbie came to New Hampshire, the state of the Doe family’s ancestral home. Over the years, she has worked with the visually impaired in many schools in the Lakes Region, in- cluding the Newfound School District, Pemi-Baker, Franklin, Winnisquam, and Inter-Lakes.
During her New Hampshire tenure, Debbie studied at Plym- outh State University, focusing on the creative use of technology to assist in improving the com- munication skills of the visually impaired and their teachers. Debbie studied at the renowned Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, now serving the needs of the visually impaired internationally. Perkins enriched her understanding of techniques for working with per- sons having multiple handicaps, and support for their families. Although Debbie officially “re- tired” from full-time teaching in 2012, she continued to work part- time until 2018. Shortly after that, she unexpectedly learned of an opportunity to teach Braille to women inmates at the Concord Prison. Naturally, she was soon leading a dozen women inmates an important skill.
Today Debbie continues to bring the gift of sight to a cou- ple of lifelong “students.” As she says, this is because she suffers from the condition she calls the “Anne Sullivan Syndrome.” The appellation is a reference to the life-lasting close friendship of Anne Sullivan to her famous vi- sually impaired “student’, Helen Keller. As with Anne Sullivan, Debbie’s work with each student involves addressing the needs of the whole person. It is more than learning to interpret the emboss- ments of Braille. It could mean, for example, preparing behav- ior-adapting skills for the gradual loss of sight.
Debbie has time these days to share with us more of her gift of
You’re Invited!
Every year HVBC hosts a week of meetings with special speakers and Musicians. This year the Merrill Ministries Team will be visiting from October 17-19.
Every evening with services beginning at 630pm.
Come hear gospel music and sound Bible preaching that with rouse your heart and encourage your soul. The services will be helped at:
Hill Village Bible Church: 36 Crescent St, Hill, NH 03243