[Missouri-l] Candidacy

[Chip Hailey]

Message-ID: <01bf01ca234b$e9021e70$0402a8c0 at deanna>
From: "DeAnna Quietwater Noriega" <quieth2o at ktis.net>
To: "Chip Hailey" <chiphailey at cableone.net>
Subject: I'm not on the chat list, but here is what I wrote
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:13:45 -0500
Organization: Rogue Apache Enterprises

See Attachment.  If you want a formal resume, I have one of those somewhere.
DeAnna And Curtis Noriega
GDUI Catalog Sales
Phone: 1-866-799-8436 Extension 2

DeAnna Quietwater Noriega
5774 Windy Meadows Lane
Fulton, MO 65251
Work: (573) 874-1646 Ext. 234
Home: (573) 642-8016
Cell: (573) 544-3511
E-mail: <mailto:dnoriega at silcolumbia.org>dnoriega at silcolumbia.org






I am running for the position of Public Relations Officer on the MCB 
Board of Directors.


My name is DeAnna Noriega.  It is also Shanigamiquay, in the Chippewa 
Indian Language, which translates to Quietwater in English.  I was 
born September 5, 1948.  I am married and the mother of three, two 
natural children and an adopted blind son.  As a result of congenital 
glaucoma, I became totally blind at the age of eight.

             I was mainstreamed in public schools in Texas, Michigan 
and California.  I achieved a Bachelor's degree in Social Science and 
did a year toward a Master's in Social work at California State 
University Stanislaus.  While attending college, I taught independent 
living skills to the blind for the California Department of 
Vocational Rehabilitation.  I worked as a caseworker in Santa Clara 
County, California before joining the United States Peace Corps.  My 
sighted husband and I met while attending college and he joined me in 
the Peace Corps.  We worked together to establish a school for blind 
children in the independent nation of Western Samoa.

Upon my return to the U.S., I spent the next seven years at home 
raising children. During this time, I became active in the American 
Council of the Blind, Guide Dog Users Inc.  Taught Braille, 
instructed breastfeeding mothers as a LA Leche Leader, was a friendly 
visitor at nursing homes, worked as a volunteer intake clerk, at the 
welfare office, and performed other unpaid jobs.

When my husband and I were setting up a food bank at our church, we 
realized that with our five-member family. Despite the income Curtis 
earned as a Junior High School science teacher, we still qualified 
for government surplus cheese. We decided that we needed a better 
income to be able to send our children to college.  Since we had 
worked together in the Peace Corps, we figured that going into 
business, as partners might be the answer to our financial 
problems.  We eventually opened two Papa Murphy's Pizza franchise 
stores.  I worked as operations manager, doing inventory, ordering, 
supervising staff and handling the cash register and phone during 
late afternoons and evenings.

After fourteen very successful years, we sold the restaurants to move 
to Colorado where our two daughters were enrolled in college.  I kept 
busy working as an instructor of Braille and independent living 
skills with an adult education program in Colorado Springs. I took 
computer lessons at home and attended a local community college with 
an adaptive technology computer lab.  I remained active in many 
organizations of the visually impaired serving as an officer at local 
state and national levels.  I served as a founding board member of a 
nonprofit organization that opened a blind center in Colorado 
Springs.  I established The Braille Books to Keep project for blind 
children in both Oregon and Colorado.  I have been a guide dog user 
for over forty years and have taken an active part in passing 
legislation protecting service animals.  I am a freelance writer, 
poet and have had a number of short fiction and fact articles 
published. As a part of the editing team, I had the pleasure of 
putting together and contributing to an anthology of work by disabled 
writers, entitled Behind Our Eyes.  The book was published by 
IUniverse, ISBN 978-0-595-46493-7 (pbk), and can be found on 
BookShare and through the NLS library.

In 2000, my husband and I opened a fair trade gift shop in Old 
Colorado City a suburb of Colorado Springs.           To carry out my 
responsibilities to the business and the organizations I hold offices 
in, I frequently travel around the country accompanied only by my 
Seeing Eye Dog.  In 2006, my family relocated to Missouri and I 
currently work as an advocacy/legislative liaison for an independent 
living center in Columbia.  My husband and I live in Fulton Missouri 
on five acres with our youngest daughter, her three children four 
horses, a llama, my guide dog, a cat and a rescued Jack Russell 
terrier.  I serve on the Wolfner advisory council, am a member of BRL 
of Missouri, ATI, and Friends of Wolfner.  I am a life member of ACB 
and GDUI.  I have been president of two state affiliates, one special 
interest affiliate, served on the boards of state, local and national 
affiliates including two terms on the board of publications of 
ACB.  I feel I have a good grasp of the ACB philosophy, am a person 
that can readily explain our principles and goals in both written 
form and in person.  I have come to love my new home state and am 
eager to serve my new state affiliate.

                         Sincerely,
                         DeAnna Quietwater Noriega