It’s back to the long distance traveling today. We got out of bed at about 3:40, and left the house at 5:00 for the drive to the EZ Air Park. We had plenty of time for breakfast at the McDonalds. We’ve gone there a couple of times, since there’s no longer a cinnabon at the airport. Since we are going to be gone the whole week, we packed the bigger bag along with the large skyroll, and checked both with American Airlines for our flights to Pittsburgh.
The flight to Chicago was very uneventful, and we made the connection to Pittsburgh with no problems. We did get a nice walk in at O’Hare though. When we got to the Pittsburgh airport, we were met by DG Barry & First Lady Cheryl and VDG Carl & Lion Zenaida. We hit it off immediately, and had a great time chatting on the way to the Westmoreland County Blind Association (by way of Mississippi, as VDG Carl would say).
When we got to the WCBA, we met Lion Dom, who is president of the board, and Larry, the CEO of the business. The WCBA was a very interesting place, and Larry is a real go-getter. They employ blind and visually impaired people to do production machine embroidery, shredding, and sewing. They have a contract with the federal government to put together “J-Bags” for the military. They start will the rolls of material, and do all the cutting and sewing to produce 5,000 large bags per month. It’s quite the operation, with over 60 steps all done in assembly line fashion. We saw workers doing several of the steps using computer controlled sewing machines and jigs that assisted them getting the material into the proper location before hitting the switch to do the sewing. Their shredding operation includes an 8 horsepower super shredder as well as six more normal heavy duty shredders all dumping the shredded paper onto a conveyer belt that drops the paper into a bin in the basement, where it is compacted into huge bales for shipping out. As Larry says, they get paid twice for doing the job – once for doing secure document shredding, and again for furnishing paper to be recycled. The Lions have done great things in support of the center, including purchasing machines, fixing the roof, and serving on the WCBA Board of Directors.
After the visit to the WCBA, we went to the Lamplighter Restaurant for a little lunch (and great coconut crème pie) with DG Barry & Cheryl, VDG Carl & Sunita, and PDG Dom. Debra and I split a fish sandwich and fries, which was huge and delicious. It was a short walk up a cobblestone path to the Holiday Inn hotel. We settled into our room for a brief rest before walking back down the path to the Lamplighter for a social time and then dinner. We had a very scary incident at dinner when Lion Zenaida collapsed in some kind of spell. We found out later that she has a history of aneurisms and has a metal plate in her head that they think may have shifted causing a seizure. I ended up supporting her on a chair while monitoring her pulse until the ambulance arrived. They kept her at the hospital over night, but she was doing much better by morning, and was able to come home that day. We were concerned for both her and VDG Carl at the convention, Saturday, but were relieved to hear that she was doing better.