The Brandt-Thomas Educational Center was established in September 2014 by Evelyn Brandt-Thomas in honor of her husband, Gordon Thomas. Her desire was to honor her husband and provide skill development and social interaction opportunities for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Recently, we changed the name of the Educational Center and moved to a new facility to expand our programs and services.

October is Blind Awareness Month and the Educational Center for the Visually Impaired is celebrating with a Grand Opening and Envelope Celebration of our new facility to be held on Thursday, October 25th. The ribbon cutting will be at 4:45 and the celebration begins at 5:30 until 7:30 p.m. The event will be held at the Educational Center at 3240 Hedley Road – Suite C, Springfield. (West of Brandt Consolidated Headquarters).

We invite the community to meet our educators, learn more about our free classes, devices we use, and enjoy light refreshments. A representative of the Illinois Assistive Technology Program will demonstrate some of the assistive technology devices that make life easier for the blind or visually impaired. We will have a Blind Tasting Station Experience and a demonstration of what a person sees with different visual impairments such as macular degeneration. You will have a chance to learn about the Talking Books program from our State Library.

You can support us by telling others about our services and bringing your donations to our Grand Opening to support our programs. For more information, contact Peggy Dyson, Executive Director at edcentervi@hotmail.com if you or someone you know could benefit from our services.