John and Carol McConnell have both been blind since birth. Each was born prematurely and that affected their vision, leaving both to spend their lives in darkness.
But for the McConnells, who have been married 26 years, that does not mean that they can’t spread a little light of their own.
Every week, the pair of Kent residents can be found at Tape Ministries in SeaTac, volunteering their time to duplicate tapes for others who are also blind or have physical ailments that keep them from being able to read.
To the McConnells, the work not only keeps them busy, but allows them to give back.
“It’s more than just putting tapes in a box,” John said. “It’s knowing you’re really helping someone with these tapes.”
The couple met nearly three decades ago at a workshop for the blind in Phoenix. She was from Chicago and he was from Topeka, Kansas, but the pair hit it off and were soon married.
The couple moved to the Pacific Northwest in search of work. Presently, Carol maintains the house while John works for American Airlines – no, he’s not a pilot, he takes reservations over the phone for the airline.
But John also is an ordained minister, with a bachelor’s degree in theology and a master of divinity from Grand Canyon College. He does not presently have a church of his own, but is looking to get back into the chaplaincy.
The couple met Bill Wippel, executive director of Tape Ministries, while at a Christmas party for the Washington Council for the Blind, of which John is the president of the King County Chapter (Carol is the group’s secretary).
By February, they were members of Tape Ministries’ board of directors and in April the pair started volunteering.
Because they are blind, the work they do for Tape Ministries is fairly simple and repetitive, but it is still important work for the group. This week, Carol was duplicating the ministries’ monthly “Our Daily Bread” tapes, 700 of which go out each month and must be erased and duplicated with the new message when they are returned, while John checked each tape to make sure the duplication took.
Next week they will switch, so John does the duplicating and Carol checks each one.
“We kind of make a game out of it, trying to bury each other,” John said with a laugh.
Both are strong in their religion and see their volunteer work as an extension of their faith.
But along with that, the volunteer work gives them a chance to get out of the house. Traveling using King County Metro’s Access service (which is not always on schedule, which can be difficult for the couple and the ministries), the pair spends most of their Monday afternoons at the small house in SeaTac, happily working away while John’s service dog, Naja, naps quietly at his feet.
“We love it,” said John. “I like this better than my other job.”
“Sometimes the house feels like a prison,” Carol added.
The work also gives the couple a sense of purpose and helps them keep a positive outlook.
“If you sit around feeling sorry for yourself … no one’s going to want to be around you,” said Carol with a shrug.
According to Wippel, the McConnells’ positive attitude is infectious.
“They’re both so much fun,” he said. “They’ve become like our right arm.”
Wippel said 75 percent of the work at Tape Ministries is done by volunteers and having the McConnells adds something extra because of their appreciation for the non-profit’s clients and said the pair is a “wealth of information” about how they can better serve their patrons.
“It’s rewarding to have them come and volunteer,” he said, adding that working with John and Carol has also given him a greater sense of what the blind can do. “We really don’t realize how much they can do until we let them do it.”
Along with the duplicating, the pair has taken it on themselves to personally call all 1,175 patrons who receive tapes to ask if they need support and find out how better the Ministries can serve the blind community.
For them, staying busy is important, but so is proving that blind people are more capable than some people think.
“I don’t like the word ‘can’t’” John said, adding that he doesn’t like being characterized as “handicapped.”
“It’s only a handicap if you treat it as such,” he said.
Council for the Blind
The King County Chapter of the Washington Council for the Blind meets from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the second Saturday of each month at the Corridor Cafe, 2819 S. 208th St, SeaTac.
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