Grace Mata of San Jose takes care of her own cooking, but she would benefit from a device that scans the bar codes of food items and identifies them out loud.

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Woman perseveres despite blindness
S.J. ACTIVIST SEEKS DEVICE THAT WILL HELP HER READ FOOD LABELS IN KITCHEN

being blind has not stopped 69-year-old Grace Mata from being the active person she has always been.

In high school, Grace was always first to raise her hand when volunteers were needed. It was the start of years of activism, including protesting farmworker labor conditions with Cesar Chavez, fighting housing discrimination in Mountain View and starting an organization to help families buy their first home.

``I've always been like this,'' Grace says. ``People call me up and say, `I need this, I need that.' I tell them, `Don't worry.' ''

Ten years ago, her eyesight began to deteriorate. There was no cure, so Grace confronted impending blindness with her typical proactive approach: She started blindfolding herself to practice doing everyday chores.

``I thought: Why feel sorry for myself?'' she says.

Now Grace is able to see only shadows and light, but she is active as ever. She walks 3 1/2 miles every Monday and recently raised $1,200 for blind children in a walkathon. She volunteers at the American Legion bingo hall in Santa Clara and serves on the board of directors at the Lions Club in San Jose. She visits the Lions Blind Center in San Jose every week for meetings, classes (sewing and cooking) and fun (bingo and crocheting) with people adjusting to blindness.

Grace won't accept it when people think they can't do something because they're blind. ``I say, `Yes, you can. You only lost your eyesight. You didn't lose your brain.' ''

Grace takes care of her housecleaning -- her San Jose home is immaculate -- and even changes the lining in the cage of Birdie, her pet cockatiel. She also does her own cooking, laundry and ironing.

She does receive help from a caretaker who visits to read her mail. And once a week she receives a ``brown bag'' of food from Second Harvest Food Bank to supplement what she buys with her Social Security check.

One of her difficulties is not being able to read food labels. What would help Grace is a Scan And Say system ($595) (29A), a device that reads product bar codes and speaks what the item is, and a computer ($700) (29B) to run it.

In addition, each gift of $24 (29C) provides a month's worth of supplemental groceries to help low-income seniors make ends meet through the Operation Brown Bag program of Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. Wish Book readers also can help thousands of others receive meal deliveries. Each donation of $38 (29D) provides an individual with hot meals for five days through Meals on Wheels programs in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Santa Cruz counties.