Mitzi Tharin has a problem. Well, problem is a bit of an exaggeration. Let’s say she’s in a slight twist.
She doesn’t like beer much. She hardly drinks the stuff.
Yet Tharin is throwing a big beer bash Saturday at Kino Sports North Complex, 2817 E Ajo Way. She’ll be joined by thousands of beer-loving friends, as well as many others who, like Tharin, don’t drink the brew but will be there to support her favorite cause: Sun Sounds.
Sun Sounds is a lifeline for people who are visually impaired, blind or “print disabled,” which means they cannot hold reading material in their hands. A nonprofit based in Phoenix with branches here and other Arizona cities, Sun Sounds supports a “radio station” through which volunteers read to listeners with special radios.
The free radio service is available to its listeners 24/7. Volunteers read newspapers — the Arizona Daily Star, Green Valley News, Wall Street Journal, USA Today — magazine articles, children’s and adult short stories, and science fiction and Westerns. The station also airs exercise programs and job announcements, and has seven programs in Spanish.
“We do what we can do because of the volunteers,” Tharin said.
As general manager of Sun Sounds in Tucson for more than 20 years, Tharin, 57, has been organizing the Great Tucson Beer Festival, which provides the bulk of operating funds for the local Sun Sounds.
However, this year will be Tharin’s last. She’s stepping down.
“I was only going to do this temporarily,” Tharin said about her hiring as general manager in 1994. “I wasn’t management material.”
As if turned out, of course, she was. Tharin, who had worked part time for a couple of years at Sun Sounds, assumed the duties of overseeing four paid staff and more than 100 volunteers, all of whom are the steel girders for Sun Sounds, located on East Broadway near Wilmot Road.
In the course of learning to manage, Tharin discovered, 1) She loved Sun Sounds more than she knew. And, 2) A job can be more than rewarding; it can be fun.
“I have met some really neat people,” she said.
This week, however, some of that fun will wear off a little as she oversees final details for the beer party. It’s a big event that has attracted up to 6,000 folks. It takes up so much of her time and energy that she doesn’t have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the festival’s offerings.
Over the years, Sun Sounds has raised $50,000 to $100,000 each year from the beer festival. Sun Sounds operates on an annual budget of $180,000 which pays for staff, expenses and free radios for clients.
This year’s festival, from 6 to 10 p.m., is the 30th edition for Sun Sounds. There will be a variety of beers, cider, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages for tasting. There will also be food for sale and entertainment. The event is for people 21 and older, and no smoking or animals are allowed, except for service dogs.
As soon as the beer pachanga is over, Tharin will wistfully walk away from Sun Sounds. She says she’ll miss the people with whom she’s worked. But her service to the visually impaired will not stop.
Tharin’s advocacy will continue with EMVIA — Educating and Mentoring for the Visually Impaired Association — a 501(c)3 nonprofit she formed. She envisions it as a clearinghouse for information for people like her. Tharin is blind, having lost her eyesight over the years.
“All I have to do is talk to people and help them,” she said.
Tharin knows the fear, the pain and all the other emotions that accompany people on the road to losing their eyesight. Acceptance and adjustment take time. It’s painfully slow. But there is an end to it, she said.
They’ll realize they can be active, said Tharin, a mother of three and grandmother to five.
She will produce a weekly electronic newsletter as well as provide information via phone. And to financially support her nonprofit, Tharin has organized a fundraiser, Dining in the Dark, for Oct. 19, at On The Border restaurant on East Broadway.
And while Tharin will no longer organize the Sun Sounds annual beer festival after this year, she will attend next year’s event.
“I’m going to come back and see what the festival is like,” she said.
She may even drink some beer.
