This is another in a series of articles on agencies that receive funding from the Robeson County chapter of United Way — editor.

FAYETTEVILLE — There’s a chance that you could hear this article broadcast over the radio.

For more than 20 years, the Southeastern North Carolina Radio Reading Service, which receives funding from the United Way in Robeson County, has been broadcasting newspaper articles — including some published by The Robesonian — over the radio for people who are visually impaired or who have another disability that prevents them from reading.

Southeastern North Carolina Radio Reading Service was established in 1981 by Era Mae Rickman, a retired teacher of Moore County who suffered a visual impairment during her entire life, and the radio broadcasts began in on Jan. 4, 1988.

“Being a part of the United Way is stellar because you know you are being an effective part of the community,” said Brian Burnette, interim executive director of Southeastern North Carolina Radio Reading Service.

Burnette has been involved in the radio business for most of his life and has been volunteering with the reading service since June. His love for radio and his mother’s involvement with nonprofit attracted him to the organization.

“It is an interesting way to have an effect,” said Burnette.

The service is on air Mondays through Sundays. Volunteers read from a variety of publications, including The Robesonian, The Fayetteville Observer, Up and Coming Weekly, NEXT Magazine, Carolina Flyer, Paraglide, Fort Bragg Life, Raeford News Journal, Dunn Daily Record, Sampson Independent, Southern Pines Pilot, The Sanford Herald, Bladen Journal, and Hope Mills Sandspur.

“We try to make sure that the information we have read is not redundant and is more localized and personal to them,” Burnette said.

The broadcast reaches out 60 miles in all directions, covering Bladen, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett, Polk, Lee, Moore, Robeson, Sampson, and Wayne counties. The reading service has an estimated 1,000 listeners.

Ethal Bullard, a Lumberton resident, has been listening since the reading service hit the air.

“Without the radio reading service I would not know what’s going on in Robeson County,” Bullard said.

Bullard, who has been blind since 1980, listens to the reading service twice a day. She says she is particularly interested in the obituaries, crime reports, and Wednesday’s advertisements of grocery advertisements. Articles are individually cut and organized so that the listener is not hearing a rustling of papers while getting their news.

Bullard’s daughter, Joy, volunteered for the service when she was a freshman at Lumberton Junior High School. Bullard says that her daughter, now a graduate student at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, talks about volunteering whenever she visits.

The reading service has 25 to 30 consistent volunteers and 50 to 75 in all, according to Burnette.

Carolyn Gibbons, of Fayetteville, has been volunteering for almost five years.

Gibbons’ husband is deaf. She said when she met her husband, it was like “he was in a box.” As time passed, he became more active and involved in the community.

After a friend mentioned the reading service to Gibbons, she started volunteering two to three days a month. She is now on the reading service’s board of directors.

“It kind of pulls you in,” Gibbons said. “This is allowing others to be more in touch with the world.”

To get access, a listener can go online at www.sencrrs.com or hear it over a radio receiver given to them for free by the reading service. They are delivered by volunteers who show the recipient how it works. Gibbons said that she enjoys delivering radios because it gives her a chance to talk with some of the listeners.

“Sometimes I feel like they don’t have much connection and that we are their major connection,” Gibbons said.

Esther Barkley, of Fayetteville, has been with the reading service for 10 years. She started off volunteering and has worked her way up to the service’s board chairman.

“It’s a wonderful mission,” Barkley said. “We are sort of a window to their world.”

Volunteers are needed for reading, delivering radios, and organizing articles.

“If someone wants to volunteer time, I will find them something to do,” Burnette said.