The time Donna Laushman spent volunteering at the Kansas Audio-Reader Network was supposed to benefit visually impaired Kansans wanting to hear the news or a good book.

But 13 years ago, it helped her as much as it did Audio-Reader subscribers.

Faced with speech impairment after a stroke, Laushman, a rural Lawrence resident, shunned traditional rehabilitation and just kept reading aloud. She found it helped her recover speech skills.

“This was her therapy,” said her daughter, Karen Risner. “She took therapy through the hospital, but she didn’t like it.”

On Friday, Laushman was honored for 28 years of volunteer service with the Kansas University reading service. With her husband, Bob, facing health problems, Laushman decided it was time to stop reading aloud.

Staff and volunteers threw a surprise reception after her final hour of reading at the Baehr Audio-Reader Center.

The network has about 7,000 subscribers who have special radios to receive signals sent from towers across the state. Volunteers read a variety of materials for people with eyesight trouble.

“We provide the news and all the things they need,” Laushman said. “It’s a real good service.”

She started reading shortly after her son died of cancer. At first, she was reading three or four days a week, though that was pared to one day a week in recent years.

After nearly three decades of service with the Kansas Audio-Reader Network, volunteer Donna Laushman, center, receives a surprise retirement party after her last broadcast. At left Friday was former Audio-Reader producer Fowler Jones; development director Diana Frederick is at right.

Laushman, 77, read the Topeka Capital-Journal for the entire 28-year period she volunteered at Audio-Reader. She also was host of a cooking show from 1981 to 1991, giving tips to the visually impaired on how to get around in the kitchen.

“I walked around the kitchen with my eyes closed to see what it was like,” she recalled.

It was 1991 when Laushman’s stroke sidelined her for several months. At first, she tried clinical speech therapy to recover.

“I just left that,” she said. “I didn’t like that.”

Audio-Reader officials shortly afterward encouraged Laushman to return to reading.

“I did bring Donna back,” said Rich Bailey, a former volunteer. “She’s one of a kind. She’s really the grande dame of Audio-Reader.”

Mildred Meck, a blind woman from Girard who attended Friday’s reception, said she especially appreciated hearing Laushman read the news, and the two have been friends since attending an Audio-Reader event several years ago.

“It’s wonderful,” Meck said. “They have so many good magazines and newspapers. We don’t miss a thing.”