SUDHHP and UAD Partnership
Meredith Winn Poole
President’s Corner
On September 12 and 13, “Beyond the Embers” Vol. 1 by ASL Films was shown. People enjoyed the movie very much.
UAD hosted its first yard sale, on September 20, at a friend’s house. Over $700 was raised. We thank the community for donating goods to raise money for the 2015 UAD Conference.
The next biennial conference will be held in Provo on October 16 and 17, 2015. Do save the date! Informational announcements will be posted soon through UAD Announce and UAD Bulletin. Hope you will join us. We will have UTRID in partnership with the UAD at the conference.
We encourage you to join UAD as a member and support UAD; membership strengthens the organization. UAD needs your voice and your opinion to help move it forward in the future. Membership is only $15 and is tax deductible.
Philippe Montalette
pmontalette@mac.com
Obituary
September 21, 2014 – Becky Judd passed away in Southern California at the age of 79. She attended Gallaudet College, starting at the age of 14. At the age of 17, she met and married Sam Judd, formerly of Utah, who served for 11 years as bishop of a deaf ward in Southern California. Sam had two daughters from a first marriage, to Betty Fullmer, also formerly of Utah. Together, Becky and Sam raised his two daughters and seven that they had together. Funeral services took place in Lancaster, CA.
Utah School for the Deaf News
Michelle Tanner
With the start of a new school year and a new position for me, I have spent the majority of my time discovering the needs throughout the state of Utah. As I move forward, I will continue to visit the various locations throughout the state and meet with students, staff and individuals in each area. I have discovered some serious needs in the rural parts of the state for qualified interpreters. I intend on making this a high priority and am seeking to utilize new technologies to meet the needs of these students.
We recently hosted Peter Cook at JMS! Students from JMS and from other areas of the state enjoyed a workshop provided by Peter Cook, Brandon Hill, our ASL Specialist, and David Davenport. We are so grateful for the joy and knowledge they have shared with our students. I am certain this will be something the students will remember fondly throughout their lives. Peter also graciously performed for the community at large that night. The following day interpreters, teachers and students becoming educators of the deaf attended a professional development day that we anticipate will be a great benefit for our students for years to come. We hope to invite Peter back again for a future event.
Important! We are preparing for the Western States Basketball and Cheerleading Conference that will be hosted by USDB January 28th – February 2nd. As we move forward with this endeavor, we would like to encourage the community to become involved. If you are interested in volunteering or donating funds to support this endeavor, please contact me or Brian Thornsberry at briant@usdb.org We will need a great deal of volunteers to make an enjoyable tournament. Any help will be appreciated!
If you are ever in need to contacting me, I can be reached at michellet@usdb.org or at my office at 801.629.4711 or by videophone at 801.903.2831. Your support of every student in the state is incredibly important and valued by me. THANK YOU for all you do to benefit our students!
October 2014 Holidays
3 Yom Kippur
13 Columbus Day
16 Boss’s Day
18 Sweetest Day
25 Make A Difference Day
31 Halloween
Jean Massieu School News
Aimee Breinholt
School is back in session. The start of the year has brought several changes to JMS. We are thrilled to have Michelle Tanner as the new associate superintendent for USDB. She has done wonderful things for JMS and now has the opportunity to positively impact the entire state. Because of that change, I have stepped into the role of JMS director. I am thrilled to work with wonderful students, staff and the deaf community in this new role. This change means we are now currently seeking a new kindergarten teacher. We would ask your help in spreading the word to aid us in finding a qualified teacher to join our team.
As part of our Deaf Awareness week, JMS has thoroughly enjoyed instruction and an evening performance by internationally renowned story teller/performer Peter Cook. Peter spent a day with JMS and Kenneth Burdett School (KBS) combined teaching our students through a school wide assembly and then working with smaller grade level groups. He provided a day of professional development for our teachers and interpreters. We are excited to incorporate this experience and education in our classrooms!
Last year, our drama ensemble cast won 1st place in their division at the Utah High School Shakespeare Competition. They will compete again this year October 9-11 in Cedar City. We anticipate great things from them again this year.
Please mark your calendar for October 10th. JMS invites you all to participate in our annual Fall Festival. This will be a fun filled evening of games and food that will include a book fair and an auction. Festivities will run from 6pm to 8pm at the Deaf Center.
Please stop by and see us at JMS. We would love to have a lot of involvement from the Deaf community. Thank you for your support!
Deaf PIP Update
Paula Pittman
School has started and PIP services with families have started to fall back into the rhythm of the school year. We started toddler groups this past week and are excited to see all of the new and sweet little faces of our babies as they come to toddler group, meet new friends, and learn how to interact with others while having fun and learning new language!
The fall is also a time when we come together for training and try to gain a focus for the school year ahead of us. We had the privilege of having the SKI-HI National Deaf Mentor Training Team here in Utah to train our deaf mentors. We had three days of intensive training with the team, had lots of fun and shared new ideas for ways we can improve our program. Our parent advisors also had their PIP Fall Workshop in September where our theme was “Prepping the Home Team”. The Deaf Mentors and Parent Advisors all joined me in the ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) ice bucket challenge during our training workshops, which was fun and also resulted in donations to ALS of $324.00 in honor of those we love whom we have lost to ALS.
In October we will partner once again with Barnes & Noble Bookstores across the valley for ASL Story Time. We had great fun during story time last year and are excited to start back up this fall. While the stories will be presented in ASL, there will also be a voice interpreter so story time will be accessible to all. Anyone is welcome to join our story time adventures. Dates and time will be announced soon!
VERMONT DEAF RIGHTS, Save Austine School and Services Rally
For Immediate Release
September 29, 2014
“Austine Strong” was the theme of the day on Saturday, September 27th during the “VERMONT DEAF RIGHTS, Save Austine School and Services Rally” at the State House in Montpelier.
The parade rally began with the roar of the Harley Davidson Deaf Riders of Vermont including Austine alumni, Mike Palmer ’90. Over 300 people paraded through Montpelier to the statehouse, led by a banner saying “Governor Shumlin PLEASE save Austine School”. Many more signs carried the message “Austine School is our home, don’t sell the campus”.
At the Statehouse, Austine alumni, Mike Carter ‘91 led off the afternoon of presenters with a cheer for Austine School. Vermont State Representative Lynn Batchelor came forward saying “we must think of new ideas and strategies because we renovated the campus so that deaf and hard of hearing children can attend the boarding school. Mainstreaming cannot be the only choice!” She donned an “Austine Strong” t-shirt and accepted the challenge from Vermont Association of the Deaf (VTAD) President Mary Essex ‘79, to wear it on the first day of the legislature in January, 2015.
The afternoon continued on with Austine Alumni Association President, Bruce Hubbard ‘67 thanking everyone for attending the rally. He introduced Rene Pellerin ‘71, who explained that “58% of the graduates of Austine School go on to college”, highlighting the school’s success in preparing students for post-secondary learning opportunities. Bill Hudson ’76, the statewide director of Vocational Rehabilitation for Deaf Services explained that during his 23 years with the state, he has seen a variety of deaf people, many who from mainstream schools who could have greatly benefitted from going to Austine School without having to spend more money from the Vocational Rehabilitation funds for additional education services.
VTAD and the Austine Alumni Association remain committed to working with state legislators in the pursuit of Austine School education options for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children in VT as well as Deaf adults needing community support services. The program closed with a poem, American Sign Language Literature, Mary Gorman ‘74 explained poetry in its truest form cannot be translated. She recited “Dandelions” by Clayton Valli ’71.
The Austine Alumni, Save Austine Committee is meeting on Saturday Oct 4 at 1pm at the Austine Gym, Brattleboro VT to continue the work that is needed to keep Austine Strong.
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