Deaf Network of Texas

DPHH Houston 5/10/08

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:27:44 +0000

DPHH Houston 5/10/08

ANNOUNCEMENT

Our next DPHH event will be held on Saturday, May 10th at Fast
Eddie’s Sports and Billards. Spend an evening with a variety of
activities such as pool, darts or simply hang out. Don’t miss out the
fun!

May 10, 2008

Fast Eddie’s Sports and Billards

Time: 8 pm til closing

12344 Gulf Fwy

Houston, TX 77034

713.947.0800

ATTENTION: WHO:21 and up ONLY (MUST HAVE ID)

ATTIRE: Decent casual wear

QUESTIONS?

Direct any comments or questions to any of Host/Coordinators at
host@dphhh.com

DPHH Houston: http://dphhh.com/

Fast Eddie’s Sports and Billards: http://www.fasteddies.com/

Directions:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/12344+Gulf+Fwy+houston+tx+77034/

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Deaf football player pens account of rock bottom and the climb back

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:07:06 +0000

Deaf football player pens account of rock bottom and the climb back

By Carol Cole-Frowe

THE NORMAN TRANSCRIPT (NORMAN, Okla.)

NORMAN, Okla. — Football gave so much to Eric Thunander.

In high school, it gave the deaf young man a way out of a tough
childhood and some normalcy despite his disability. In college, it
gave him identity, pride, a sense of belonging and a huge,
diamond-encrusted ring from his gridiron contribution to the
University of Oklahoma’s 2000 National Championship team.

But when it took away his dream, it almost took away his life.

The former OU defensive end remembers what it was like to hit rock
bottom.

After a head injury that ended his promising football career, and a
painful divorce, Thunander downed much of a fifth of Jack Daniels, put
a single bullet in a revolver, put the gun barrel to his head and
pulled the trigger.

Click.

There was no bullet in that first chamber. But if Thunander had
pulled the trigger just one more time, it likely would have been
fatal. And he realized how far he had fallen.

Thunander called his friend and the man who recruited him,
co-defensive football coach Brent Venables, who had believed in and
encouraged the young man who has 95 percent hearing loss in his left
ear and 92 percent loss in his right. With hearing aids, he calls
himself “very hard of hearing.”

And about a week later, OU’s head coach Bob Stoops called back.

“Hey Thundercat! How have you been?” Thunander remembers Stoops
asking, using the nickname Stoops gave him from an old cartoon strip.

Stoops inquired as to what he was doing the next semester and offered
Thunander a chance to return to OU on a football scholarship, a rarity
in college sports for an injured player.

“I have a second chance and a second lease on life and I almost
threw it away,” Thunander said.

Thunander tells his story of despair, hope, tenacity and resilience
in his new autobiography, “Silent Thunder,” about how he created
success for himself despite a childhood of chronic abuse and bouncing
among multiple foster homes. And he talks about turning points and how
his OU “family” saved his life.

Stoops and OU President David Boren wrote the forewords.

“You may not appreciate just how great a victory he has won until
you read the story, but trust me; he has endured tribulations that
would have devastated many of us,” Stoops wrote. “College coaches
are often cited for the way they motivate others. Truth be told, it is
often these same young men that motivate coaches. Eric was that kind
of player for me. He has impacted my life in a positive way and I know
he does the same for so many others.”

Thunander said he penned “Silent Thunder” for himself.

“I was caught in the past and I thought maybe if I write it down
and read it and put it inside so I can start moving forward …
because I was kind of hanging here in limbo,” he said.

But along the way, he found when he spoke to individuals and groups,
they would draw inspiration from his experiences. And it gave him a
goal of becoming a motivational speaker. He now has a bachelor’s
degree from OU in communications.

“Being a motivational speaker to me is when I’m in my element,”
he said. “Even though it’s really strange, with me being deaf, I
always have this urge to talk.”

As a child, his hearing mother didn’t want to learn sign language.
She wanted Thunander to read lips and speak.

“She would force me to talk,” he said. “You know, it kind of
gave me a connection with the hearing world, but growing up with the
environment I was in didn’t help much either.”

He went to mainstream schools in California and later in Lee’s
Summit, Mo.

But he also was a victim of abuse from two of his mother’s three
husbands, he said. He was moved from foster home to foster home.

When he was 13, he saw a story about Kenny Walker, a deaf football
player for the University of Nebraska, who went on to play for the
Denver Broncos in the 1990s. And he thought football might be
something he could be good at.

So play football he did, priding himself on working “five times as
hard as any other player.” Thunander was ranked in high school as
the 58th-best player in the Midlands by SuperPrep magazine. He
registered 242 career tackles, with 90 tackles, two interceptions and
two fumble recoveries as a senior at Lee’s Summit. He was part of
Lee’s Summit’s mile relay team that set the state record.

He was recruited by almost three dozen college programs — until
they would learn he was deaf and somehow forget him.

OU was the exception. Thunander was offered a scholarship and found a
new home, something that surprised his Lee’s Summit teammates, some
of whom said he didn’t deserve it.

But Thunander didn’t believe them. He knew he’d outworked almost
everybody for the opportunity to play university ball.

“My (OU) teammates accepted me and I never had that in high school.
I found a family in the OU community,” Thunander said.

One day in his political science class taught by Boren, the subject
turned to welfare reform.

Thunander shared his story with the class and how he had worked his
way past hard times. He told Boren and his classmates that he had
found his family.

“And that was always his dream,” Thunander said of Boren, a
former Oklahoma governor and U.S. senator who said his primary goal
was creating a sense of community at OU.

He would learn that Boren sometimes used that story — of Thunander
talking to his fellow students and uplifting them.

In his foreword, Boren calls Thunander’s story “an inspiring
story of individual strength built upon a remarkable capacity to love
and to forgive.”

“It is also a call for us to realize the difference that we can
make in the lives of others through friendship and mentorship,” he
writes.

Thunander found his faith about a year ago, which brought a new focus
and joy to his life.

“After I finally found God, everything started to make sense,” he
said.

As Thunander’s hearing continues to fade, he is considering
cochlear implants. But there is a stigma attached to the technological
advance and he’s struggling with the decision.

“The deaf community looks down on it. They think the cochlear
implant is trying to kill their culture, with the sign language and
the facial expressions. They look down on deaf people trying to speak
or wearing a hearing aid or a cochlear implant,” Thunander said.

But he also feels that one of his goals is to help bridge the hearing
world with the deaf world. And he would like to work to update the
Americans with Disabilities Act.

“I want to focus more on positive things for the deaf community.
And I want to help focus them on the way they think,” said
Thunander, who describes himself as a quiet guy who leads by example.
“If you want to be successful, here’s what you need to do. You
don’t sit around and complain about it. You go out and do what you
say you’re going to do.”

What does he want to tell people?

“It’s how you pick yourself up and move forward. … If you put
your faith in yourself, the only person who’s holding you back is
yourself,” Thunander said.

Carol Cole-Frowe writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript.

Link:
http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/religion/cnhinsfaith_story_118092703.html

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2nd Biennial Deaf & Hard of Hearing Festival - Austin

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:44:15 +0000

2nd Biennial Deaf & Hard of Hearing Festival - Austin

TCSDHH will have the 2nd Biennial Deaf and Hard of Hearing Festival
November 8, 2008 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Fiesta Gardens.

We are looking for volunteers who can provide entertainment, a
juggler, a magician, a clown, balloon animal artists, exhibitors and
food vendors. Here’s a chance to show off your skills and your

stuff!

The exhibit booths will be free. In exchange for the free booth we
would like the exhibitors to bring one thing for door prizes. We would
love to have local Deaf Artists and craft people join us.

Anyone who is interested in being there or helping plan please
contact Lynette.Fant@co.travis.tx.us

as soon as possible.

We encourage input from the community. Let’s make this BIGGER and
BETTER than our last one. Come join the fun!

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Colombo’s trophy on display at Rosenberg, Texas

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:22:49 +0000

Colombo’s trophy on display at Rosenberg

From staff reports

The Daily News

Published May 4, 2008

GALVESTON — This month, the Rosenberg Library is exhibiting a
championship trophy won by LeRoy Colombo in 1927.

Colombo is a legendary figure in Galveston history. During his
five-decade career, this deaf lifeguard saved more than 900 lives.

Colombo, the son of Italian immigrants, was not born deaf. He lost
his hearing around the age of 7 after a mysterious illness, which was
diagnosed at the time as spinal meningitis.

As a result, Colombo lost his hearing and his ability to speak. He
was also paralyzed from the waist down.

Colombo’s brothers worked to rehabilitate LeRoy by dragging him up
and down the alley behind their house until he was able to walk on his
own two feet again.

Swimming also proved to be beneficial in rebuilding the strength of
his legs.

Because of his hearing disability, Colombo was deemed
“ineducable” by the public school system in Galveston and was sent
to the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin.

Colombo became a competitive swimmer at the school, setting multiple
records for speed and distance.

After six years at the school, he returned to Galveston.

In 1927, Colombo completed a 15-mile swim in the Gulf of Mexico in
just 11-and-a-half hours.

Colombo’s brother, Cinto, finished the race in second place —
three and a half hours behind LeRoy.

Muscle cramps and jellyfish stings caused the other four challengers
to withdraw.

The event was sponsored by the Surf Toboggan Club, an elite group of
volunteer lifeguards.

Colombo joined the group in 1921 at the age of 15. To gain membership
in the club, one was required to spend three hours and 20 minutes in
the Gulf without any swimming aids and without floating on one’s
back.

After devoting more than 50 years to saving the lives of others,
Colombo died in 1974.

The citizens of Galveston erected a plaque along the seawall in his
honor.

In 2006, the Texas School for the Deaf unveiled a new swimming
center, which was named for Colombo.

+++

At A Glance

WHAT: Treasure of the Month

WHEN: Monday through Saturday during regular library hours.

WHERE: Main library on the first floor of Rosenberg Library, 2310
Sealy Ave.

INFORMATION: Contact the museum office at 409-763-8854, Ext. 125.

Link:
http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=be43fd02481f4c3c&-session=TheDailyNews:42F946750c4e802724HsO4271B24

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Total Communication

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:01:37 +0000

Total communication

Deaf and hard-of-hearing students build their skills

By Elaine Marsilio

Odessa American

Saturday, May 3, 2008

ODESSA — Carver pre-kindergartner Lisette Garcia squirmed happily in
her chair as teacher Clarissa Funk read from a book about dinosaurs
recently.

Funk read the book to four of her students as she also signed the
words with her hands.

Lisette, 3, listened and watched her teacher quickly pull out a blue,
plastic horn in a clear box.

Funk would later imitate a dinosaur roar with the horn, but before
she could Lisette piped up.

“Let’s open it!” Lisette yelled to Funk.

Funk smiled, and told her teacher’s aide, Maggie Rodriguez, to log
the phrase into a sample language book, which records spontaneous
phrases or words her students say.

In other words, progress.

Funk, who teaches deaf and hard-of-hearing students at Carver Early
Education Center, works with students to build their language and
communication skills through an approach called “Total Communication”
as part of the district’s Ector County Regional Day School Program for
the Deaf.

That approach zeros in on speech and signing skills, Funk said,
noting each student comes to her at a different level of ability.

She uses an auditory trainer hearing aid system with her students, in
which Funk wears a microphone in class to amplify her speech so the
students may hear her wherever they are in the classroom.

Funk and Rodriguez work with the students to improve their skills so
they may reach the same skill level as a regular education
prekindergarten student.

Funk said her personal goal for her six students is for them to build
a sense of independence by refraining from relying on others for most
of their needs.

“I want them to communicate,” Funk said. “I want them to live just as
we do.”

Barbara Faubion, lead teacher for the Ector County deaf school
program, said Carver is one of four campuses in the Ector County
Independent School District working with deaf and hard-of-hearing
students.

The program serves those students starting with their infant years up
to high school age, she said.

“We teach language-based information to students for educational
growth,” Faubion said.

A majority of the program’s 37 students bus daily from areas like
Andrews, Crane and Fort Stockton to receive services. The program also
provides services for parents through its parent-infant program, which
works with parents in developing sign language and other communication
skills before a child entering the first campus in the program:
Carver.

Back at Carver, Funk said she also works with students on developing
their common knowledge of objects and things like colors and the
letter alphabet in addition to working on language and signing skills.

Oftentimes, she helps her students understand words by placing their
hand on their own throat so they can feel the sound. She said she
works on different concepts to help her students learn from hands-on
to listening to signing exercises.

“My goal is to get them language,” Funk said.

? 2007 Abilene Reporter-News

Link:
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/may/03/total-communication/

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REMINDER: Parliamentary Procedure Workshop - DFW

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:08:38 +0000

Parliamentary Procedure Workshop

With Elizabeth “Libby” Pollard

Dallas Association of the Deaf, Inc.

4215 Maple Avenue

Dallas, Texas 75219

VP: 214-522-0380

http://www.dallasdeafclub.org

Here is a great opportunity to learn and/or refresh your
understanding of the Parliamentary Procedures!

Libby is a member of American Institute of Parliamentarians (AIP) and
National Association of Parliamentarians (NAP). She has served as a
parliamentarian for national, state and local organizations, and has
hosted many parliamentary and leadership workshops.

For more details please visit Libby’s website:
http://www.parlilibby.com
.

All workshops presentations will be presented in American Sign
Language. Interpreters will not be provided.

Friday, May 9th, 6:30 p.m. Admission: DAD Members - Free Non-Members
- $5.00

“A-B-C’s of Parliamentary Procedures”

To learn how to participate in a meeting and to use an agenda.

To learn how to present and discuss business motions, and voting
methods.

To discuss the preparation, good meeting manners, supporting group
goals, improve communication and presentation skills.

To understand the member’s rights and obligations within an
organization.

Saturday morning, May 10th, 9 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. DAD Members - Free
Non-Members - $5.00

“Classification of Motions”

To learn the basic motion which brings business before the assembly.

To understand different kinds of secondary motions.

To learn the subsidiary motion to Amend and the process of making
amendments to motions.

To have “hands on” experience in writing motions on motion form
during break-out session.

(Coffee, orange juice, danish, and donuts will be served)

Saturday afternoon, May 10th, 1:15 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. DAD Members -
Free Non-Members - $5.00

“How to Run an Effective Meeting”

To learn how to have a successful and productive meeting.

To understand why participation is important.

To practice good meeting manners.

To be involved in a “mock” meeting using different motions.

(Lunch provided by CSDVRS, FREE, if attend the morning workshop.
Drawings will also take place during lunch)

Sunday, May 11, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. DAD Members - Free Non-Members
- $5.00

“Disciplinary Procedures”

To learn about your rights as a member of your organization

To understand how to discipline a member for breaches of order during
a meeting.

To understand the rights of your organization and the accused.

To learn how to defend yourself if you are accused by an officer or a
member of your organization.

To know how to have a proper due process hearing within your
organization.

To understand various remedies against misconduct or negligence of
duty in office.

To have “hands on” experience of a mock due process hearing.

(Coffee, orange juice, donuts, & danish will be served)

Any questions?

Please contact DAD Parliamentary Procedures Committee Chair,

Jack Rosenthal at jdr.primerica@verizon.net

If you are a member of DAD, the admission to the four workshops is
FREE!

If you are not a member of DAD, then join DAD, before May 1, for only
$10.00!

Co-Sponsor - CSDVRS

Download flyer: (PDF format)

http://www.deafnetwork.com/file/PPworkshopflyer.pdf

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REMINDER: Uncut ASL with Theron Parker - DFW

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:47:32 +0000

“UNCUT ASL”

Date: SATURDAY - 5/10/2008

Time: 7:00 pm

Come and watch this 1 ½ hour “One-Man” show starring THERON
PARKER

at the DALLAS ASSOCIATION OF THE DEAF, 4215 Maple Avenue , Dallas,
Texas

Voice: 866-327-8877 VP: 214-522-0380

Admission: $10.00

If you are17 years old or younger you must be with your parent(s) to
be able to watch this performance

Any questions? Please contact Theron Parker at FUNABCASL@aol.com

Interpreters will not be provided

Download flyer: (PDF format)

http://www.dallasdeafclub.org/pdfs/flyer_20080510_UNCUTASL.pdf

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Summer Opportunities - DFW

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:33:30 +0000

Summer tutoring and interpreting services available from an
experienced and certified Teacher of the Deaf. I live in the Arlington
area and would be available for school-age tutoring and interpreting.

Please contact Jesse at Jesse@Paperwalls.com

for more information. Thank you!

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TLCDHH Officers Want to Meet You - Houston

Deaf Network — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:13:06 +0000

The Texas Latino Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Officers
want to meet you.

Hope to see you at

Jax Grill Restaurant

1613 Shepherd Drive

Houston, Texas 77019

On May 17, 2008 At 4:30 p.m.

We want to meet more Deaf Latino/Hispanic Houstonians. Hope to see
you there! We can help you if you feel there are barriers on your own
identification. We NEED to have Deaf LEADERS. We will have the TLCDHH
Conference in McAllen, Texas this October.

If you have any question, please feel free to contact me
(ovitsk@blackberry.net
)

Website: http://www.tlcdhh.org

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DHH DFW Event - 5/24/5/08

Deaf Network — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:44:52 +0000

Deaf Happy Hour DFW

http://www.dhhdfw.com

Our May DHH event will be held on May 24, 2008 at 7:00 PM until 2:00
AM.

DAD (Dallas Associatioin of the Deaf Inc)

4215 Maple Ave

Dallas, Texas 75219

VP: 214-522-0380

http://www.dallasdeafclub.org/location.htm

http://www.dallasdeafclub.org/

FYI: Everyone is welcome to come 18 and up. Kids have to be under
parents supervision, it is not our responsbility to watch the kids, it
is YOURS! ***Cash only*** *Due to “DAD CLUB Bar” They only accept
cash.

Entry Fee: Cash

Single person: $3.00

Game Compeition: $5.00

Team Competition: (two person per team): $8.00

We will have Madden NFL 2008 on xbox 360 and prizes for the single
winner will be $25 cash, for the team winner will be $40.00 ( $20 for
each person on team) We will have live entertainment. We will have two
different softball teams doing fundraising by selling foods, one team
would be doing mexican food, and the other team will be doing bbq
outside in the smoking area.

We are also going to have fundraising for the NYE party, several
organziations will be working together to create a NYE party for
Januaray 2009.

Future event:

June 28th 2008- DHH DFW event- TBA

We know that many of you enjoyed looking at photos at our website. To
view the gallery, go to top to gallery. Any question or comment,
please email us at host@dhhdfw.com
. Please do not forget to tip and/or pay your tickets and take care
of your bills.

Thank you,

Ronnie Smith

DHHDFW Host

Email: host@dhhdfw.com

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