Deaf community rallies at Sams Stadium for Border Games
By Laura Tillman/The Brownsville Herald
April 26, 2008
At the seventh annual North Border Games for the Deaf, organizations
for the deaf from across South Texas came together Saturday at Sam’s
Stadium for a day of football, tug-of-war, dramatic skits, basketball,
and to socialize with other members of the deaf community.
Eric Martinez, the president of the Deaf Club of South Texas, helped
to organize the day’s activities, which included participants from
Corpus Christi and McAllen as well as Brownsville.
To him, events like the NBGD help to create a supportive, social
environment for the deaf that he never experienced as a child.
“When I was young, there were limits to what people said the deaf
could do,” he said. “Now we are teaching our children that deaf people
can do anything, except hear.”
Martinez hopes that by creating more awareness of the large
population of Valley residents who are deaf – he estimates there are
100 deaf people in Brownsville alone – it will be possible to reduce
the stigma still present in some of the hearing community’s
interactions with the deaf.
“Some hearing people are scared to trust deaf people,” he said. “The
same way that people discriminate against people based on race and
color, they sometimes discriminate against the deaf, thinking that
we’re dumb just because we can’t hear.”
Rolando Perez joined the NBGD from the Rio Grande Valley Deaf Club in
McAllen. He was happy to see how much the younger participants enjoyed
the day’s events.
“We’re giving kids experience and responsibility so that when they
get older, they can take over for us,” Perez said.
Martinez said that he hopes that more members of the Brownsville
hearing community will make an effort to learn about deaf culture. He
encourages those interested in finding out more to visit the Deaf Club
of South Texas’s Web site at http://www.freewebs.com/dcst
Link:
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/deaf_86177___article.html/people_community.html
—
BETTER IP RELAY – EVERYWHERE! i711.com makes all your relay calls better.
Better web calls. Better wireless calls. Better AIM calls. Why settle for
ordinary IP relay? Go beyond! Try http://www.i711.com for free today!
NEW! Try out our Deaf Network of Texas Calendar! Go to
http://calendar.deafnetwork.com
NOTE: deafnetwork.com does not endorse any of the products, vendors,
consultants, or documentation referenced in this message or. Any mention of
vendors, products, or services is for informational purposes only.
Powered by http://www.CrazyWebHosting.com
If you do not want to receive any more newsletters,
http://deafnetwork.com/list/?p=unsubscribe&uid=23e6b0ac27edebd2b6f52f1354859234
To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit
http://deafnetwork.com/list/?p=preferences&uid=23e6b0ac27edebd2b6f52f1354859234
Forward a Message to Someone
http://deafnetwork.com/list/?p=forward&uid=23e6b0ac27edebd2b6f52f1354859234&mid=1600
—
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com —