ASL club signs national anthem at BOPW
November 6, 2013
Sara Zavorka – Contributing Writer
On Saturday, SFA’s American Sign Language (ASL) club, Talking Hands, signed the Star Spangled Banner at the Battle of the Piney Woods game in Reliant Stadium in Houston.
“We were so pumped,” Katie Swann, president of Talking Hands, said. “Everything happened so fast after we were confirmed, but it was so exciting to do something as monumental as this, especially for an organization that’s so small.
This is the first time for Talking Hands to sign at the Battle of the Piney Woods.
Swann was the one who had invited the Sam Houston Sign Language Club to sign with them, which added three to the 20 SFA Talking Hands members who participated. The Talking Hands members included representatives from the LMB, the feature twirler and a cheerleader.
“Now that we’ve done it once, I feel like we’ll be pros for next year,” Swann said.
Their precision in signing the words is crucial for those who speak sign language, as well as their accuracy that all of the signed words correspond with the music.
For the past couple of years, Talking Hands has signed “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Homecoming games; however, associate director of bands Dr. David Campo asked for the club to sign at more games.
As a result, Talking Hands has signed the anthem at every home game this year. Since SFA had the home field advantage at the Battle of the Piney Woods, they were able to sign their first away game in Reliant Stadium.
Talking Hands meets Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. They practice the national anthem after their Wednesday night meetings, as well as Saturday mornings before the game with the Lumberjack Marching Band.
SOURCE:
http://www.thepinelog.com/news/local/article_d14fe442-474f-11e3-82b8-0019bb30f31a.html