Deaf community rallies at Sams Stadium for Border Games<\/p>\n
By Laura Tillman\/The Brownsville Herald<\/p>\n
April 26, 2008<\/p>\n
At the seventh annual North Border Games for the Deaf, organizations
\nfor the deaf from across South Texas came together Saturday at Sam’s
\nStadium for a day of football, tug-of-war, dramatic skits, basketball,
\nand to socialize with other members of the deaf community.<\/p>\n
Eric Martinez, the president of the Deaf Club of South Texas, helped
\nto organize the day’s activities, which included participants from
\nCorpus Christi and McAllen as well as Brownsville.<\/p>\n
To him, events like the NBGD help to create a supportive, social
\nenvironment for the deaf that he never experienced as a child.<\/p>\n
“When I was young, there were limits to what people said the deaf
\ncould do,” he said. “Now we are teaching our children that deaf people
\ncan do anything, except hear.”<\/p>\n
Martinez hopes that by creating more awareness of the large
\npopulation of Valley residents who are deaf – he estimates there are
\n100 deaf people in Brownsville alone – it will be possible to reduce
\nthe stigma still present in some of the hearing community’s
\ninteractions with the deaf.<\/p>\n
“Some hearing people are scared to trust deaf people,” he said. “The
\nsame way that people discriminate against people based on race and
\ncolor, they sometimes discriminate against the deaf, thinking that
\nwe’re dumb just because we can’t hear.”<\/p>\n
Rolando Perez joined the NBGD from the Rio Grande Valley Deaf Club in
\nMcAllen. He was happy to see how much the younger participants enjoyed
\nthe day’s events.<\/p>\n
“We’re giving kids experience and responsibility so that when they
\nget older, they can take over for us,” Perez said.<\/p>\n
Martinez said that he hopes that more members of the Brownsville
\nhearing community will make an effort to learn about deaf culture. He
\nencourages those interested in finding out more to visit the Deaf Club
\nof South Texas’s Web site at http:\/\/www.freewebs.com\/dcst<\/p>\n
Link:
\nhttp:\/\/www.brownsvilleherald.com\/news\/deaf_86177___article.html\/people_community.html<\/p>\n
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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…<\/p>\n