October is nearly upon us; Thursday will be October 1st, and that begins a month of Halloween-esque displays, events and advertising.

Marysville NorCal Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing is throwing their annual event. This year it is based on the Addams’ Family with a mystery scavenger hunt. The folks running the mystery scavenger hunt will be dressed as the Addams Family for your entertainment.

When: Friday, October 16, 2009

Time: 6pm - 9pm

Where: Boyd Hall

Address: 1895 Lassen Ave. Yuba City, CA 95993

Cost: $10 per adult, $5 per child.

Come in your Halloween costume and enjoy some interesting Halloween themed cuisine! There will be interpreters provided so there should not be any lack of communication.

It is recommended you RSVP your tickets because after October 9, it will be cash only. RSVPing will also help the staff provide adequate amounts of food and drinks. All proceedings will go to supporting NorCal’s presence here in Marysville.

Contact Kim Dethlefsen-Koons for tickets.

Hope to see you there!

Click below to download the flyer.

Flyer for Marysville NorCal Halloween Event

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Are you ready for Halloween fun? Last year, we did a series of games based on “The Price is Right” and the year before that, we did “Let’s Make a Deal.”

It appears this year’s theme is An Addams Family Mystery Scavenger Hunt.

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What: Yard Sale & Deaf Awareness BBQ Picnic

When: Saturday, May 16, 2009
Time: Yard Sale: 8 am to 1 pm BBQ: 11 am to 1 pm

Where: Club House at 25 Via La Paz, Chico, CA 95928

BBQ Menu:
Choice of Cheeseburger, Garden burger, or 2 hot dogs
Served with pasta salad, chips, fruit and soda/bottled water

Price for BBQ: $10 per person. Extra Drinks $1 each, Extra burgers $2 each.

Sponsored by Sorenson VRS

Contact: kdethlefsen@norcalcenter.org

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I wanted to mention the results of the October 11 fundraising event “The Price is Right,” for Marysville NorCal Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. 41 adults showed up with six or eight children. The children had their own fun activities to pursue while the adults played the game showcases. There were plenty of prizes to be won, and wow, was it funny with the characters in audience!

Following “The Price is Right” game model, names would be drawn from a bowl for up to three contestants to sit up front and tell their bids on an item presented by one of the four game hosts. The contestant of the winning bid would move on to the game itself, to play and win a prize.

First game was Hi-Lo in which the contestant had to guess if the numbers she got from the dices, were above or below the actual value of the prize. Second game was the Punch in which a prize would sit in one of the holes. The contestant could punch another hole to try and win something she/he thought was better than the one in the previous hole, until she/he got a losing ticket.

Third game was a card game in which the contestant had to guess if the next card was higher, lower, or the same as the previous card. He/she had to guess all five cards to win. Then they would move on to the Showcase with the Wheel of Fortune to try and get the highest number that was under $1 to win a prize. Intermission was a thirty minute of food, socializing, and visiting with the Sorenson VRS representative.

The next half consisted of a Plinko, in which the contestant would try to get the plastic ball to fall onto a prize. Next game was a golf game where the contestant had to try and match up the correct prices with five grocery items in order to play from a certain distance on the golf course. The night ended with a final Showcase and costume judging.

In the Children’s Category, a little werewolf boy on best costume. He had a head mask made out of paper mache and covered in brown faux fur, and little black gloves with black shiny nails glued on to the tips, with faux fur. Two runner ups was a boy dressed as a rock star and a little boy wearing a bat mask.

In the Adult Category, a young lady dressed up in full pirate ensemble, won best costume, with runner up Renassiance lady and a purple pixie.

Pictures after the jump.

* You can see a larger version by clicking on the pictures.

Post from: Say What?

NorCal Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing,
has a flyer available for the October 11 event called “The Price is Right.”

There will be contests and games for both adults and children to play with prizes,
including a costume contest for
a) cutest
b) scariest
c) funniest.

Go to the “The Price is Right” Flyer here.

Entry fee is $10, and that will give you food and a drink.

Hope to see you there!

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In celebration of Deaf Awareness Month, there are some special events happening.

Redding Deaf Awareness Day Ice Cream Social, Sept. 10.  Flyer available here. I think the other socials are also having some Deaf Awareness infomration going on too.

Deaf Day at Sacramento Zoo, Sept. 15. Flyer available here.

Celebrate ASL Day,  Sept. 26. Flyer available here.  This is a World Federation of the Deaf proclamation for International Day of Sign Languages taking place on Friday, September 26 from 10 am to 3 pm on the South Side of the Sacramento State Capitol.

Great America’s 5th Annual Deaf Awareness Day, Sept. 27th. Original Great America information here, with PDF you download to use for your entry tickets, click here.

More will be added as I find them.

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This is for all Deaf Community Members, Educators, Families, Friends, Students, anyone interested in the education for Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the state of California.

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED WITH YOUR

DEAF EDUCATION EXPERIENCE?

IF SO… CLICK HERE:

NorCal Center Deaf Education Reform Call

This is about a push for reform in Deaf Education, to pull up the standards and provide better education to the future generations of Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The link above, will show a video with subtitles and signed testimonies by Deaf/Hard of Hearing people along with contact information for you to send in your story. The call is out now for your personal testimonies of your experience in the California’s education system for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. This will be brought to our State Legislators and Governor’s attention.

Why is this important?

Because the education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is still substandard. For example, if a student is mainstreamed, he/she is not guaranteed an interpreter that is skilled, and this has impact on the student’s education. Lack of a standardized education for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing has a life-long impact on the individual, affecting every aspect of daily living.

Watch the video and send in your story either in a letter, e-mail, or a video!

* A note: the video can be viewed on either Safari or Internet Explorer.

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Let’s Make a Deal was Friday, October 12, 2007 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It was tons of fun once it got going, and people left with lots of prizes! The Master of Ceremony was Kimberly Dethlefsen, dressed as a witch with bright green hair, and Rachel Hase was the Hostess of the game “Let’s Make a Deal.” There was also an NorCal Center on Deafness interpreter on site for those who do not know American Sign Language.

The game was played with the Hostess (Rachel Hase) signing names of common objects that the audience had to find in their pockets or purses for a chance to play the game. Whoever had the object ready first, got to go up to the stage and chose one of the three curtains to see the prize. They had a choice of keeping the prize or moving on for a second chance. If they moved on to a second prize, they had to take the prize, whether it was a joke prize.

Donors of prizes and goodies were: Sam’s Club, Appeal-Democrat, Comcast, Gold Country Casino, Cal Skate, Marysville Curves, Waffle Barn, Cookie Tree, the Outreach Advisory Boards (27 counties including Yuba-Sutter’s).

There was a bottle of 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon wine, many gift baskets from businesses that donated, a new DVD player, a wireless BBQ thermometer, live goldfish (2) with food, a set of 10 outdoor lamps, sets of 8 halogen light bulbs, teddy bears, autumn dish ware and candies, hand-made baby blanket, hand-made sweater jackets, a flannel one-piece pajamas, a picture puzzle set, digital camera, gift certificates to restaurants, Cal Skate and gyms, free subscriptions to the Appeal-Democrat, and much more.

Joke prizes were: 1-year old candies, a dead plant, a live spider plant, bag of potato chips, old suitcase, stinky socks, a used rice cooker, a hair clipper set, a bag of walnuts. Some people got stuck with those joke prizes after rejecting the first prize in hopes for a better one.

After the intermission, there was a seat change and whoever had the chair with the blue star, got a prize. Then there was a costume contest. Judges’ pick for costumes was a Gothic Vampirella, with Audience’s Pick being the Messed Up Dolly Parton. Other characters that appeared were: Dorothy of Kansas with Toto in a basket, Dark Tinker Bell, a teenage vampire, Caesar, a punk biker girl, a batty lady with a witch-dog, a punk lady with bright orange hair and converse shoes, a bat-girl with vampire teeth, and a teal-colored wigged man holding a purple teddy bear. The batty lady with the witch-dog had a novelty: bat-winged hearing aids!

There was also baked goodies and drinks and an auction-off of the final prizes. Caesar (Delmar Cheeseman, president of the twenty-seven OACs) was the one who did the auction-off of the prizes — not the joke prizes — that didn’t get picked up during the game, and raised some extra money for Marysville NorCal Center on Deafness.

Appeal-Democrat also covered the fundraising event, here at this url address.

Click to view a Photo Gallery of the event. It will be updated as I get more photos from others attendees. These are from my camera.

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In my mind, Amy is one of the giants, a Deaf woman with influence through her brilliant vlogs, and I felt so humble that she wanted to talk with me. Today we finally saw each other on our web cameras and had a wonderful chat in ASL about her work, who she is, and upcoming Deaf fund raising event in San Francisco that I am going to try and attend.

For those who are wondering about Amy Cohen Efron, she is an alumni of Gallaudet University with a Master’s in developmental psychology and is a specialist in school psychology. She is also involved in Deaf Prexy (President) Protests. She was in the first protest, in 1988 when I was a young teenager in sixth or seventh grade. I remember thinking it was a no-brainer that Gallaudet should have a Deaf President. I had always assumed Gallaudet had a Deaf President until that day. Ms. Cohen Efron is currently a school psychologist at Atlanta School for the Deaf in Atlanta, GA.

When I first saw her videos on her blog Deaf World As Eye See It, the first ones I saw were the original four-part series of The Greatest Irony in American Sign Language. I showed these videos to my mother, and my mother said it would be valuable with voice interpretation for those who don’t know ASL. And sure enough, Amy did it!

I doubt Amy ever thought that this video would have taken a life and gone around so much on the Internet! Now N.A.D. (National Association of the Deaf) has seen it, and Ms. Sheri Farinha Mutti has seen it. I thought it was fabulous that Ms. Mutti had seen it, considering I had just seen her in March at NorCal Center on Deafness’ 30th Anniversary party. Ms. Mutti is also known locally in the Yuba-Sutter area for her Deaf Advocacy works. Ms. Mutti is the CEO of NorCal Center on Deafness, which is headquartered in Sacramento and has a branch here in Marysville through our Ms. Kimberly Dethlefsen.

Here is the post with N.A.D.’s response to Amy’s video “The Greatest Irony.” Also listed on her blog are links to important web sites.

I hope that we will be seeing Amy’s video as part of awareness for parents of Deaf/Hard of Hearing children in advocating ASL for Deaf children. Now I am also wondering about who is on our California State Early Hearing Detection and Intervention panel (EHDI). Deaf community members and professionals in each state are encouraged to be on the panel. Anyone from here?

________________

Thank you, Amy for sharing this with me.

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