Alberta Deaf News September 2015

Message from the Editor:

Brrr! You know you’ve been spoiled by a hot summer when 10 de-

grees at 9 am feels chilly...in just a few months, we’ll be wishing the

temperature was that high at any time, and in half a year that will feel

like T-shirt and shorts weather!

Traditionally, as the temperature dips and people start to retreat in-

side or put on more layers, activity in the Deaf community heats up.

September and October are two of the busiest months in the calendar

every year, with people taking advantage of the last few weeks of great

weather and beautiful fall colors. It’s also the start of a new school

year—social media is flooded with pictures of children in their first-day-

of-school clothes!

Have an amazing Labour Day long weekend, and get lots of community

work and socializing in before we get buried under mountains of snow!

Damian Karl

ADN Editor

Greetings to all Deaf Albertans and Deaf community members! I am hoping that you all have enjoyed your busy month of August despite the pretty hot tem-peratures and too many forest fires. Are you all ready for the new month of September – Fall Sea-son with a lot of clubb/association meetings and activities? CAV has posted an Request for Information in a 12-page document. Our webmaster Joachim Lapiak has posted the message on AAD’s website at http://aadnews.ca/docs/rfi-vrs.pdf that you can open and read for your information. Relating to the current progress of the NDP Provincial Government of Alberta led by our won-derful premier Rachel Notley and her cabinet & caucus, we all are wondering how well our provin-cial budget will be since oil prices has been globally impacted and are low. We may face a serious budget deficit and possible recession or new business recovery strategy plan to develop and act up-on accordingly, subject to a formal public announcement from NDP this upcoming fall. For a federal election plan this year, it has been officially confirmed that election day isMon-day, October 19th and there are currently around 5 major federal party groups; Conservative Party of Canada (PC), New Democratic Party (NDP), Liberal Party of Canada (Lib), Green Party of Canada (GP), Bloc Quebecois (BQ) and some non-popular party groups with special interests across Canada this year. It is your own right as an individual and a Canadian citizen aged 18 or older to vote only for 1 (ONE) registered candidate in your respective home area. Good Luck with your reading to de-termine which party is the best to represent you and our Deaf community in your home city, prov-ince and across Canada. Regarding the very recent 3rd WCD55+G – Western Canada Deaf 55+ Games in Winnipeg on August 16th – 22nd, the AAD Board is very proud and appreciative of our 2 wonderful groups of CAD Seniors Club with 11 seniors led by Grace Court, SC President and EAD Seniors Club with 35 seniors co-led by John Turner and Stella Stewart, Team Directors/ Coordinators totalling 46 Alber-tans for their successful trip/participation. Our Alberta team won silver medals for 2nd place! Con-grats/handwaves for all participants. We all are very excited to receive more news and group pho-tos from EAD SC and CAD SC in the next ADN issue. Relating to the very recent 5-day camp for Deaf/HH at Camp Kindle at Walter Valley, Alberta on Aug. 24th – 28th, it was being organized by Jade Coultman, VolunteerCamp Director. I am ea-gerly looking forward to receiving a progress report andfuture plan during the upcoming AAD board meeting. Relating to our AAD IPAD program, there will be a follow-up board review and final decision during the AAD board meeting on Saturday, Sept. 19th. Be sure to contact our contracted staff in-structors; Rebecca Lehman and Ryan Fyten for your individual or small group need for help or in-struction until the end of September 2015.

For AAD’s upcoming Board meeting at EADCC on Saturday, September 19th at 1 – 3 pm, there will be an open forum held from 3:15 pm – 5 pm for anybody interested to attend and get more information about the CAD-ASC AGM in Halifax, NS on July 3rd – 4th from our EAD/AAD representative –John Turner; Camp Kindle 2015; AAD’s lecture presentation, booth plans and ASL Anthem plans at CFL games during the IWD Week & DAE 2015 in Calgary – Sept 24th – 26th. Relating to the wonderful AAD - Edmonton Eskimos project led by Shauna Durston, AAD board Director, there have been 3 ASL signers doing O Canada before Eskimos home games so far. Guess what, the Eskimos agreed to welcome our ASL signers to cover all remaining home games this year. We hope to have one Calgary Stampeders' home game hopefully on Friday. Sept. 18th and look forward to continuing our successful and wonderful community project/partnership with both CFL teams in Alberta for ASL Awareness and appreciation. Handwaves for Shauna, Jolanta, Dena and Anita. Don't forget to re-new your annual CAD/EAD Membership for your upcoming 2015 - 16 pe-riod starting on September 1st. For anyone wishing to join either CAD or EAD for the firsttime, please feel welcome to join and pay your 1st-year membership fee. Then, you are automatically an affiliated member of AAD through the local - provincial link between CAD - AAD or EAD - AAD. Before concluding this to you all, the AAD board extends its best wishes and good luck to CAD – Calgary Association of the Deaf led by Rylyn Kvarnberg for hosting its upcoming DAE – Deaf Alberta Expo and its 80th Anniversary banquet/celebration in Calgary on Sept. 24th – 26th including the special plans of IWD activities on Sept. 20th – 23rd led by Rebecca Lehman. Hand-waves for CAD and its host DAE executives/volunteers! Also, the AAD board would like to thank Emil Kvarnberg, for attending AAD board meetings during his 2013-15 term as CAD Vice Presi-dent and sometimes as the CAD Rep for Robyn Mackie, former CAD President to AAD board meetings. At the same time, wwelcome our new AAD board director Cindy Pilz as CAD President for a 2-year term. Many Thanks! Enjoy your very busy month of September, Labor Day Week-end and Fall term/ season of clubs/associations meetings and various activities this year. Cheers! Keep in touch! For more info, please feel free to contact me in person anytime or email: donmcthy@shaw.ca. AAD’ly Donald Mc Carthy, AAD President

ASL National Anthem Signers at Edmonton Eskimos Games

Anita Mazzuca: I want to personally thank AAD and the Edmonton Eskimos for a great op-

portunity for me to sing the national anthem. The Edmonton Eskimo won the game!

Dena Ruiter-Koopmans: Although I am not a

big fan of football, I was honored to be asked to sign O

Canada at the Edmonton Eskimo football game. I was

actually excited to have that first experience of sign-

ing our country's national anthem in a stadium packed

with football fans. It was wonderful to meet some new

friendly people who worked at the stadium. One of the

highlights was watching some of the football players

kneel down and pray before the game. I'd like to thank

AAD for this special opportunity. It was an exhilarating

experience that I will always cherish.

Jolanta Lapiak: The Alber ta Association of the

Deaf and the coordinator Shauna Durston made a

selection of the O Canada signers for the Edmonton

Eskimos home games. I feel humbly honored to be

one of the selected to sing O Canada in American

Sign Language (ASL) on Friday, July 31st.

My first thought was that it was a wonderful oppor-

tunity to promote our natural, true language, ASL,

and Deaf/ASL awareness to the public. An exciting

opportunity for the Deaf community is that it doesn't

happen once but several times over the autumn,

where other signers have shared the moments. My

first session on July 31st was a success-

ful endeavour. Though, it's not the last time. I will

sing once again in the last home games where there

is a chance to improve upon every time and share

tips with the next signers/singers. Singing in ASL on

the field brings adrenaline and adventure as well!

SEPTEMBER 2015

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

2 3 4 5

6 7

Labour Day

EAD Volunteering—

FRBA Bingo

8

EAD SC Day & Commu-

nity Bingo

9 10 11

CWC Night

12

ACSD Executive Board

Meeting

EAD Corn Roast

13 14

15

EAD SC Day & Club

Meeting

16 17 18

EAD Community Bingo

19

AAD Board Meeting

20

CAD Corn Roast Party

21

IWD Begins (Calgary)

22

EAD SC Day

23

IWD Ends (Calgary)

24

DAE 2015 Begins

(Calgary)

25 26

DAE 2015 Ends

(Calgary)

CAD 80th Annual

Banquet

27 28

EAD Board Meeting

29

EAD SC Day

30

OCTOBER 2015

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

CWC Night

3

4 5

EAD General Meeting

CAD General Meeting

6

EAD SC Day

7 8 9 10

11 12

Thanksgiving

13

EAD SC Day & Com-

munity Bingo

14 15 16 17

ACSD AGM & Board of

Directors Meeting

EAD 64th Banquet

18 19 20

EAD SD Day & Club

Meeting

21 22 23

EAD Community Bingo

24

EAD First Aid & CPR

EAD Community Bingo

25

EAD First Aid & CPR

26

EAD Volunteering—

FRBA Bingo

EAD Board Meeting

27

EAD SC Day

28 29 30 31

Halloween

EAD Halloween Party

NOVEMBER 2015

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

EAD General Meeting

CAD General Meeting

3

EAD SC Day

4 5 6

CWC Night

7

Deaf Deaf World—

Calgary

8 9 10

EAD SC Day & Com-

munity Bingo

11

Remembrance Day

12 13 14

AAD AGM & Board

Elections

15 16 17

EAD SC Day & Club

Meeting

18 19 20 21

22 23

EAD Volunteering—

FRBA Bingo

24

EAD SC Day

25 26 27

EAD Community

Bingo

28

EAD Community

Bingo

29

EAD SC Annual Grey

Cup Party

30

EAD Board Meeting

DECEMBER 2015

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

EAD SC Day

2 3 4

CWC Night

5

6 7

CAD General Meeting

EAD General Meeting

8

EAD SC Day & Com-

munity Bingo

9 10 11 12

13 14 15

EAD SC Day & Xmas

Dinner and Party

16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24

Christmas Eve

25

Christmas Day

26

Boxing Day

27 28 29 30 31

New Year’s Eve