M A R C H / A P R I L - 1 9 9 8

Neither Rain, Nor Snow...
Student Helps School with Mail
Carrie Reed has joined other students at the Arkansas School for the Deaf (ASD) in collecting the campus mail. Carrie, 16, is blind as well as deaf. She makes her rounds with the help of her white cane. Carrie is the only deaf and blind student in her class. She enjoys chatting with the other students and they enjoy chatting with her, said her teacher Karen Bryant. Bryant also noted Carrie is "one of the best swimmers" on the ASD special olympic swim team. She has been picking up the ASD mail to send to the post office for several months, joining with ASD student mail collectors Chris Adams, and Pam Harness. The students do a great job, ASD workers agree.

Cheers for Espanol
"60 Minutes" to Air Spanish Captions
"60 Minutes," the most successful TV program in history, now offers captions in Spanish or English. The Caption Center, a nonprofit service of WGBH in Boston, has assembled a bilingual team of caption writers to translate each broadcast. The goal: to reach 27 million Hispanic viewers. With offices in Boston, Los Angeles, and New York, the Caption Center captions over 10,000 hours of programs every year.

Polar Bears and Orchids—Deaf CSUNians Float
One More Win
A team of students representing the Deaf CSUNians from the California State University at Northridge won the Queen's Trophy for the float they produced for the Tournament of Roses Parade. Created by Kodak, the float featured 30' high polar bears and cubs that frolicked through ice floes and ice-encrusted trees. The bears were covered in layers of flowers imported from Africa, coconut flakes, and pampas grass. Their noses were black Japanese seaweed, and their eyes, statice and onion seed. The trees were redwood bark and cedar topped with orchids and roses. The float's base was covered in roses, daisies, carnations, and orchids. The Deaf CSUNians began work in November, drying seeds, mosses, grasses, and bark. They have worked on 11 floats sponsored by Kodak and won nine trophies.

Free Videotape
Paychecks and Taxes
Social Security is not a tax. Still, money is taken out of every paycheck in the USA, sent to the government and, in theory, put into the Social Security fund. Then when workers grow old and retire, the money comes back to them in the form of social security checks. Billy Bowman, a graduate of Gallaudet University, works in the office of national affairs at Social Security. Bowman notes that the Social Security Administration has a videotape and book to explain this system. There materials explain the history, principle, finances, and benefits of social security, he said. They also discuss financial planning and why it is important to begin it early. The materials can be obtained for free. Contact William Bowman, Social Security Administration, STE. 4300 WHR, Baltimore, MD 21235; billy.bowman@ssa.gov; http://www.ssa.gov/kids.

ABOUT THE COVER

J is for Jaguar Students Craft Sign Mural Lorena Palma signs jaguar as she explains her contribution to the new mural at Hillside Elementary School, in El Paso, Texas. The mural, crafted by deaf and hard of hearing students, is made of tiles. Each tile shows a letter of the alphabet in English and sign, and an illustration of an animal to match each letter. While Lorena got the j tile and drew a jaguar, her classmate, Christina Peralta, had a tougher task. Christina got the n square. "It wasn't easy," remarked her teacher Douglas Jackson. But Christina was victorious when she discovered the narwhal, a species of whale that lives in the Arctic Ocean.

General comments may be sent to: Ken.Kurlychek@gallaudet.edu
Last modified May 21, 1998
Copyright © 1997, All Rights Reserved
Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center

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