Val's presentation in La Jolla, California

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
May 9, 2007

On May 9, 2007, at 12:41 PM, Stefan Wöhrmann wrote:
> Hi Valerie,
> hope everything has been an enriching experience - so that in the  
> end of the
> day you can say - it has been a beautful day - as I expressed with  
> this
> greeting-card  for you ;-)


Hello Stefan!
Thanks for this very nice message and for the beautiful card...


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I just got home from the presentation I gave today, in La Jolla,  
California.

The presentation went beautifully. I had 30 minutes to talk to 60  
people...and they were so attentive and fascinated and asked the most  
excellent questions...

I printed 60 copies of 3 brochures and 60 copies of one four-page  
flyer, plus 10 copies of four different Goldilocks books, all on my  
own printers...I got around 5 hours sleep last night...

People were excited about SignWriting. They are all hearing people,  
with no connection to deafness that I knew of when I arrived. I was  
their guest speaker at their monthly luncheon. Their group is called  
the Newcomers' Club, and they meet once a month and new people who  
move to town can get to know others by joining the Newcomer's Club.

So they had no idea what SignWriting was...I got so inspired by their  
thoughtful questions and enthusiasm that I actually forgot what time  
it was, and we had to stop in the middle of my teaching them to read  
a sentence!...

After the talk, there was a long line of people waiting to speak to  
me, and they were so warm and some of them know Deaf people, or Deaf  
teachers, and one of them had a native-signing-Deaf family in her  
mother's cousin's side of the family, and she told me she never  
understood until my presentation, that they were using a real  
language...So I asked her what did she think they were using when  
they signed to each other?...and she said she had no clue and no one  
ever explained it to her or tried to help her communicate to the Deaf  
relatives who came to occasional family reunions...another person  
taught reading to people with brain damage and other problems and she  
had a Deaf nephew and was planning to inform his mother...so out of a  
group of 60 strangers there were a number of people who brushed up  
against signed languages and deafness in their daily lives...

It was good for me to get out behind my computer - ha!

And now I know them as acquaintences....I can later call them to ask  
if they know of possible sources for funding in the local  
community...as the administrator of our non-profit I need to always  
find new sources for income so we can keep SignWriting free for  
everyone ;-)

And some of them already suggested that I speak to other luncheons in  
the future, and maybe i can build a community of hearing people in La  
Jolla who will try to help our non-profit...

So it was a fruitful day, and now I am going to try to catch up on  
some sleep!!

Thanks for the beautiful card, Stefan!

Val ;-)