www.dbcusa.org

Hello! Some people have been wondering "What's up with DBC?". DBC has been very busy recently. Many of the DBC members and leaders have regular jobs and/or are teachers starting back to school after being off for the summer. So what has DBC been doing?

DBC is focusing more on EHDI, Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (or "opportunities"). EHDI has been around for quite some time, however many of us in the Deaf Community were "sleeping" and didn't know about this. The community needs to stand up and do something to help parents of deaf children get accurate information. Whose fault is it? It is all of ours because we haven't been involved in ways such as Deaf mentorship. The EHDI Conference will take place in Dallas, TX on March 9 and 10th. Last year, about 500 people attended....20 Deaf and 480 hearing mostly early intervention teachers, audiologists, speech pathologists, etc. The hearing people in attendance are interested in what Deaf presenters have to say. Several DBC members have registered to present about ASL and ways to help deaf children and their families.

On October 16th, DBC will hold a mini retreat at Gallaudet with NAD, ASDC (American Society of Deaf Children), other organizations, and various individuals. This is during Homecoming Week. We will discuss ways to produce materials such as DVD's, etc. We will also discuss other items such as training workshops to become mentors to hearing parents and work with them in their homes sharing information on ASL and other valuable resources. There will be around 10 individuals involved in this retreat.

DBC now has 32 state chapters and 3 international chapters including Canada and Africa. David Reynolds and I will be working with Kristen Weiner, DBC's State Chapter Coordinator, to network with people and assist in planning of activities. All of these activities cost money.

We are planning to fundraise by selling things on DBC's website, WWW.DBCUSA.ORG. Right now we are selling DBC T-shirts since that has been the most requested. If you want to order, go to WWW.DBCUSA.ORG. I have some samples of what we are selling as a fundraiser for DBC. These were the most popular. (Showing shirts). In Milwaukee at the Conference, we sold 150 of these in one day. Go to the website and you can look at the shirt you are interested in and order there.

Thank You!