On Friday night Galaxy and I went
to Sparks Marina with two other graduate teams from Canine
Companions for Independence -- Cara Miller and Maya, Don
Detrick and Cali. We were joined by two puppy raisers,
one soon-to-be puppy raiser and three pups. All
of us trekked around the lake to a dog park,
where the Galaxy spent a blissful 90 minutes tearing across
the sand and churning through the sand and water to
retrieve tennis balls. Then we trekked around
the other side of the lake to a restaurant, where the dogs
slept in a heap under the terrace table as we ate
in the fading light.
Oh how I love spending
time with people at the HLAA conventions! I always come home with
so many great stories and so many reasons to return
the next year. Go now and mark your calendar
for June 18-21, 2009 for Convention 2009 at Gaylord
Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
HLAA convention
goers are so stimulating to be around. There's
the lovely grace of Ahme Stone, Rocky's widow and the
dynamic Tina Childress who keeps adding new talents.
There's Roy Kulick,
MD., brilliant, insightful, and
a certain future HLAA leader who grows constantly as
an advocate and resource person. I could talk to
him all day. Or Dana Mulvany, who I often refer
to as a tech goddess, and the only person I know
who comes to conferences pushing a shiny green catmobile.
When she's in any audience you can always count
on penetrating questions.
And there are the
stories. Did
you know Flo Innes teaches gambling? She came to
the aid of a certain prominent female politician from
one of our northern states and initiated her in the art
of playing slots at the resort's casino.
A local man talked
to me for almost an hour on Saturday. He had learned about HLAA through
a local news article during the week and came to
the convention to find out more. He was so impressed
and thrilled to see all the information and support that
he's told me he's starting now to save money and
plan for next year's convention.
The Banquet Program
The Saturday evening reception and
the banquet in the Reno Ballroom were very well attended. Following
dinner and dessert, the program began with the passing
of the presidential gavel. Anne T. Pope, President
of the HLAA Board of Trustees, handed off to new president
Michael Stone, the son of founder Rocky Stone.
Next was the presentation
of the Howard
E. "Rocky" Stone Humanitarian Award, presented by Ahme,
who has also been a recipient of the award. This award
is given to a past trustee "for extraordinary contribution
to the furtherance of the objective and personal exemplification
of the philosophy envisioned by Howard E. Stone,
founder of HLAA."
Previous honorees are Dorothy Allen,
Clyde Black, Marjorie A. Boone, John M. Centa, William
B. Cutler, Marcia Dugan, Marcia Finisdore, Jerry Honbaum,
Paul Hopler, Joan C. Kleinrock, George Kosovich, Mina "Sis" Lelewer,
Suan L. Miller, Julie Olson, and Mark Ross, Ph.D.
The 2008 recipient,
Daniel R. Simmons of Lowell, Massachusetts, told a
touching story about Rocky's visit to his home and how his hard of hearing
daughter, Danielle, took an immediate liking to Rocky.
Danielle now has two degrees from Boston University as
well as a law degree from Suffolk University. She works for
a top firm in Boston.
Danielle is the reason he first
became active in HLAA. Mr. Simmons said he always
believed that not providing the needs of hard
of hearing children in education is tantamount to child
abuse. He also believes that HLAA members
are natural role models and that no one deserves HLAA's
help more than hard of hearing children.
He quoted one of
Rocky's famous sayings, "people
helping people help themselves." Years ago, Mr.
Simmons set up a support group for parents with hard
of hearing children, and eventually hard of hearing adults
joined the group as well. This, he said, strengthened
the group as they learned from the experiences and wisdom
of hard of hearing adults.
Mr. Simmons believes that people
in the HLAA chapters are having an important impact,
and HLAA must think nationally but act locally. Without
HLAA, he said, Danielle would not be where she is today,
and thousands of other Danielles need HLAA's help.
Entertainment by Dean and Frank
At Saturday evening's
banquet, I
had the pleasure of sitting at Barbara Kelley's table. Barbara,
the Deputy Director of HLAA and editor of Hearing
Loss magazine is not only relentlessly cheerful
but the hostest with the mostest. You can imagine
her stealing into your room at night to fluff your
pillow. But who knew that she was a comedian
and a showgirl?
Following the
program, mistress of ceremonies Barbara went to the
podium and announced that she'd just had a phone
call with the distressing
news that the entertainers hadn't yet arrived.
But wait! Our friend Colin from Canada was going
to save the day by singing for us! To the stage
came our hero, who burst into the first verse
of "I'll Be Seeing You"...except that the words were "I'll
be seeing you, in all those favorite courtrooms." At
this point we began to suspect our collective legs
were being pulled. Sure enough, Barbara's cell
phone rang and wouldn't you know the entertainers had
arrived?
Those in the
audience who can hear say that Chris Gardner's voice
was exactly like Dean Martin's, and that Rick Ellis
was a dead-on Frank Sinatra. They
soared through a hit parade of Rat Pack songs, solo
and as a duo. It was quite a sight to see Dean leave
the stage and take an impromptu spin around the
dance floor with Ahme Stone. Unable to resist,
Barbara and Colin joined them. A few songs later,
quite a few of us joined in the silliness and went
to the front of the stage to do some extremely poor "high
stepping". We were sad to see these talented
reps of the Rat Pack go, but they remained
outside the banquet room for a few minutes to give
those with cameras lots of photo ops.
Nashville, Here We Come!
Once again, get those calendars
out! HLAA
Convention 2009 is in Nashville, Tennessee from June
18-21, 2009. At the close of the evening, Jennifer
Torpe and Debbie Devone came onstage to give a personal
invitation. The Country Music Festival will be
taking place in Nashville the week prior to the convention,
so it's a great family vacation opportunity.
The site of the conference
is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. I
googled it at http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-opryland/.
It boasts of nine acres of indoor gardens, cascading
waterfalls and an indoor river with its own Delta flatboat,
a 20,000 square foot resort spa and fitness center,
Fuse Nightclub. Restaurants include Old Hickory Steakhouse
Restaurant, Ristorante Volare, Cascades Seafood Restaurant,
Water's Edge Marketplace Buffet, Jack Daniels' Saloon.
I can picture it now. I'll be on the flatboat
holding my plastic-protected laptop and heading
for the spa, with Galaxy swimming alongside.
