Presidential Perspectives

Hello everyone….ever since we hired Sherri Collins as our first DSA Executive Director, she has kept me very busy getting her up to par to what is going on with DSA , what DSA is doing, and future plans for DSA. Sherri Collins’ name sign is SC on her chest. She is very energetic and motivated to make DSA look good and make our members proud. View vlog

Two weeks ago Sherri and I traveled to Washington, DC to meet  with two  organizations. We met with the AARP DEIA team to introduce Sherri Collins as our new Executive Director. During the one-hour meeting, both AARP and DSA had a very productive discussion on ways to increase cooperation and collaboration. AARP expressed a strong desire to learn more about our Deaf culture and how they can get involved and assist. This was a very positive meeting, and additional meetings are being planned.   The second meeting was with U.S. Representative John Rutherford (R-FL)’s staff member. We learned that Congressman Rutherford wants to revive the Deaf Caucus for the purpose of educating the members of the House of Representatives on Deaf culture. Sherri explained the purpose of our visit is to introduce DSA, its goals, mission, and issues Deaf seniors are currently facing. Our discussion was eye-opening for them. The staff was happy to meet us and promised to reach out to DSA as they progress in reviving the Deaf Caucus. Look for Sherri Collins’ column in this magazine for an in-depth description of the two meetings.

The DSA Board as well as members are extremely happy to have Sherri Collins on board as our first Executive Director. Let’s move on to discuss the upcoming DSA 2025 Kansas City conference.

Pre-Conference tours have been announced, and many have sent in their reservations. If you haven’t made your reservations, please do so as space is limited. If you have not registered for the conference, please do register. The conference offering a good number of activities. We will have three plenary sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 8 to 9 AM. On Monday, we will have a “fireside chat” with Sherri Collins and myself with two AARP officials.  AARP will share their vision of AARP’s disability office and their desire to learn more about the needs of Deaf seniors. This will be a very interesting session.

Other activities include Comedy and Sports luncheons. The Comedy luncheon will have two comedians, Daniel Cook and Angela Petrone Stratiy will guarantee you will laugh  your heads off during the luncheon. The Sports luncheon will have Heather Suhr, a Deaf athlete with multiple talents and strong work ethic. She was the first female golfer in the state of Wisconsin to win three consecutive Division-1 state high golf championships from 1996 to 1998. She also played soccer and basketball in high school. She will be explaining her passion in becoming the first Deaf female triathlete.

After the Farewell luncheon on Thursday, the evening entertainment will be a SignTasTic! show presented by Daniel Cook. The audience will be included and be part of the show. This will be an enjoyable evening for everyone.

There will be several evening activities, one being a trivia game on Deaf seniors citizens. Trivia questions will be asked and see if we know well we know about each other. Another popular game many seniors enjoy is called The Majority Rules. This game has no right or wrong answers. The game will be set up in groups and each group will give their answers to the questions. If most give the same answer, that’s Majority Rules.

I would like to mention that Kansas City has a lot to offer. It’s gone through a major revitalization. The downtown area is within walking blocks from our hotel. There are a lot of new attractions such as restaurants, shops, the Power and Light entertainment district and the famous free Kansas City streetcar traveling back and forth from the City Market and its famous Union Station.

Two important information to share is we will have DSA Board nominations for President, Vice President, Secretary and two Board members. If you are interested, fill out the nomination form and send it to Lance Fischer, Nominations Chair at lance.fischer@deafseniors.us.  The second is we will have an Award ceremony during the Farewell luncheon. Three awards will bhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r_fSCvp6noe given for the following: The DSA Distinguished Service award, DSA Organization Achievement award, and the DSA Ralph White Extra mile award. If you know of anyone or an organization that deserve to receive these awards, please contact Elaine Navratil at elaine.navratil@dafseniors.us.

If you have concerns questions, or ideas, feel free to contact us or reach out to Sherri Collins as her door is always open. See you all in Kansas City – only four months to go!

In closing, be well, be safe and take care of yourselves.