Miss-Delectable
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MLive.com: Everything Michigan
magine attending a performance of your favorite symphony in which you see the musicians playing, yet there is silence.
That is the reality for those in the deaf community, and rare are the entertainment opportunities for them. The Michigan Deaf Association conference being held today through Saturday at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites in downtown Kalamazoo seeks to change that.
The theme of this 51st biennial MDA conference is ``Deaf Adventure to the Future.''
``The purpose of this conference is to teach, entertain and stimulate a better understanding of the deaf, hard-of-hearing and deaf/blind to the community at large and to increase their ability to communicate with one another,'' said conference fundraiser and coordinator Elizabeth Gilmore Bystrycki.
``(The conference) is also is a means to spread awareness, which will reduce the stigma against this particular population.''
Some conference highlights: a euchre tournament after the Mr./Ms. Senior Michigan Pageant, scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday at the Radisson; ``Deafywood,'' a cinematic acting and storytelling performance by John ``Leno'' Maucere at 8 p.m. Friday at the Radisson; and the Miss Deaf Michigan and Miss Deaf Teen Michigan pageant at 7 p.m. Saturday at the State Theatre.
Bystrycki, who was the First Ms. Deaf Michigan Queen in 1978 and won the Best Talent award, said working with those with hearing impairments has become a calling for her.
magine attending a performance of your favorite symphony in which you see the musicians playing, yet there is silence.
That is the reality for those in the deaf community, and rare are the entertainment opportunities for them. The Michigan Deaf Association conference being held today through Saturday at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites in downtown Kalamazoo seeks to change that.
The theme of this 51st biennial MDA conference is ``Deaf Adventure to the Future.''
``The purpose of this conference is to teach, entertain and stimulate a better understanding of the deaf, hard-of-hearing and deaf/blind to the community at large and to increase their ability to communicate with one another,'' said conference fundraiser and coordinator Elizabeth Gilmore Bystrycki.
``(The conference) is also is a means to spread awareness, which will reduce the stigma against this particular population.''
Some conference highlights: a euchre tournament after the Mr./Ms. Senior Michigan Pageant, scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday at the Radisson; ``Deafywood,'' a cinematic acting and storytelling performance by John ``Leno'' Maucere at 8 p.m. Friday at the Radisson; and the Miss Deaf Michigan and Miss Deaf Teen Michigan pageant at 7 p.m. Saturday at the State Theatre.
Bystrycki, who was the First Ms. Deaf Michigan Queen in 1978 and won the Best Talent award, said working with those with hearing impairments has become a calling for her.