Miss-Delectable
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Batavia
It was easy to see that a party was going on in front of the Caribou Coffee shop on Randall Road.
Dozens of people were ming*ling on the store’s patio, spilling out into the parking lot. A sheet cake decorated for a fifth anniversary was placed under a purple pavilion. Inside, baristas filled countless orders for lattes, iced coffee and other specialty drinks.
The only things missing were the beat of background music and the sound of voices raised in conversation.
That’s because, at the fifth anniversary of the Batavia Deaf Chat Coffee, partiers talked with their hands.
“We’re all used to being places where we know people are talking but we can’t follow their conversations,” said Geneva resident Florence Angelucci, who founded the monthly event in August 2006. “It’s so nice to go someplace and have smooth communications with other people.”
Angelucci first saw a “deaf chat” event while vacationing in California.
“It was so much fun that I copied the idea when I came back home,” she said. “I got a friend who’s an interpreter (for the deaf) to ask Caribou if it would be OK to hold one here once a month, and they said yes. Then I posted it online, and people have been coming ever since.”
“We have about 120 people here tonight because it’s a special event, but we usually get about 70,” noted Julius Borchert of St. Charles. “Some people come out from Chicago and Rockford. Everybody enjoys socializing with other people who can sign, and we have a free raffle, which adds a little excitement.”
“I come every month I can to meet all my deaf friends who come here,” said Alanna George of Pingree Grove in northern Kane County. “I don’t want to stay home — I’d go crazy.”
Many participants, especially the middle-aged and elderly, are still living down years of slights and discrimination. When St. Charles resident Gary Etkie was growing up in Dearborn, Mich., he was taunted by classmates and dismissed by teachers as being stupid because he couldn’t read lips well enough to follow classroom discussions. When he reported being harassed on the playground, he recalled, teachers told him to be more tolerant of his tormenters because he was the “different” one.
“Most of my education came from my parents, who were deaf and communicated with me and my four siblings by signing,” said Etkie, whose parents and siblings all were born deaf but whose children all can hear.
“The key to raising children” in a deaf/hearing household “is by removing barriers to communication. Deaf children who are ignored by their hearing family members have more trouble in school than deaf children whose hearing parents and siblings learn ASL (American Sign Language). My children all learned to sign when they were little, and we had a rule that nobody used their voices at the dinner table.”
The participants at the Batavia Deaf Chat Coffee readily chatted with sign language students from Waubonsee Community College and applauded a reporter’s attempts to greet them in ASL.
“We’re hoping that hearing people come here and get motivated to study sign language,” Angelucci said. “We want to promote better communication between everyone, not just ourselves.”
The Batavia Deaf Chat Coffee takes place from 7 to 11 p.m. the fourth Friday of each month. For more information, visit www.deafchatcoffee.com.
Reporter’s note: Thanks to Waubonsee Community College ASL instructor Cassie Moore and professional ASL interpreters Kathryn Kruse and Stacy Boon for interpreting interview questions and answers at the chat.
It was easy to see that a party was going on in front of the Caribou Coffee shop on Randall Road.
Dozens of people were ming*ling on the store’s patio, spilling out into the parking lot. A sheet cake decorated for a fifth anniversary was placed under a purple pavilion. Inside, baristas filled countless orders for lattes, iced coffee and other specialty drinks.
The only things missing were the beat of background music and the sound of voices raised in conversation.
That’s because, at the fifth anniversary of the Batavia Deaf Chat Coffee, partiers talked with their hands.
“We’re all used to being places where we know people are talking but we can’t follow their conversations,” said Geneva resident Florence Angelucci, who founded the monthly event in August 2006. “It’s so nice to go someplace and have smooth communications with other people.”
Angelucci first saw a “deaf chat” event while vacationing in California.
“It was so much fun that I copied the idea when I came back home,” she said. “I got a friend who’s an interpreter (for the deaf) to ask Caribou if it would be OK to hold one here once a month, and they said yes. Then I posted it online, and people have been coming ever since.”
“We have about 120 people here tonight because it’s a special event, but we usually get about 70,” noted Julius Borchert of St. Charles. “Some people come out from Chicago and Rockford. Everybody enjoys socializing with other people who can sign, and we have a free raffle, which adds a little excitement.”
“I come every month I can to meet all my deaf friends who come here,” said Alanna George of Pingree Grove in northern Kane County. “I don’t want to stay home — I’d go crazy.”
Many participants, especially the middle-aged and elderly, are still living down years of slights and discrimination. When St. Charles resident Gary Etkie was growing up in Dearborn, Mich., he was taunted by classmates and dismissed by teachers as being stupid because he couldn’t read lips well enough to follow classroom discussions. When he reported being harassed on the playground, he recalled, teachers told him to be more tolerant of his tormenters because he was the “different” one.
“Most of my education came from my parents, who were deaf and communicated with me and my four siblings by signing,” said Etkie, whose parents and siblings all were born deaf but whose children all can hear.
“The key to raising children” in a deaf/hearing household “is by removing barriers to communication. Deaf children who are ignored by their hearing family members have more trouble in school than deaf children whose hearing parents and siblings learn ASL (American Sign Language). My children all learned to sign when they were little, and we had a rule that nobody used their voices at the dinner table.”
The participants at the Batavia Deaf Chat Coffee readily chatted with sign language students from Waubonsee Community College and applauded a reporter’s attempts to greet them in ASL.
“We’re hoping that hearing people come here and get motivated to study sign language,” Angelucci said. “We want to promote better communication between everyone, not just ourselves.”
The Batavia Deaf Chat Coffee takes place from 7 to 11 p.m. the fourth Friday of each month. For more information, visit www.deafchatcoffee.com.
Reporter’s note: Thanks to Waubonsee Community College ASL instructor Cassie Moore and professional ASL interpreters Kathryn Kruse and Stacy Boon for interpreting interview questions and answers at the chat.