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Laramie Boomerang Online - Laramie, Wyoming News and Information
With a new home specially designed for its deaf students, directors hope that Wyoming’s Cathedral Home for Children will only turn out more and more success stories.
“The boys were peeking in the windows of the new building this morning before school started,” Christy Jenkins of the Cathedral Home said Friday. “There were tears in their eyes, they are so excited.”
An open house for the new cottage, the Newell Sargent Cottage for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, will be from 8-10 a.m. on Saturday. The Cathedral Home will serve a free pancake breakfast beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday, and tours of the entire campus will be given. The event is open to the public.
The Cathedral Home will also host a dinner event at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Laramie Country Club. The dinner will feature keynote speaker Joe Glenn, and tickets are $30 per person.
The new building has 12 bedrooms, each capable of housing two boys. The floor plan leaves the house very open, with the dining area, kitchen and living area arranged so that the students will be within sight of each other and the staff most of the time. The floors are designed to vibrate when struck, and the lighting is adjustable to help get the boys’ attention when necessary. The cottage is complete with a counselor’s office, a director’s office and a room for teleconferencing to allow the boys to communicate with their families.
“It’s just like buying a new home as opposed to an old one,” Mary Runner, marketing and development coordinator for the Cathedral Home said. “You probably didn’t have a disposal in the old house, but you will in the new house … it’s those kinds of upgrades where things will just be nicer.”
Since the inception of the program for troubled deaf children at the Cathedral Home, the boys have been housed in the North Cottage, a building built in 1971 to house boys who didn’t have hearing impairments, Robin Haas, executive director of the Cathedral Home, said. The North Cottage did not have adequate bathrooms and was periodically in need of repair.
“Some of the boys used their own money for repairs to their old house,” Haas said with a smile. “I didn’t tell them I would have paid for the repairs.”
The boys like to take pride in their homes, she added, and the new home is one they will be able to take pride in.
From the beginning of the program, Haas’ mission has been to never give up. The first few years of the program were rough, and she remembers employees being hit, bitten and kicked.
“But I get tear in my eyes every time I tell (a success) story,” Haas said.
The program really began in 1995, Haas said. The Department of Health, the Department of Education and the Department of Family Services banded together and approached the Cathedral Home, asking them to house troubled deaf children who could not make it in the schools.
“They told us that there was nothing west of Missouri for these kids,” Haas said. “The need (for the program) was just so great.”
One of the first troubled deaf students in the program was a young Wyoming man who had been sent to New York state for care, Haas said.
“The state couldn’t handle him, and they put him in a place where he was in four-point restraints,” Haas said. “But we just fell in love with him. He was a real lost kid … but (the staff) just did a phenomenal job with him.”
The boy was sent to the state hospital in Evanston before he arrived at the Cathedral Home, and Haas remembers how he was held behind a glass panel.
“(The counselor) started signing to him, and he just raced to the window. He was just so happy; finally, someone to communicate with him,” Haas said.
Haas’ deaf students, she said, are grateful for their new home.
“They are a great group,” she said. “And we just never give up.
With a new home specially designed for its deaf students, directors hope that Wyoming’s Cathedral Home for Children will only turn out more and more success stories.
“The boys were peeking in the windows of the new building this morning before school started,” Christy Jenkins of the Cathedral Home said Friday. “There were tears in their eyes, they are so excited.”
An open house for the new cottage, the Newell Sargent Cottage for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, will be from 8-10 a.m. on Saturday. The Cathedral Home will serve a free pancake breakfast beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday, and tours of the entire campus will be given. The event is open to the public.
The Cathedral Home will also host a dinner event at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Laramie Country Club. The dinner will feature keynote speaker Joe Glenn, and tickets are $30 per person.
The new building has 12 bedrooms, each capable of housing two boys. The floor plan leaves the house very open, with the dining area, kitchen and living area arranged so that the students will be within sight of each other and the staff most of the time. The floors are designed to vibrate when struck, and the lighting is adjustable to help get the boys’ attention when necessary. The cottage is complete with a counselor’s office, a director’s office and a room for teleconferencing to allow the boys to communicate with their families.
“It’s just like buying a new home as opposed to an old one,” Mary Runner, marketing and development coordinator for the Cathedral Home said. “You probably didn’t have a disposal in the old house, but you will in the new house … it’s those kinds of upgrades where things will just be nicer.”
Since the inception of the program for troubled deaf children at the Cathedral Home, the boys have been housed in the North Cottage, a building built in 1971 to house boys who didn’t have hearing impairments, Robin Haas, executive director of the Cathedral Home, said. The North Cottage did not have adequate bathrooms and was periodically in need of repair.
“Some of the boys used their own money for repairs to their old house,” Haas said with a smile. “I didn’t tell them I would have paid for the repairs.”
The boys like to take pride in their homes, she added, and the new home is one they will be able to take pride in.
From the beginning of the program, Haas’ mission has been to never give up. The first few years of the program were rough, and she remembers employees being hit, bitten and kicked.
“But I get tear in my eyes every time I tell (a success) story,” Haas said.
The program really began in 1995, Haas said. The Department of Health, the Department of Education and the Department of Family Services banded together and approached the Cathedral Home, asking them to house troubled deaf children who could not make it in the schools.
“They told us that there was nothing west of Missouri for these kids,” Haas said. “The need (for the program) was just so great.”
One of the first troubled deaf students in the program was a young Wyoming man who had been sent to New York state for care, Haas said.
“The state couldn’t handle him, and they put him in a place where he was in four-point restraints,” Haas said. “But we just fell in love with him. He was a real lost kid … but (the staff) just did a phenomenal job with him.”
The boy was sent to the state hospital in Evanston before he arrived at the Cathedral Home, and Haas remembers how he was held behind a glass panel.
“(The counselor) started signing to him, and he just raced to the window. He was just so happy; finally, someone to communicate with him,” Haas said.
Haas’ deaf students, she said, are grateful for their new home.
“They are a great group,” she said. “And we just never give up.