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Company, Lions Club help give signing dolls to Montana School of the Deaf and the Blind | Great Falls Tribune | greatfallstribune.com
With its middle and ring fingers pressed down, and pinky, pointer finger and thumb shaped to make the signed words for "I Love You," a new doll donated on Valentine's Day to the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind showed love for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
As part of a national campaign to get the "I Can Sign Doll" into more deaf and hard-of-hearing students' hands, the Great Falls Lions Club presented MSDB with one of the dolls — a rabbit —Tuesday morning. The doll, designed by a company in Lodi, Calif., has malleable arms and fingers that can help teach different signs.
"It appears to be a good tool," said Wyman Taylor, a local Lions Club member.
Taylor said Rob Hartley, a Lions Club member in California who first encountered the dolls and the company that makes them six years ago, has been working to make sure the dolls end up in the hands of children who need them. The goal on Valentine's Day was to get the doll to at least 30 to 40 organizations that work with deaf or hard-of-hearing students, according to Taylor.
On Tuesday, he presented MSDB's elementary children with a floppy-eared rabbit version of the doll — and told them to come up with a good name for it.
"I hope you give him a good home here," Taylor said.
After the presentation, the students eagerly approached teacher Julie Dee Alt to see if the "I Can Sign Doll" could really sign all of their names.
Manipulating the rabbit's fingers, Alt made it sign the names of students, such as Katie and Justin.
"We really appreciate such a wonderful gift," Alt said. "It's just like a doll any child would have, but it gives these students a sense that 'this is like me.'"
Alt said the doll also will be useful for teachers who are trying to teach new signs.
"I think we're going to be fighting over him for a while," she said.
With its middle and ring fingers pressed down, and pinky, pointer finger and thumb shaped to make the signed words for "I Love You," a new doll donated on Valentine's Day to the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind showed love for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
As part of a national campaign to get the "I Can Sign Doll" into more deaf and hard-of-hearing students' hands, the Great Falls Lions Club presented MSDB with one of the dolls — a rabbit —Tuesday morning. The doll, designed by a company in Lodi, Calif., has malleable arms and fingers that can help teach different signs.
"It appears to be a good tool," said Wyman Taylor, a local Lions Club member.
Taylor said Rob Hartley, a Lions Club member in California who first encountered the dolls and the company that makes them six years ago, has been working to make sure the dolls end up in the hands of children who need them. The goal on Valentine's Day was to get the doll to at least 30 to 40 organizations that work with deaf or hard-of-hearing students, according to Taylor.
On Tuesday, he presented MSDB's elementary children with a floppy-eared rabbit version of the doll — and told them to come up with a good name for it.
"I hope you give him a good home here," Taylor said.
After the presentation, the students eagerly approached teacher Julie Dee Alt to see if the "I Can Sign Doll" could really sign all of their names.
Manipulating the rabbit's fingers, Alt made it sign the names of students, such as Katie and Justin.
"We really appreciate such a wonderful gift," Alt said. "It's just like a doll any child would have, but it gives these students a sense that 'this is like me.'"
Alt said the doll also will be useful for teachers who are trying to teach new signs.
"I think we're going to be fighting over him for a while," she said.