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Bradenton Herald | 12/06/2006 | Deaf students, others celebrate world's holiday traditions
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" never sounded so good.
Celen Garcia and nine Miller Elementary schoolmates didn't sing one word, either.
Accompanied by a recording, they signed the beloved Christmas song Tuesday morning at the school's second annual Deaf & Hard of Hearing Holiday Extravaganza Program.
It was a charming performance, even if Celen wasn't crazy about her cardboard antlers.
"I was a little nervous," the fifth-grader said through sign-language interpreter Barbara Millios. "It was my first time on stage."
The audience ate it up anyway, showing their appreciation by waving, which is the equivalent of clapping in American Sign Language.
"This is nice, to get together with other kids and parents in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community," said Gregg Gonczy, whose son, Gannon, is a Freedom Elementary kindergartener with moderate to mild deafness.
"He's the only one in his class," Yvette Gonczy said of her son. "He's interested in seeing other kids with hearing aids, because he's never really been around one."
The event was organized by Rachel Kendzior, Miller's speech language pathologist with the help of teachers and staff in the program. The South Manatee Sertoma Club, whose focus is speaking and hearing impaired children, said past president Kevin Taylor, subsidized the food, gifts and an appearance by a signing Santa.
About 40 students attended from other elementary schools like Able, Kinnan and Mills, as well as Braden River Middle, King Middle and Lee Middle.
The event's thrust was to show through ASL what the students had learned not just about Christmas, but Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights beginning Dec. 15; Kwanzaa, a cultural observance and celebration for African-Americans beginning Dec. 26; and La Posada, the Mexican re-enactment of the Nativity story.
"We wanted to emphasize the multi-cultural aspect, but also give them the chance to experience their own culture - the deaf culture - together," Kendzior said. "They don't get the extraneous information you hear on radio or TV. So it's important to take the time to give them the cultural understandings of other holidays."
Among the performers were adults Jeffrey Schneiderman, an exceptional student education coordinator for the Manatee County School District, and Christopher Wagner, the executive director for the Community Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Manatee and Sarasota.
Wagner's agency serves 107,000 deaf and hard of hearing in the region.
But Tuesday morning, his attention was on the audience as he signed while Schneiderman read a child's book on the origin of Hanukkah.
"It's an honor," said Wagner, through interpreter Julia Virgilio.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" never sounded so good.
Celen Garcia and nine Miller Elementary schoolmates didn't sing one word, either.
Accompanied by a recording, they signed the beloved Christmas song Tuesday morning at the school's second annual Deaf & Hard of Hearing Holiday Extravaganza Program.
It was a charming performance, even if Celen wasn't crazy about her cardboard antlers.
"I was a little nervous," the fifth-grader said through sign-language interpreter Barbara Millios. "It was my first time on stage."
The audience ate it up anyway, showing their appreciation by waving, which is the equivalent of clapping in American Sign Language.
"This is nice, to get together with other kids and parents in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community," said Gregg Gonczy, whose son, Gannon, is a Freedom Elementary kindergartener with moderate to mild deafness.
"He's the only one in his class," Yvette Gonczy said of her son. "He's interested in seeing other kids with hearing aids, because he's never really been around one."
The event was organized by Rachel Kendzior, Miller's speech language pathologist with the help of teachers and staff in the program. The South Manatee Sertoma Club, whose focus is speaking and hearing impaired children, said past president Kevin Taylor, subsidized the food, gifts and an appearance by a signing Santa.
About 40 students attended from other elementary schools like Able, Kinnan and Mills, as well as Braden River Middle, King Middle and Lee Middle.
The event's thrust was to show through ASL what the students had learned not just about Christmas, but Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights beginning Dec. 15; Kwanzaa, a cultural observance and celebration for African-Americans beginning Dec. 26; and La Posada, the Mexican re-enactment of the Nativity story.
"We wanted to emphasize the multi-cultural aspect, but also give them the chance to experience their own culture - the deaf culture - together," Kendzior said. "They don't get the extraneous information you hear on radio or TV. So it's important to take the time to give them the cultural understandings of other holidays."
Among the performers were adults Jeffrey Schneiderman, an exceptional student education coordinator for the Manatee County School District, and Christopher Wagner, the executive director for the Community Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Manatee and Sarasota.
Wagner's agency serves 107,000 deaf and hard of hearing in the region.
But Tuesday morning, his attention was on the audience as he signed while Schneiderman read a child's book on the origin of Hanukkah.
"It's an honor," said Wagner, through interpreter Julia Virgilio.