A-12 • Wednesday, March 24, 2010
SEQUIM GAZETTE
Chef From page A-11
About 30 deaf and hearing people attend the deaf coffee house at Sequim Community Church. John Dickson, husband of co-founder Diane Dickson, said when the deaf community gets together, they feel more at ease and relaxed.
mother. She was diagnosed with a learning disorder at age 5. Her mom says, “She’s worked very hard and I am extraordinarily proud of her.” Both Elisha and her mother credit being an Irrigation Festival princess for giving Elisha more poise, self-esteem and the ability to talk to strangers. One of the auctioned prizes at this year’s Irrigation Festival kick-off dinner will be an Italian seafood dinner Elliott will prepare. When asked if she thinks she can accomplish her goals, Elliot replies, “I know I can do it. “I won’t quit until I succeed.”
Deaf
Reach Dana Casey at dcasey@sequimgazette.com.
From page A-11 “I don’t want to see deaf people being alone or isolated. I know that feeling, so that is why I want to see (the coffee house) continue.”
Call for services The coffee house fits a social need for many deaf people on the peninsula, but practical services are desperately needed. Gustason has been teaching sign language at Peninsula College for eight years. During her tenure, she said, many hearing people have learned basic sign language and gained general information about deafness, and a few stuck with it. However, no certified interpreters work on the North Olympic Peninsula, and the nearest one is in Bremerton, Gustason said. When she and her daughter Zoey Wolfe moved to Sequim, they didn’t know any other deaf people in the area. Wolfe was the only deaf student at Sequim High School during her enrollment and she needed an interpreter. Now she’s en-
Sign language classes offered Dr. Gerilee Gustason, instructor ■ Beginners class, 10 weeks Sequim 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays, beginning March 30, Old Dungeness Schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road, Sequim Port Angeles 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays, beginning March 31, Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles Class C-L 020 ■ Advanced classes 6-8 p.m. Thursdays, beginning April 1, Peninsula College, Class C-L 021 Port Angeles classes cost $66 and Sequim $76 Call Peninsula College at 452-9277 for more information. rolled at Peninsula College studying graphic arts, and her interpreter commutes from Olympia. “We need interpreters. Most live in Seattle, and we are too far away,” Dickson said. Gustason said many are deterred from becoming interpreters because the pay is low and the commute is too long. Many advanced, noncertified sign interpreters come to the coffee houses.
SPECIAL EVENT
Some said they come to brush up on their skills for their work and volunteer services. Sequim’s Vivian Gaither is working toward becoming certified but she said it will take her a few years. Those interested in learning basic sign language can take courses with Gustason at Peninsula College.
Shattered From page A-11 Month, the League of Women Voters is sponsoring a play called “Shattered Ceilings; A Celebration of Remarkable Women” acted by Readers Theatre Plus. The play was written by members of the California Desert Regional Theatre after members found there were no plays written to celebrate great American women. Members of the regional theater each selected a woman they admired and wrote a monologue using the actual words of the women taken from letters, diaries and news reports. Music from the era will be
until the chicks are gone!
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EACH
SPECIAL EVENT PRICI PRICING ING
played and photographs of the women will be shown on a screen below the stage. The play opens with Anthony speaking with her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, questioning whether women’s suffrage, to which they had dedicated their lives, ever would happen. Their conversation serves as a frame for the other characters in the play. Charlotte Metzler is the announcer for the play, Marti McAllister Wolf is Susan B. Anthony, Mary Griffith is Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carol Novis is Bella Abzug, Barbara Wilson is Alice Paul, Cheryl
Bell is Betty Ford and Coral Swarbrick Dries is Fanny Hurst. The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 26, at the Old Dungeness Schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road, Sequim, and again at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 27, at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles Tickets are $12 and may be purchased at Pacific Mist Books, 121 W. Washington St., and The Buzz, 130 N. Sequim Ave., in Sequim, or at Odyssey Bookshop, 114 W. Front St., in Port Angeles. Proceeds will benefit the League of Women Voters of Clallam County. Reach Dana Casey at dcasey@sequimgazette.com.
Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette. com.
Sat., March 27th 8 a.m.
$ 99
LWV marks month A-18
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