June Meeting a Success!
Thanks to those who showed up at our meeting on the 18th. Hearing loss and humor was a good draw! There were a lot of good shares in the meeting, perspectives on humor and fellowship. Usually we stop presenting around an hour but this time we stayed on topic for the whole two hours of the meeting.
Laine Waggoner said, “Humor is essential when living with hearing loss and the inevitable communication breakdowns we experience. My own sense of humor has served as an invaluable antidote to the endless stress, frustrations and anxiety that I encounter every day.”
Laine’s work made into a book available at the Sanderson Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
We discovered humor can be tricky. Sometimes we can laugh at the moment and sometimes it takes us time, as in years, to add the humor to the story. Then there is humor which is inappropriate such as someone saying “Huh? What?” repeatedly to us thinking they are being funny.
Kathy Buckley is a comedienne who created the autobiographical comedy Now Hear This! about her life which is centered around her hearing loss. She has fun with her hearing loss but she also inspires people to push limits. She’s one we decided who probably didn’t enjoy the things she now talks about when they happened but could apply the humor later.
While Gael Hannan often applies humor in her blog posts. On her website she says: “Hearing loss isn’t funny – but a sense of humour makes living with it easier. OK, there are few laughs in being left out of conversations, not understanding what your child (or your partner, or your boss, or your mom, or your doctor) is saying. In truth, other people find our hearing loss funnier than we do—especially when we say the wrong thing at the wrong time. But take it slow. If you can’t laugh, how about starting with a smile? Then, start learning how to live better with communication challenges. I have grown up with a hearing loss that is now severe to profound, and I’ve been talking and writing about hearing loss for many years.” She has recently published a book called The Way I Hear It.
We had accommodations at the meeting. Julia captioned our meeting and several of us needed those captions. Thank you Julia, we appreciate what you do.
Here are some random pictures taken at the meeting.
Humor in Hearing Loss
“People who live successfully with hearing loss must develop the ability to laugh at their mistakes. This helps to make family, friends and coworkers feel more at ease. Using self-deprecating humor to relieve tension and laughing with others is an expression of kinship or social bonding.” Laine Waggoner
Our next meeting is June 18, 2016 from 10a-Noon at the Sanderson Center in the conference room. Our topic is Hearing Loss and Humor. We will take a look at Kathy Buckley’s book If You Could Hear What I See. Kathy grew up with a severe hearing loss and though her childhood must not have been easy, she looks back over it with sense of humor. She is a stand up comedienne, actress, writer, producer, and humanitarian. She is also a motivational speaker, traveling all over sharing inspiration.
Laine Waggoner dedication a section in her book to humor and hearing loss. The quote at the beginning is from her book, Imperative Information for People with Hearing Loss and their Partners written with her husband Rex Waggoner. We will share some of her insights at the meeting as well.
We cannot leave out Gael Hannan the Better Hearing Consumer from Hearing Health Matters Magazine. She keeps an updated blog writing about the issues those with hearing loss face daily and she often does it with humor.
Afterwards the discussion of these three ladies, we’ll open up the meeting to share our own funny stories. There will be a light lunch and drinks at the meeting so come join us! We’d love to see you.
April Meeting
Our April meeting came and went. Kathy presented on hearing loss and health issues. Behind her is a list of concerns we have with aging and hearing loss.
Some of her talk was based on the research by Frank Lin. Here’s a video we watched about Frank’s research before the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfnOxmQThiA The video is captioned and I recommend watching it. We had a good talk, we had a light lunch and socialized before heading home.
Our chapter meets May 21st as the book club in classroom b/c at the Sanderson Center from 10a-11:30. The chosen book is All the Light We Cannot by Anthony Doerr. We have the looped room for the meeting and CART to accommodate everyone and anyone is welcome. Please join us.
Our next regular HLAA-SLC meeting is June 18th from 10a-12p in the conference room at the Sanderson Center. We’ll follow the same format for the meeting; an hour of presentation and an hour of socializing. Our topic is hearing loss and humor. Keeping a sense of humor helps. Come share your favorite stories and find laughter from other stories.
March Book Club report
Some of the members from our chapter met last Saturday for the book club. A local author was chosen for March, A Pebble in a Pond by Layne T. Oliver. We were fully accommodated with the hearing loop and live captioning so everyone could participate. Participate we did! Discussion centered around the need for editing because this story was bogged down. We managed to have a lot of fun, laughter and smiling dominated the meeting.
Many suggestions were made for future book and narrowed down to four for the rest of the year. The chosen books are:
- May 21, 2016 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
- Sept 24, 2016 I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot By the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb
- Nov 19, 2016 House Girl by Tara Conklin
- Jan 21, 2017 Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan
Since we are all big readers a few wanted the whole list of suggestions. Here they are:
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
- The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
- The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
- When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
Anyone may join the book discussions!
We meet at 10:00 at the Sanderson Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. We are done by 11:30. Join us in May for the next book.
Vocational Rehabilitation
The Hearing Loss Association of America, Salt Lake City Chapter will have their bi-monthly meeting on February 20th from 10a-noon at the Sanderson Community Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in classroom A. Our guest speaker is Cheri Lachenmeier. Cheri is a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor serving a general caseload in the Layton Division of Rehabilitation Services. She has been with USOR for 17 years. Cheri will be providing a short and general overview of what Vocational Rehabilitation does for us.
Cheri on the left at one of our past book clubs.
Come learn learn about vocational rehab. After Cheri’s presentation is done, we will have an open discussion so bring any concerns you have about hearing loss. We hope to see you there.
2015 December Social
HLAA-SLC had their December social at president Karen’s house, thank you for having us Karen. We had new people show up and old friends which made it a fun evening. We took part in a wonderful potluck dinner, the food everyone made was great! We sang a few Christmas songs, signed a few Christmas songs and took part in a white elephant gift exchange. Here’s a few pictures…
Singing Songs
Signing Songs
Lots of Laughter
The White Elephant Gift Exchange
Thank you SLC hard of hearing community members for making it a memorable social.
December Potluck Social
Our annual December social will be December 12th at 6:30 at our chapter president’s house in North Salt Lake. If you are interested in attending, email hearinglossutah@gmail.com and we will send directions out. If you’re coming for the first time, the main dish will provided but attendees generally bring a side dish to share.
We also have white elephant gift exchange. What’s a white elephant? Do you have something laying around the house you’d like to give away? This is your chance. Wrap it up pretty and we will take turns choosing presents, wrapped or unwrapped depending on what you want when your turns comes up.
Here’s some scenes from last year’s social….
Your HLAA-SLC Chapter
Who is on our chapter steering committee? Karen Faddis is the president, Chelley Wyatt is the treasurer and we have Kathy Evans, Helen Droitsch, Charla and Kevin Dolan on the committee. We meet every 3 months or so to decide on meeting topics, speakers and other chapter issues.
We have monthly meetings, one month will be a regular chapter meeting with a topic and presentation. The next month is for social purposes which have decided to be a book club. Both meetings have CART and the the hearing loop. If you’d like to see another kind of social gathering, let us know. We are open to new ideas.
Our next regular meeting is Nov. 21, 2015 and the topic is “The Importance of Staying Social.” With holiday celebrations ahead we know how hard it is to be social. Let’s talk about why we shouldn’t withdraw and what we can do make these situations better. Refreshments and coffee will be available.
Our last book club featured “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” by Peter Hoeg. We enjoyed it thoroughly. The next book will The Giver by Lois Lowry which was made into a movie with the winter scenes being filmed in Utah at Solitude ski resort. It’s a quick read and if you haven’t tried the book club yet this is your chance. I will set up a date for early December and announce it soon.
Also in December we will have our annual potluck social at our president’s house. Our November theme fits right in with this except you are among your tribe so communication will be a lot easier. We are shooting for December 12th. An announcement will be coming soon.
In 2016 we are changing our meeting times from 10am-Noon. We wanted to make it an hour later in the mornings to give the ones who live further away a little more time to get to the meeting. The meetings will still be at the Sanderson Center and every third Saturday of the month. We are going to swap out the book club and regular meetings so it will be book club in January and our regular meetings in February and so on.
The national chapter leader resigned from his position so the national office is looking for someone to replace him. We look at this as a good thing and look forward to someone more active stepping into the role.
Kathy has forwarded some information from the national office, thank you Kathy for helping out. The latest one generated some discussion which is good. Here’s the website related to the discussion: http://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearingnewswatch/2015/pcast-issues-eye-opening-report-hia-strongly-opposes/ It’s report on Aging America & Hearing Loss: Imperative of Improved Hearing Technologies.
Sept. 19th Meeting with Detective Aaron Rosen
The HLAA Salt Lake City chapter is having their meeting September 19th at 9 in the morning to 11:00. It will be in classroom B/C at the Sanderson Center with the hearing loop and CART available.
The topic this month: How We Can Improve our Relationship with Law Enforcement as Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Aaron Rosen will be speaking and taking questions from our audience. He currently works for the Bluffdale City Police Precinct. He is in his 16th year of Law Enforcement. He serves as a Training Coordinator, and School Resource Officer; in addition to his normal patrol and investigative duties. He is the agency’s Crisis Intervention Team Coordinator and SWAT Team Negotiator. He has worked with the Utah Deaf community since he began his career, and has even worked as the Law Enforcement Liaison for the World Deaflympic Games in SLC (2007). He is developing an ASL curriculum for police training, and is preparing to travel to teach this program, in order to raise awareness regarding police/deaf interaction. He lives in South Jordan, with his son, Jordan. His girlfriend, Julie McCleave is also a staff member of the RGSCSDHH.
This is Detective Aaron Rosen.
The Get Acquainted Party
Vendor Hall
Vendor Hall
HLAA’s Keynote Speaker: Senator Tom Harkin
Hearing Loss Association of America 