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Deaf group offers socialization, answer to loneliness

Photos: Deaf Community meeting

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By Megan Gildow, Staff Writer Updated 7:20 AM Monday, May 18, 2009

Standing in front of a crowd of people, Marianne Stewart’s hands move through the air as a voice to the side echoes her words about her mother.

“She’s very lonesome,” Stewart signed to the people who make up the Clark County Deaf Community on Sunday, May 17. Her mother, Edwina Olsen, who is deaf and was once an active member of the fledgling group, has terminal cancer.

Before the question is even out of the interpreter’s mouth, other hands are signing, agreeing to the daughter’s request for visitors for her sick mother. Some of Olsen’s nurses sign, but she is alone most of the time, said Stewart.

Being deaf can be a lonely existence without groups such as CCDC, its members say.

“It’s important to have an organization here to keep us close-knit,” said Arlen Nash, who is also the American Sign Language teacher at Springfield High School.

With support from the Springfield Foundation, CCDC began last year and meets monthly at Covenant Presbyterian Church. About 25 people — both deaf and hearing — attended Sunday’s meeting, where new club officers were elected.

“I hope this year will improve it, so that we can get more people to come in and get involved and have more activities and help each other,” said Kara Macejak, president of CCDC.

As the group grows, its ambitions will too, Stewart hopes.

“We have future dreams of more advocacy and more things to do, but right now it’s mostly social and educational,” she said.

Outings like the Summer Arts Festival’s deaf-friendly activities are a chance for socialization with all people, said Jon Dupree of Urbana.

“It is really nice to see an organization that comes to give us more deaf events to do,” he said. “And I think it’s really important to show that deaf is just the same as anybody else.”

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