DBC California Update #1 at the Rally in AG Bell State Conference

The DBC California chapter is hosting a rally today at Milpitas, California outside the Crowne Plaza Hotel from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Here is a list of interesting report updates submitted by David Eberwein explaining the positive dynamics of the rally. Future updates will be posted later on and video clips will be shown.

To obtain more information about the background of the DBC California, please check out their blog.

DBC CA Report #1
At the hotel, it appears that there is way more police appearance than Arlington, VA- there you can see this humongous police RV.

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DBC CA report #2
Wow- one AGB convention attendee just flipped us off, and the police went into the convention and yelled the woman out, saying it was unacceptable.

Luckily Kristen Weiner already met w/ the hotel mgr and all the police this morning and they were very appreciative of our cooperation. We are standing on the grass in front of the hotel very good location.
Media is coming later today. :)

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DBC CA Report #3
The AGB Keynote speaker, Josh Swiller, just finished and came out and joined us! Guess what? There are more of us than the AGB convention attendees!! (They have abt only 40!). Josh then spoke w/ us!!! He was genial, humorous, etc.!! We all have him hand waves, etc. Now ppl are speaking- and Dr. Klopping is explaining Sweden etc. Cat Cassidy, Beth Ticehurst, and Adam Lovelace- DBC CA's representatives in the AGB convention, are sharing their experiences this morning. They say Josh's keynote was great and mostly about his African experiences, however, the Q+A was solidly about his CI, etc. So far so good. There are about 80-90 of us here for DBC at this moment! And- AGB's conv is on the 2nd floor overseeing us...we are on the grass and AGB kept opening and shutting the drapes on us. We are very visible to 'em and they kept checking us out but slamming the drapes often.

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DBC CA Report #4
It is lunch now and just before lunch, one of the AGB panelists, a Deaf audiologist in her late 20s/early 30s came out w/ another CI Deaf and chatted w/ us. She even presented to us- and AGB opened the drapes to spy on her. Anyway, she was pleasant and signed a bit and told us she tells families to use ASL in her job etc... We invited her to our suite party tonight and she enthusiastically said YES, YES! Then Tom Holcomb proposed that we mingle w/ AGB in the hotel restaurant and now we are mingling. Many of AGB CA ppl do sign. And before lunch, one of DBC CA's reps, Adam Lovelace, spoke w/ us and thanked DBC for asking him to rep us. He is oral, and just learned ASL 2 mos ago thru Kristen Weiner. Adam told us that he is a poster child for AGB- college degree, no ASL, owns a restaurant, etc- but when he met Kristen, and learned ASL felt his life is more complete now. Wow!! More at 1 PM- ppl are really mingling in the restaurant now. Connectedness, connectedness!

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DBC CA report #5

After lunch, all 90-100 of us took a group picture. Weather's perfectly sunny. Beth Ticehurst, one of DBC reps in AGB reported that the AGB conv is now talking abt auditory tech stuff, very routine. Then AGB Keynoter Josh Swiller re-joined us and brought along another oral Deaf (w/ CIs), Michael Chorust (sp?), author of "Rebuilt" something to talk w/ us. Now others are talking to the group and soon yoga activities will begin. Its 2:15 now and the AGB conv is still in swing, but more and more of AGB attendees are coming out to join us ha. More drapes are opened now- either they're peering at us or have given up . Really mind-blowing to have around 100 of us as compared to 40 of 'em- and its a STATE convention!

Report #5- ADDENDUM!!

Michael Chorst just declared to us this, "I have learned more since my book...some of the things I wrote in my book,... My opinions have changed." He said he applied for a fellowship to Gallaudet University for ASL training! In closing, he said, "15 years from now, its unknown- but we need to work together." We are making in-roads!!!

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DBC CA report #6

Its now 3:20 PST and more people are here. Children's activities- so cute! Someone donated her/his car for the kids to PAINT on- yessss, paint the car!! There are a lot of cute slogans on the car, and the kids are happily painting away.

Sandra Ammons, Don Grushkin, Ella Mae Lentz, Judy Gough, Roberta Daniels, Eugene LaCosse, Nan Zhou (represting Bay Area Deaf Asians), Ralph Singleton (representing CAD Bay Area), Hank Klopping, etc. spoke eloquently.

Also, the DBC CA committee was introduced to everybody- Kristen Weiner, Tara Holcomb, Brian Morrison, Liann Osborbe, Justin & Jonathan Reynolds, Jenny Cantrell, & Sean Hauschildt. All cheered 'em on.

Then we returned to the sidewalk and held out many signs- beautifffull and all photographed. We also were videotaped during our chant, etc. Will post photos & vlogs sometime soon.

T-shirts are selling like HOT wow..

AGB convention is winding down in about an hour and we'll be seeing them as we plan to invite as many of 'em to dinner w/ us.

More to come.