Greetings from ALDAcon 2007

By Cheryl Heppner

Editor: This article is part of our comprehensive coverage of the 2007 ALDAcon in Rochester, NY. Thanks to the folks at NVRC for the great reporting. You are welcome to share this article, but please be sure to credit NVRC.

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Greetings from the Clarion Riverside Hotel in Rochester, NY. Today the Association of Late-Deafened Adults conference (better known as ALDAcon) begins in earnest, with a full day of workshops and a luncheon. Last night we had the traditional welcome reception, a wonderful two hours of greeting old friends and getting to know some fascinating new people.

Quite a few of the people here have ties to NVRC. In addition to two of our staff, Lise Hamlin and Bonnie O'Leary, there's an NVRC board member, Mike Royer. I was delighted to see former NVRC volunteer Gretchen Butkus, now a Florida resident, and Brenda Estes, a Northern Virginian before moving to the Tidewater area. Mitchell Levy, with whom NVRC once worked on Virginia Relay outreach, is here. He's now with Hamilton Relay. Eileen McCartin, an NVRC member, will be giving a presentation. I haven't spotted her yet.

ALDAcons, among all the conferences I attend, are always unique for me. I'm not here as an NVRC rep but as an ALDA member and volunteer. This conference is also different because my husband, Fred (aka Mr. Heppner when he's in the dog house) comes with me. It's nice to have his extra back and arms for all the luggage, and he likes taking Galaxy out for her last walk in the evening. We have only missed one ALDAcon in about 16 years, and that was because I had to choose between that and going to a two-week training for a successor hearing dog. If you've ever met angel dog Galaxy, you know I made the right choice.

By good fortune, NVRC Director of Access and Advocacy Lise Hamlin and George Kosovich were on the same flight as Fred, me and Galaxy. We also bumped into them trying to find a place for lunch at 2 pm, and ended up going together to an Asian restaurant to be stuffed with assorted dim sum, sushi, miso soup, etc

The conference bags had litttle surprises this year, several different items donated by Motorola. Fred got a baseball cap and I got a pair of pink flip flops.

Each year members of ALDA contribute fiction, personal accounts, poetry, photography, artwork, and the occasional crossword puzzle to create the ALDA Reader. It's always stuffed in our conference bag, and I like to leaf through it before I go to bed on the first night. I found "The Power of Words," submitted by Sharon Reese:

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit.

All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they say how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead.

The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump out of the pit with all of their might.

The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up.

He fell down and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die.

He jumped even harder and finally made it out.

When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?"

The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.