willieross

Annual Gala Fundraiser 2023 follow up

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:36:44 GMT

A smashing success!

Our Annual Gala Fundraiser has been wrapped up! Everybody had such an amazing time.

Our gala photos were taken by an extraordinary photographer named Aleksandr Novik. A family member of his has a previous relationship with WRSD (I believe a nurse), so he was more than willing to segue from his regular wedding photography to capture our gala event.

The gala photo album can be found at the link below.

https://www.anovik.com/Other-Work/WRSD-Gala-2023/n-shrTLb/

Fall 2023 ASL Classes up!

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 13:34:25 GMT

Registration is UP!

Registration for Fall 2023 community-wide ASL classes is up!

Please visit the following page to learn more and register!

https://www.wrsdeaf.org/american-sign-language-classes

Annual Gala Fundraiser 2023

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 13:30:48 GMT

Save the date!

On Thursday, October 12, 2023 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., we will be hosting our Annual Gala Fundraiser at Twin Hills Country Club !

This year, we are delighted to honor the following:

Bonnie Katusich, Longtime Employee (she is retiring at the end of the school year!);

Dr. J. Robert Kirkwood, Longtime Trustee and Chair;

Monson Savings Bank , Lon gtime Partner; and

The Guertin Family, one of our Founding Families.

We are looking forward to a wonderful evening.

We will have an online auction as well as an in-person raffle. We are sure our attendees will love the prizes we've been collecting so far!

Registration details will come within the next week or two! Keep an eye out!

Annual Gala Fundraiser

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 15:07:30 GMT

A smashing success!

We had a lot of fun at our recent gala event. We honored Grammatiki Anderson and Paul Robbins Associates. We were able to catch up with friends and pose for photos.

Our photo album of this event is on Facebook at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5544771145606555&type=3

We were also recognized in a WWLP piece, which can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0G_9YkxfEI

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Annual Gala Fundraiser event. Funds raised from this event will be used for our educational programs.

See you next year!

WRSD 2022 Annual Gala Fundraiser

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 16:19:10 GMT

Registration is open!

We are very excited to announce registration for our Annual Gala Fundraiser event is open! Visit our Annual Gala page at https://www.wrsdeaf.org/annual-gala and check it out!

This year, we are proud to honor longtime supporter Grammatiki Anderson as well as longtime partner Paul Robbins Associates.

We will also be holding an online auction with ReadySetAuction, an online auction platform that allows auction bidders to bid from their own mobile devices or computers. A full listing of our auction donors is available on our Annual Gala page.

We look forward to a great event. Thank you for your support.

WRSD Conference '22—A Great Success

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Thu, 05 May 2022 17:51:27 GMT

Our recent conference was fantastic! We had over 90 visitors joining us from all over the country—Oregon, California, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina, and more!

Each of our presenters brought something special to our conference, and the panel discussion helped connect each of their topics to one another.

Please keep an eye open for Conference '23: Deaf Plus - Strategies That Work!

WRSD Conference '22

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:01:17 GMT

Registration now open!

Registration is now open for our upcoming conference. Visit our Conference page at https://www.wrsdeaf.org/conference-2022 to learn more about our conference and register.

Hearing Assistive Technology Update Project

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 16:48:38 GMT

We need your support!

Our Hearing Assistive Technology (HAT) equipment is being discontinued by the manufacturer, and we need the support of our community to help us raise the necessary funds to purchase new HAT equipment.

Newer HAT equipment will provide our students with better clarity and voice recognition while reducing distracting background sounds.

Make a contribution to our HAT campaign today! Donors who give $50 or more will receive a free jar opener!

For more information and to support our mission, please visit our crowdfunding link: https://www.givecampus.com/k73xyb

Spring 2022 ASL classes

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:04:40 GMT

Registration is open for Spring term ASL classes!

Happy Holidays! The Spring 2022 term for our community ASL classes is now open for registration! Classes will be held on Tuesday evenings from February 8 to May 24, 2022 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

For more information and to register, simply visit our events page here https://www.wrsdeaf.org/american-sign-language-classes

See you in class!

Annual Gala 2021

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 14:13:36 GMT

A heartfelt 'thank you' to all who contributed

We would like to thank everybody who attended and contributed to the success of our Annual Gala on October 14, 2021. It was a great event, and we were proud to honor John Ernst, John Gallup, and Barbara Garvey during our program.

Photos from the evening have been added to our Facebook page. Click here to see it: https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=wrsd1967&set=a.4440727439344270

Additionally, we recorded the Zoom session. If you were unable to join us in person or virtually and would like to see the proceedings, the link is here:

https://fb.watch/8JewAOZLIt/

Thank you to our community for making our event a success. We couldn't do what we do w ithout all of you. See you next year.

Grand Re-Opening | Ribbon Cutting of our Sidney M. Cooley Administration Building a Great Success

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 13:47:15 GMT

Our event was well-received.

Students, staff, Trustees, donors, western Massachusetts legislators, and community members came together to celebrate the conclusion of our years-long construction project. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us at the event.

We have posted some photographs of the event on our Facebook page. Check it out here:

https://www.facebook.com/wrsd1967/posts/4350594075024274

Grand Re-Opening | Ribbon Cutting of our Sidney M. Cooley Administration Building

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 17:01:14 GMT

Please join us for the Grand Re-Opening | Ribbon Cutting of the Sidney M. Cooley Administration Building.

We are delighted to announce our Re-Opening Ribbon Cutting event is scheduled for Friday, September 17, 2021 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

For the past three years, we have worked hard to expand our available space to accommodate our growing needs. We are therefore elated to announce our construction project is finally finished, and we would like to invite you to come and see the new building.

We will have a dedication event followed by guided tours through the new building.

Light refreshments and beverages will be served.

Attendees should be fully vaccinated. Masks will be required.

Annual Gala 2021

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 16:36:30 GMT

Registration is open!

Registration is up for our annual gala! It will be held as a hybrid event: In person at the Twin Hills Country Club in Longmeadow, MA and via livestream.

This year we are honoring Barbara Garvey, John Gallup, and John Ernst—and we are excited to welcome Robert DeMayo, a prominent Deaf entertainer, to provide entertainment for the evening.

Please visit our Annual Gala pag e to learn more about our gala this year, to donate, or to register.

As a final note, we will run our auction entirely online this year from August 30, 2021 to October 13, 2021. We will regularly add more prizes to our auction portal—make sure you check back often!

We hope to see you at our gala this year!

Upcoming interpreter training now available for registration.

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 12:53:32 GMT

Erin Seipke-Brown and Megan Seipke-Dam e Present: Ethical Decision Making in K-12 Settings.
$100; 0.9 PS CEUs.

This training will take place virtually on Zoom. Tuesday evenings on 9/21, 9/28, and 10/5 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

This workshop has been designed to help participants analyze, hone, and focus their decision-making processes for when ethical dilemmas arise in the K-12 setting. Participants will discuss and assess current knowledge and understanding of the NAD-RID Code of Professional Conduct and individual practices, and develop a personal approach and structure for effective decision making based on the NAD-RID CPC through various hands-on activities.

Through the lens of reflective practice and the identification of available tools (such as the NAD-RID CPC) and skills, participants will be able to define what it is to be ethical and what the value systems are that influence our actions and decision making.

Participants will:

Identify tools, resources, and internal factors that influence one’s ethical decision making in K-12 settings.
Develop skills and identify tools that can be used to improve the process and quality of ethical decisions in K-12 settings.
Assess current and individual ethical decision making practices.
Develop strategies to provide rationale in support of decisions.

This workshop is intended for working and interested interpreters in the K-12 system. Other educational staff also welcome. This will be presented in English. ASL interpreting services may be requested by emailing Ami at aslater@wrsdeaf.org by September 10th. Whether we have minimum registration will be determined on 9/14/21. Registration deadline is 9/20/21 at noon eastern. No recordings of this workshop can be made available for any reason.

Click here to register.

Susan Conlon Phillips Garden Dedication Event - A Great Success

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 12:00:25 GMT

Tuesday's Event A Great Success

Tuesday's Garden Dedication Event was a great success. We had Bert Carter, President & CEO; Bob Kirkwood, Chair of the Board of Trustees; Dr Louis Abbate, President Emeritus; Sheila Mentkowski, Family Member ( message relayed via Bert Carter ); and Jonathan Phillips, Family Member all say a few words about Susan Conlon Phillips and her impact on the community.

The live stream video has been posted to our Facebook page—albeit with a few audio-visual issues in the beginning. Photos of the event were posted as well. The links are below.

Facebook Live: https://fb.watch/v/3kbr_UZSh/

Photos of Event: https://www.facebook.com/wrsd1967/posts/4141045382645812

We have created a perpetual photo album on our Facebook page that will be updated periodically with new flowers and other garden-related pictures. The URL is below.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=wrsd1967&set=a.4146413945442289

GiveCampus Playground Fundraiser

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 19:24:37 GMT

Student Walkathon and Last Day Dunking

In support of our GiveCampus Playground fundraiser project, our students and staff participated in a walkathon. Check out our gallery of this wonderful event below on Facebook!

In addition, our staff donated money for the opportunity to dunk Bert Carter, President & CEO, and Erika Kaftan, Education Director, on the last day of school! The galleries of this fun day were posted on Facebook as well.

All in all, we raised over $3,000 for our new playground, bringing us even closer to our goal!

Susan Conlon Phillips Garden Dedication Ceremony

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 17:17:02 GMT

Garden Dedication Ceremony for former Trustee

Join us live on July 13, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. as we honor Susan Conlon Phillips, longtime trustee and friend of Willie Ross, with a garden dedication in her memory.

This event will be streamed on Facebook Live with a limited in-person attendance. If you would like to attend this event in person, please connect with Joel Skelton at jskelton@wrsdeaf.org.

Interpreter training now available!

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 12:37:05 GMT

We are thrilled to welcome David Evans once again!

David Evans presents the second part of his series: Becoming a Holistic Practitioner: Firing Your Negative Committee. Previous workshop is NOT a prerequisite for registering!

In our daily practice, we routinely give ourselves negative messages about our work and (more importantly) about ourselves. Often referred to as the Negative Committee, this detrimental self-talk impacts us in multiple ways: physiologically, elevating our sympathetic nervous system response, putting us into a fight-flight–freeze response; mentally because we can’t think clearly when cortisol (a stress hormone) is being released in our system; and spiritually because we feel unworthy as people. Unsurprisingly, these negative messages prevent us from working as effectively as we otherwise might be able to do.

There is good news: with relatively little effort we can replace the negative, self-defeating messages with affirming ones to positively affect our bodies, minds, and spirits!

In this session, we will start by recording a baseline of our physiological responses to perceived stressful situations. Then, positive self-talk strategies will be presented along with guidelines so you can create your own effective statements. Finally, we will apply positive self-talk statements and practice interpreting an ASL text, recording and noting the difference in our internal and external responses.

Target Audience: ASL-English Interpreters and students

Registration is $40.00.

Upcoming training for interpreters!

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 15:10:13 GMT

We are planning an exciting new workshop to take place on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.

David Evans presents the second part of his series. Becoming a Holistic Practitioner: Firing Your Negative Committee. Previous workshop is not a prerequisite for registering!

Registration details will be up shortly. Stay tuned!

Interpreter trainings now available

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 20:34:16 GMT

David Evans and Breana Cross-Caldwell to provide training via Zoom.

We are excited to welcome David Evans and Breana Cross-Caldwell to provide workshops for us!

David Evans' workshop, "Becoming a Holistic Practitioner: Breathing and Voicing" is now open for enrollment. David's training will be held on Tuesday, March 9th 2021 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. To learn more about David's workshop and register, click here: bit.ly/breathe321

Breana Cross-Caldwell's workshop, "Self-Care In Stressful Times" is now open for enrollment. Breana's training will be held on Tuesday, March 30th 2021 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. To learn more about Breana's training and register, click here: bit.ly/careWRSD

We hope to see you there!

Upcoming workshop for interpreters!

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:51:48 GMT

We are planning an exciting new workshop to take place on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.

Save the date for our next guest, Breana Cross-Caldwell. She will be teaching a live Zoom workshop on Tuesday, March 30th, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Breana Cross-Caldwell (she/her) holds her CI/CT from RID, a B.S. in Interpretation from Western Oregon University, and is a Mental Health Coach. She’s the founder of Burnout Proof Academy and has led thousands of interpreters in preventing burnout and re-igniting the passion in their lives and work through developing habits of self-care. Her home is Portland, Oregon, where she loves to write, read, and play near water with her husband and teens. You can find her online at brighterfocus.com .

The workshop she will present with us that evening is still in negotiation. Check back here for more details early in the new year!

Community of Practice (Module 2)

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 18:00:20 GMT

The Community of Practice module offered in our Events section is currently full. If you are interested in attending Modules 1, 2, or 3, please connect with Ami Slater at aslater@wrsdeaf.org.

Education Conference 2020

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 14:57:13 GMT

On November 3, 2020, Willie Ross School for the Deaf held its second education conference, Trends in Deaf Education .

We welcomed over 120 guests from American School for the Deaf, Cleary School for the Deaf, and other public schools in the area.

Our presenters, their backgrounds, and their presentation topics are listed below.

Thangi Appanah | Universal Design for Learning in Deaf Education (live via Zoom)
Associate Professor Interim Undergraduate Program Director Department of Education Gallaudet University

Barbara Raimondo | Optimizing Outcomes for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (pre-record)
Executive Director CEASD

Todd Czubek | Nudging Parents and Families Down Pathways to Success (pre-record)
Lecturer Deaf Studies Boston University

Bert Carter | Celebrating 30 Years of Partnership with East Longmeadow (live via Zoom)
President & CEO Willie Ross School for the Deaf

We also ran sponsorship ads from Gallaudet University, Gallaudet Regional Center East, Lightspeed, Sprint Relay (now T-Mobile). Finally, we drew winners for Dawn Sign Press books that were donated for this conference.

Our next conference will be scheduled for April 2022 and it will become an annual conference thereafter.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of Thangi Appanah's powerpoint presentation, Todd Czubek's pre-recorded presentation, or Barbara Raimondo's pre-recorded presentation, please email Joel Skelton at jskelton@wrsdeaf.org.

Virtual Gala 2020

jskelton@wrsdeaf.org (Joel Skelton) — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 14:47:56 GMT

On October 15, 2020, Willie Ross School for the Deaf celebrated its 53rd anniversary. Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we ran the gala virtually.

We welcomed around 85 participants, and we drew prizes for our raffles.

If you'd like to see the full recorded event, go to our YouTube channel, or click the link below.

https://youtu.be/cvPOctYFgpc

willieross

Annual Gala Fundraiser 2023 follow up

A smashing success!

Fall 2023 ASL Classes up!

Registration is UP!

Annual Gala Fundraiser 2023

Save the date!

Annual Gala Fundraiser

A smashing success!

WRSD 2022 Annual Gala Fundraiser

Registration is open!

WRSD Conference '22—A Great Success

WRSD Conference '22

Registration now open!

Hearing Assistive Technology Update Project

We need your support!

Spring 2022 ASL classes

Registration is open for Spring term ASL classes!

Annual Gala 2021

A heartfelt 'thank you' to all who contributed

Grand Re-Opening | Ribbon Cutting of our Sidney M. Cooley Administration Building a Great Success

Our event was well-received.

Grand Re-Opening | Ribbon Cutting of our Sidney M. Cooley Administration Building

Please join us for the Grand Re-Opening | Ribbon Cutting of the Sidney M. Cooley Administration Building.

Annual Gala 2021

Registration is open!

Upcoming interpreter training now available for registration.

Erin Seipke-Brown and Megan Seipke-Dam e Present: Ethical Decision Making in K-12 Settings. $100; 0.9 PS CEUs.

Susan Conlon Phillips Garden Dedication Event - A Great Success

Tuesday's Event A Great Success

GiveCampus Playground Fundraiser

Student Walkathon and Last Day Dunking

Susan Conlon Phillips Garden Dedication Ceremony

Garden Dedication Ceremony for former Trustee

Interpreter training now available!

We are thrilled to welcome David Evans once again!

Upcoming training for interpreters!

We are planning an exciting new workshop to take place on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.

Interpreter trainings now available

David Evans and Breana Cross-Caldwell to provide training via Zoom.

Upcoming workshop for interpreters!

We are planning an exciting new workshop to take place on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.

Community of Practice (Module 2)

Education Conference 2020

Virtual Gala 2020

Erin Seipke-Brown and Megan Seipke-Dam e Present: Ethical Decision Making in K-12 Settings.
$100; 0.9 PS CEUs.