Calendar:

March 27, 2004 Informal Dinner at Piccadilly’s We plan to have our monthly informal dinner at Piccadilly’s on Hurstbourne Lane at Shelbyville Rd. on the fourth Saturday, March 27 at 2:00 p.m. Please let Ed know in advance if you want a table looped to facilitate conversation via your T-switch. It has been suggested that we consider two things: 1) that we try a different restaurant, 2) that we consider a restaurant near the bridge in southern Indiana. Please let me know your interest in making a change and also make suggestions as to where we might meet.

Sign Language Practice Group Do you want to learn sign language as a back-up to your hearing aids?

Our Sign Language Practice Group meets the first, third and fourth Mondays of each month. (No meeting on the Monday before our Tuesday Speaker’s Meeting.) Please note: This is not an ASL class. This is members helping members to informally learn basic sign and to practice skills. There is no text. No formal instructor. We meet at Harvey Brown Presbyterian Church, 311 Browns Lane, near Shelbyville Rd. at 7:00.

Captioned Movies:
Louisville "Twisted" will be shown at Stonybrook on March 28 and 29. Stonybrook is located at 2745 S. Hurstbourne Pkwy.

Lexington "Mystic River will be shown on March 7 and 8. "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" will be shown on March 28 and 29. Both movies will be shown at Regal Hamburg Pavillion 16.

Budget Our budget was discussed in-depth at our February 10, 2004, meeting. It was attached to the newsletters sent to each member. It is important that you look at this budget, make sure you understand it, and vote your approval or disapproval by a separate e-mail to Ed Schickel. Those who attended the February 10 meeting approved the budget and recommended it to the full membership. Until the By-Laws are revised, anyone who has their name, address, etc., listed with Melanie and Mary Lee and who has attended two Speaker’s Meetings is eligible to vote. Please do so.

We are gradually becoming an internet organization. By this I mean that we have many more interested members who have a vested interest in Derbytown than attend our Speaker’s Meetings. Some may attend our ASL group; some may attend our Piccadilly luncheon; some may attend our dinners, movie get together or other activities; some may benefit from knowing that there are others like themselves and feel good about obtaining information and communicating through the internet. Their support, involvement, and ownership of Derbytown SHHH are needed.

Treasurer’s Report Bob Stuckey was injured in an accident at work. Hopefully, by the time this comes out, he will have recuperated and be ready to join us. Bob, our prayers are with you.

Officers’ Meeting There will be an officers’ meeting on Saturday, March 6 at 1:00 pm. This two hour meeting will be held at Paula Esterle’s home, 1803 Girard Dr., V: 502-339-8037, paula@derbytownshhh.org . This meeting will be devoted to revising the By-Laws. All interested members are encouraged to attend. Officers, please RSVP so that we can confirm a quorum.

Legislative Coalition: “Kentucky, Hear Us” The legislative coalition met February 7, 1:00 to 5:00 at the Commission’s office in Frankfort. About 20 deaf and Hard of Hearing people from across the state attended and adopted the name, “Kentucky, Hear Us”. In addition the group mapped out a mission statement, a list of whom should be members and a plan to meet again. The date and location will be announced. Please watch your e-mail. We still need delegates.

KCDHH Study Group Group Members: Commissioners Pat Huddleston, Betty Timon, Jayne McRae; Commission Staff Anita Dowd; Vocational Rehab Counselor Lori Bishop; SHHH members Mary Lee Nelson, Ed Schickel, and Paula Esterle with two more deaf persons to be added.

This group met on February 24 at KCDHH offices in Frankfort. It began to look at issues of the State Fair Booth. Two members, Anita Dowd and Ed Schickel, will form a sub-group to gather information regarding a fair booth, HOH/Deaf House. The idea is to arrange a walk- through booth that demonstrates assistive listening devices. The sub-group will help identify costs and co-sponsors.

In addition, the group began plans for May, Speech and Hearing month. In addition to other things, the group will sponsor/write/collect informational articles to be published in newspapers throughout the state. The goal is one article in each newspaper each week of May. This will take 30 to 40 different articles. Will you consider writing about an aspect of your Hearing Loss, SHHH, Relay, TTY etc.?

Other Projects: What activities interest you? Let’s find more interesting projects to include all of our members

ALDs in Church Last month we published a list of Catholic Churches which have assistive listening devices available for its congregation. We asked that you identify other churches that provide ALDs.

Catholic Churches
Holy Family Church	HolyTrinityChurch
Mother of Good Counsel	St Albert the Great	St Bernard Church
St Francis of Assisi Church	St Helens Church	St Louis Bertrand
St Michaels J’town	St Raphael	St Stephen Martyr
St Ignatius Martyr	St Pius X	St Bartholomew
St Boniface	St Martin de Porres	St Elizabeth of Hungary
Holy Name	Incarnation	St Rita Church
St Denis Church	St Mary’ s, Lanesville	St Mary’s, New Albany
Transfiguration, Goshen	St Bridgid, Vine Grove	St Aloysius. PeWee Valley
St Francis, Henryville	St Joseph, Sellersburg	Cathedral of the Assumption

Other denominations:
Southeast Christian	Beulah Presbyterian

If you attend or wish to attend one of these churches, please call ahead and ask about the assistive devices. It is possible that it has been so long since any one asked for them, that no one will know where they are. The director of worship encourages us to attend those churches which serve us best. Losing parishioners is one way to stimulate pastors to provide the service we need. Your using an assistive device during the service might induce others who need it to ask and use it.

If you need or want more information, please contact Ed. If you find these churches do not have ALDs, please let him know so that the word can be passed to the office of Worship. It would be good if we could identify all the churches in the area that have assistive devices available. If you attend a church which uses ALDS, please let us know the name of the church and what they use. I am pleased to announce that the Basilica of St Joseph Proto Cathedral, Bardstown, will be adding ALDs before their Easter Services. We have been testing equipment and meeting with members.

Newcomers Volunteers are needed to greet newcomers as they arrive, introduce them to the group and connect them to a member who could act as a resource/mentor for them. Dale has agreed to head a committee. Are you willing to assist others? Please consider volunteering. Please contact him to talk about ways to greet and assist our new members. We have had a number of newcomers who have attended one or two meetings. We do not have their names or a way to contact them. We don’t even know why they have not returned. We need to do a better job of greeting and welcoming people. We need a way to mentor them. Remember your first meeting? What was good and not so good? How can you share that with a newcomer? Will you share that with a newcomer?

Kentucky Center for the Arts We have received an offer from Stacy Ridgeway and the Kentucky Center for the Arts to participate in a pilot program, “Access KCard”. Using the “KCard” we can purchase up to 10 tickets for each of the remaining performances of the Louisville Orchestra, Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky Center on a first-come, first-served basis. The tickets would cost only $10 each.

Center: Kathy Mattea 3/5, Portland Taiko 3/19,
Ballet: Anna Karenina 4/23-24,
Orchestra: Coffee Concert -- Silvia Marcovici 3/18, Verdi’s Requiem 4/15, Mirian Fried 5/6, Lee Luvisi 5/27
Classic Concerts: Silvia Marcovici 3/20, Verdi’s Requiem 4/15, Mirian Fried 5/8, Lee Luvisi 5/28
Family Series: Symphony Under the Sea 3/5

This sounds like a wonderful offer. Anyone interested?? (Connie and I are interested in the Kathy Mattea, Lee Luvisi, Symphony Under the Sea, and Anna Karenina)

Because these are first come first served, I need to apply for tickets ASAP. If you are interested, let Ed know how many tickets you want and for which performances.

HOH/Deaf Health Fair We have been asked to join with a Northern KY/Cincinnati Deaf/HOH group to plan and present a health fair on April 17. This health fair, sponsored by a local Cincinnati hospital, has taken place each spring for a number of years. Although they have over 500 participants, very few are HOH. They want to reach out to HOH people and have asked for our help. Ed, Judy Vinegar and Louise Wisdom will be presenting a number of programs for the HOH. These programs will focus on assistive listening devices, hearing in a medical environment, better communication, hearing dogs, and personal problems related to hearing loss. They are looking for other presenters and for booths. We will be staffing a booth. We need volunteer help. As a by-product, we have learned that there is a vendor for assistive listening devices in Cincinnati, Dick Rosenberger at deafcomm@fuse.net . We will check into this further.