Celebration!
Baby Fingers is 20 this year! We had hoped to party in person. I had planned a community celebration highlighting Baby Fingers classes and programs alongside other local mom-owned and woman-owned businesses. Our party would have been hosted by Dance with Miss Rachel with treats from Mad Batter Brownies. We also planned to raise awareness about the importance of ASL, Deaf culture, and Deaf-owned businesses around the country. Amazing give-away gifts were provided by Love Letters by Emily & DeafLoveILY, which we were still able to raffle off online. At Baby Fingers we aim to make connections with real people, build community, offer resources and information.
While we had to cancel our local party, we haven’t stopped celebrating! The pandemic required us to be creative in new ways. We added more videos to our YouTube channel. We offered a virtual summer camp. This week we relaunched our website with a new design and improved content. We’ve also continued to develop our curriculum while expanding our classes & programs and our teaching team.
Community Event!
Something especially exciting that we could only do live on line was our Family Forum / Professional Panel Presentation. This event provided the opportunity for us to celebrate our first 20 years while looking ahead to the next. It also allowed us to partner with many people in the Deaf community and the field of Deaf education from around the country. With technology we could bring everyone together in one place, on one screen. The creative team behind Love Letters by Emily was on our panel. The owner of DeafLoveILY was in our audience. We were able to highlight ASL at Home, an on line curriculum to support families and professionals through learning ASL. This program was created by a wonderful husband and wife team.
We had three interpreters whose coordinator assisted me with ideas and guidance on the technology side so that we would be as accessible and “Deaf friendly” as possible. I’d been online with Deaf presenters and had hosted programs (such as a song interpreting workshop with @SavvyASL), but this was my first time hosting an on line event multiple presenters. Indeed, it takes a village – parenting, running a business, working and learning on line. 😉
Connection and Resources!
If you missed it, or want to see/hear something again, I encourage you to take the time to watch the live stream posted on FB @mybabyfingers. Learn about school choice and rights under ADA, parenting Deaf children, teaching Deaf children, importance of ASL and accessible language, LGBTQ resources, career opportunities and experiences of Deaf adults in theater, education and more. Click on the links throughout this blog post to gather even more information.
I’m so grateful for these community connections, resources, and amazing REAL people – some of whom have been or will now be joining our team at Baby Fingers offering special programs in Deaf Theater, ASL Storytime and more.