The smells of sandwiches and treats filled the air on Monday as students, faculty and friends embraced and reminisced at the Salem Lutheran Church.
Faces lit up at the sight of old buddies and taste buds were delighted with a delicious dinner.
Anyone walking by might not have sensed anything unusual and for the crowd of 70 that participated, there was nothing atypical about the evening.
The only difference a bystander might have noticed was that many at the event were deaf.
“This is the silent dinner,” said Tanya Reitan with OSU Student Disability Services. “It’s a place for the deaf and hard of hearing, interpreters, students and people in the community interested in signing to get together and interact.”
This is the third year Jessica DuPree, a finance senior who is also deaf, has attended and she said the dinner gets bigger and better every year.
“The first year was kind of small, very comfortable,” DuPree said. “This time, there are more people than I think we’ve ever had.”
From five years old to 50 and above, anyone and everyone related to the deaf and hard of hearing community came out to have a good time, including several young students from Sangre Elementary.
“Last semester, we had 89 students in the after school sign language program,” said Tammy Ward, interpreter and American Sign Language teacher at Sangre. “This semester, we have 120 students in two classes — one beginners and one advanced.”
To the untrained eye, the small hands signed as well as their elder counterparts, and Ward said the kids love to sign.
“This is an age that they just soak it up,” she said. “I’ve got kids that can hold conversations after just seven classes.”
The students have learned the Pledge of Allegiance and several patriotic songs, Ward said.
“A few of the kids come out and get to meet real deaf OSU students and they love that,” said Sandie Busby, a deaf and hard of hearing specialist with Student Disability Services.
Busby said the dinners began two years ago with a group of deaf OSU students who wanted to meet the larger deaf community. The first dinner had only about 30 people but now people come from all across the state to support the deaf students at OSU.
“Imagine going to work every day and you were the only one who could understand your own language,” Busby described. “Then you come home and speak with your family maybe. Once a month, you get to come to an event where everyone understands your language. It’s very exciting.”
Each year there are usually three or four completely deaf students at OSU who require interpreters. Another 20 to 25 have hearing disabilities and require assistive listening devices. All are services that Student Disabilities is there to provide, Busby said.
“We’re there to assure that students with disabilities have access to everything that goes on at OSU,” Reitan said. “That can take a lot of different forms depending on the students and their needs.”
This month’s Silent Dinner was planned to coincide with Disability Awareness Week.
Today’s events include a wheelchair scavenger hunt in the morning followed by the annual wheelchair basketball bash tonight at 7 inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.
A presentation titled “Working With People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing” will occur Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Case Study 2 of the Student Union followed by a resource fair Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in the Student Union Atrium.
“We want to raise awareness about disabilities and the services available both at Student Disability Services at OSU and across the community and state,” said Reitan.
Both Reitan and Busby said they hope more students will get involved on campus, whether it’s through ASL classes or silent dinners.
“They come because it’s a time to share, a time to catch up and a time to educate each other,” Busby said. “It’s very important to everyone involved.”
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