BC POPDB

This year he got his first wheelchair and as Halloween was coming up his Mom and I talked about what he was going to dress up as… well Theo doesn’t much like getting dressed up and his comfort was first and foremost. His parents’ thought was to build a boat that would go over his wheelchair. I thought this was a great idea but I am not a builder!

One day at our break, Anthony, another Student Support Assistant (SSA) and I went walking down 4^th Ave, near to the school. Lo and behold there were a bunch of appliance boxes on the street in front of a store. We went in and asked if we could have a couple, a few minutes later Anthony and I were walking down the street carrying what was to be the HMS Celeste -Theo’s boat was named after his sister, who is Kindergarten!

Over the following days, with Anthony as the designer, our ship began to take shape. One rainy lunch hour the resource room was full of kids helping to cut, paint and hang Theo’s costume. The enthusiasm and excitement in the room could be felt by all. Some of the students with their own challenges of their own put them aside to help create Theo’s boat.

At our school, Halloween is a big deal! Everyone gets dressed up (well mostly everyone!) and we have a parade accompanied by the music, The Monster Mash in the morning and there is thematic learning going on in all the classes. It is a day of fun, community and inclusion!

When Theo’s boat was put over his chair and he glided down the halls in his costume, the whole school community celebrated his great costume and his parents, the staff and the kids at Gordon all felt wonderful looking at Theo’s smile as he participated in the Halloween Parade!


Becky models the signs for her student. "More ...	... jump!"	Then she shows him how to make the sign himself.

After months of practice and exploration of technique...	her student signs "more" all by himself.	He is starting to understand the power his hands have to communicate, and is being encouraged to move on to 2 word sentences, "More what?" " More bounce."

The life of the rich and famous. Brad and John on their whirlwind trip to Disneyland. Two deafblind young men and 'ONE' Intervenor. I will say no more. I survived. The boys had an amazing time. Brad being so auditory and hearing and asking what everything was, and John the visual king, spotting and pointing and running to the next event. It was so much fun. They had the time of their lives. Two very different perspectives. Brad knew all about Disney and Mickey Mouse, he knew where he was going and had a pretty good idea of what to expect. John on the other hand, had no clue. He knew only of what I had prepared him for, with PICS and Photos from online. The experience was a confirmation of Brad's dreams of what it would be like, Space Mountain was his favourite. John, it was an experience that he would come back and associate all of Disney with now. He saw an ad with Pinocchio and he signed DL(Disneyland) so yes the trip once again expanded life for him. Both boys still talk about Disneyland, and review the pictures and video often.

Helen Keller has said that: ‘The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart’. Nicole shows us that in the way she lives every day. She finds joy in the things a lot of people take for granted, like the wind blowing in her face and the feel of the rain or smelling the fresh cut grass.

Nicole has passed through a school system that was just learning how to meet her special needs. Through these years, Nicole has taught us well, and the things she taught us will be invaluable in our work with other students, long after she graduates this year. Thank you, Nicole for these valuable lessons for life and learning.

Nicole’s journey has been enriched by the care and support of some very special people. Some are sharing this celebration with her tonight. Nicole’s Mom and Dad have been her sustenance and her loving guides. Carol Clarke and her other Intervenors has been her eyes, her ears, and her friends. Joyce Olson has been a provider of wisdom and the leader of her personal cheering squad. Eric, Katie, Gloria and other family and friends are her supporters and her inspiration.

On June 20^th, 2006, a gathering of students, Intervenors and friends took place at Willows Beach in Victoria.

In an attempt to bring together Intervenors and their students from around the South Island, a beach day was planned for the end of the school year. Despite the weather threatening to change the day to a gym day, the sun eventually came out and the beach day did indeed take place with six students and their Intervenors plus the senior class from Victor school, family members, POPDB staff from the Island and Vancouver, CDBRA staff and other friends. We met at the beach to visit, picnic, play and drum.

The highlight of the day was thanks to Jordan Hanson from Hand Drum Rhythms who led a drumming session for the group. Jordan brought a vast array of instruments, which he allowed the students

to explore in any fashion that worked best for them. We were all very proud of ourselves when we noticed that our newly honed drumming skills had inspired people to dance on the beach. It was especially wonderful to see how the drumbeat enticed and drew each child out in a way that was unique to that child. Thanks to those that attended - your presence made it such a special day! Return to Top

I have known Cameron for several years now. For the past two years, I was his consultant through the Provincial Outreach Program for Students with Deafblindness. Now that he has graduated from high school and has transitioned into adult services, I too, am transitioning - from consultant to friend. I am always awe-inspired by Cameron: by his accomplishments and by his strength. He communicates very clearly what he likes and dislikes. I watched this with fascination at a family retreat/camp this summer, as Cameron became extremely interested in a fantastic homemade instrument made out of PVC tubing. He communicated without question that his new found object held great intrigue and interest and it was going with him. The music facilitator could clearly see what Cameron was communicating, and indeed very kindly gave it to him.

I have always been very interested in and inspired by what Cameron and his Intervenors make together, particularily dog biscuits and soaps. So when I knew for certain that I was going to Australia this past September to attend an international conference on deafblindness, I also knew for sure that I would be taking some of Cameron’s soap with me. One of the items that Cameron creates is

a soap in the shape of a hand. This brings tears every time I look at it, as hands have so much significance and meaning to a person who is deafblind. I wanted to give this particular soap to the people that had been involved in the organization of such a wonderful event, bringing people together from all over the world who are deafblind, and those who are working in a myriad of capacities with people with deafblindness. I also knew I would give it to people who greatly impressed me with the way in which their lives were intertwined with the lives of people who are deafblind. I took ten "hand" soaps with me and the people that I gave them to were visibly thrilled, impressed and touched by the story of the young man who had made it. Watching their reactions, it hit home for me the impact Cameron has on all that meet him in person or through the amazing products he makes. Thank you, Cameron!

I went to Christine's ear appointment with her mom about 3 weeks ago and Christine would have nothing to do with getting her ear molds done. I asked if it was possible for the two of us to come on a weekly basis and "practice" to see if we could get Christine more comfortable with the whole process. The audiologist agreed and even gave us some old equipment to "practice" with.

We had to take our time and let Christine work with us each and every step - making sure she was able to see and touch everything to do with the process. We kept one hearing aid in so she could hear; we had to try three times with the first mold but she did become calmer with each attempt as long as she was given "all the information about what was going too happen and time to prepare. She brought the audiologist a gift on the first visit (a favorite toy) and they have shared this each visit. This gift helped her to focus.

Shaun graduated from high school and the BC POPDB in June 2005. He is currently supported by the BC Deafblind Services

Society in his home community. His program consultant, Ellen Faustman, and his Intervenors, Chris Pearce and Melissa Klima report he is doing very well. Here are some highlights from his life after school finished:

Shaun also has a paid job at a local hotel where he went swimming when he was still in school. The hotel had an ad posted for a dishwasher, so Shaun and his Intervenor applied for the position. It was already filled, but the chef said he would find something for Shaun to do.

Shaun has been doing so well that the boss keeps giving him new jobs which require him to learn a new skill quickly. One example, was assembling party packages.~He had to put 6 items in a bag- his Intervenor showed him on her fingers how many he needed to put in each bag, then counted them with him.~ Shaun was able to this with minimal prompts after being shown. Ellen and Chris report that Shaun is very proud of his work with both jobs!

One of Shaun's jobs is to take the boxes he has flattened out to the recycling bin.	He knows the routine and is very proud of the work he does.	Sometimes he needs to learn a new skill on the job.

Another one of his jobs is to take the trash out.	Sometimes he helps to wash out the big pots.	When he gets home, he still has to make his own dinner! This is a recipe book he uses to help remember the recipes and all the steps involved.

• He and his Intervenor are leading an afternoon session for the other individuals at the community group on making experience books. One day, a friend of his came over and showed Shaun one of his books. The two of them looked at the book together without input from the Intervenor, and shared a non-verbal conversation by pointing at the pictures and communicating with each other. How cool is that!

• Shaun went to the Casino with friends from his community group. They couldn’t get him away from the slot machines; he was enjoying the lights so much! When the machine stopped, the lights no longer light up and Shaun would reach in his pouch to get out more money. He didn't want to eat with friends because he wanted to stay at the machines, so his friends came to eat with him!

I started taking Intervention training for my foster son, Sam. He is blind, and his hearing falls in that grey area where he doesn't quite qualify as deafblind. As it turned out, I ended up working in the Field as an Intervenor with a young woman who is deafblind. Never had it entered my mind to take this on as a job. However, here we are. All the things I have learned through the training and from the student I work with, I have transferred to supporting my son at home.

Every morning Sam and I do a block walk while waiting for his bus. While using Sam's cane we walk the block and name and touch every landmark in our path. Sam and I have been doing this for weeks now. The exact same way every single day . Sam got to the point where he would pull me down to his level and touch my lips. This is his way of asking me to repeat words in his ear. So we practised this for awhile. Well the last week of school Sam and I were doing the early morning block walk and he used his cane to locate the bushes. He then pulled me down and I said "Bushes". Sam touched the bushes and said "bushes". Well not bushes exactly, he does say "bush it"! But it is bushes that he is trying to say. I was so excited that I was crying like a baby on the street. Sam then proceeded to drag me to every bush on the street, touching the bushes while repeating "bush it bush it" over and over again.

The following day Sam and I walked the block and stopped at a tree, he felt the tree while I said "tree". Sam repeated tree. He then ran his hands up the tree and found an extended branch and immediately named it bushes. So back to the beginning we go to the idea of concepts. We will work on the tree and the tree branch as we continue our early morning block walks.

This was a very special day for Cameron and me. I had a lot of tears today. The class had a grad party for Cameron and it was wonderful. I mentioned when I was thanking people for all they have done for Cameron that when he was 4 we had a MAPS session. At that time, I was asked what were my hopes for Cameron's future. I said I hope he will grow up strong, learn to communicate and make good friends. He has done that and more! Cameron has had a profound impact on a lot of people's lives. He will be remembered for years to come by many of these people who have worked with him in school. What a wonderful team of people have helped Cameron during his school years.

The grad party was very special. A number of Cameron's friends paid tribute to him, Harry, a good friend of Cameron's, spoke about how much Cameron means to him. It was very touching. Another of Cam's friends, Reese, read a poem and spoke about how important Cam's friendship is to him. Everyone had pizza and cake. Cam gave out Pictures and he got some very thoughtful gifts- a drum, a set of beads from his classmates (each of his peers choose a special bead to symbolize them and strung them together for Cameron), a vibrating neck massager that he can operate with a remote, and class picture.

Johnathan and Bradley (Gr. 9 students with deafblindness ) have been going to Mr. Hogg’s science class on a semi-regular basis. They have been growing hydroponic plants in the lab. As the plants have grown, so has Mr. Hogg’s interest in John and Brad grown. Mr. Hogg is primarily a senior science teacher who spends his days with grade 11 and 12 physics students. In mid-January, he invited Brad, Johnathan and some of my other students to watch his physics students shoot off the rockets they had built. It was a fun experience for all of the students, but little did we know the impact it would have on a particular few!

John and Brad had not been back to the science lab since that day, a month ago, because of exam week, field trips, illness etc. They returned yesterday, to check on their plants. After watering the plants, Johnathan raced back to the Learning Centre and frantically began to ask Sue Gawne (Intervenor) for black and brown paper. Through gestures, sign and pics John began to give Sue step-by-step instructions on how to make two rockets (out of construction paper). His attention to detail was remarkable. With the rockets completed, he then went to his computer and, on Boardmaker, proceeded to write out all of the steps of how to launch a rocket and what happens after the rocket is launched. As amazing as it was to observe John’s excitement and memory over an event that occurred weeks ago, it was equally amazing to watch Sue work. She truly was able to immerse herself in John’s desire to express himself, and acted only as the vehicle for him to do so. She was an extension of Johnathan; so much so, that when Tracy (John’s foster parent) came to pick him up, Sue said she would have to deliver Johnathan home because they couldn’t stop. At that moment, I felt I had seen a textbook example of the “Master Intervenor”. They stayed at school until almost 4:00p.m. sharing the whole experience with Mr. Hogg.

The Provincial Outreach Program for Students with Deafblindness has been working in partnership with Douglas College to offer 10 courses in a Certificate Program for Intervenors. We would like to congratulate the first five graduates of this program: Ellen Faustman, Sara Lee Salterio, Lenora Spence, Sue Gawne, and Kim Amiel (left to right).

It is with great honour I stand here as a representative of the first graduating class in the Intervenor for Individuals with Deafblindness studies certificate program in BC!!! It has taken some of us 10 years to get here, but it was well worth it. Today is a bittersweet moment as none of us ever really wanted to graduate!

Most of us were introduced to this amazing field by a student or individual who is Deafblind – and when we entered this “world” of deafblindness, I know that many of us felt like we were the ones who were lost and confused. It was these inspiring individuals, who are Deafblind- that touched us and became our teachers. My teacher was a young boy in Grade 3 when I first met him. His name was Jeffrey and he welcomed me into his world and shared his incredible spirit with me. He was teaching me, speaking to me daily. Though in the beginning I did not hear or understand what he was telling me because I did not have the “tools” to do so. Thankfully, it was through the Provincial Outreach Program for Students with Deafblindness and the support of the Douglas College Faculty of Child and Family Community Studies that the “Formal Training” that we so needed to make sense of what we were being taught by our “student teachers” was able to happen. Through the courses and monthly visits from the consultants, that foundation of understanding about the world of Deafblindess, the “language” of Deafblindness and the belief in the power and the necessity of Intervention was able to happen.

I can still remember one of my many earth shattering “Wow, I get it!” moments. It was when one of my first consultants from the Provincial Outreach Program, Gerald, came to visit Jeffrey and me. I watched Jeffrey have a “conversation” with him, and suddenly it all clicked and came together, and I was able to understand Jeffrey’s language, what he was saying, even though he never spoke a word! The realization that I could, and I would learn to understand. After that moment, I could hardly wait to get to the courses. I was filled with Anticipation about what I would learn and how I would finally have the support, guidance, expertise and tools available to me to understand this world I had been exposed to!

Once I had been to the first course, Introduction to Deafblindness, there was no turning back - I had the opportunity to meet other budding Intervenors from around the province who were learning just like me and sharing what they were doing and the WOW’s of the individuals they were supporting! I wanted to soak up their ideas and knowledge and yes…steal them! I was no longer alone. The wealth of information given to us by our instructors, and then the networking of the Intervenors made for an exceptional learning environment!

The motivation, I know we all felt after each course, was exciting, inspiring and exhilarating. We couldn’t wait to go back to the student to use what we had learned, because we had been taught to look and experience the world through different lenses, using all of our senses … and trust me, we were all motivated to take the next course that POP had to offer…though we’d complain to our instructors that they were never soon enough! But in hindsight - each course came at just the right moment to tie into the learning we needed at that time and to move us forward in our understanding and connecting.

Communication is the key to intervention and is the key in all of the courses we took. We are truly privileged to have been taught and mentored by the best in the field. The wealth, depth of knowledge and expertise that the Deafblind Outreach Team brings is exceptional. The many opportunities provided in the course for Intervenors to share their insights and experiences, not only enriched our formal college training but the connections and respect that was created for each other is something I have never experienced in other courses I have taken.

The best part of all this training has been the confirmation and feedback that we always received. It meant so much to hear from “the experts or guru’s” in the field of deafblindness that yes, you were on the right track, that yes, repetition and routine were key, that yes, you did need to carry all those object cues with you, and most of all that yes, in the words of Joyce Olson, “You were one of the lucky ones who had been bitten by the Deafblind bug and thankfully there was no cure!”

So there is this mantra that all of us know so well and live by in the field of Deafblindness, “ Do With, Not For”…. so in keeping with that I can no longer stand here alone, as our journey into our education to the world of Deafblindness has never been alone – I give you my fellow graduates of 2008: Sue Gawne, Sara Lee Salterio, Kim Amiel, Lenora Spence. On behalf of us all, we’d like to say:Thank you to Provincial Outreach Program for Deafblindness and Douglas College for giving us the formula to the success of a Deafblind learner…Anticipation, Motivation, Communication, Confirmation. It is truly a universal design, as that same formula was the key to our own accomplishments as learners in this field.

Thank you to the amazing mentors of the Provincial Outreach Program- Joyce, Gerald, Linda, Sheila, Jane, Michelle, and Jan (The rock who keeps them all together). Thank you for your knowledge, support, commitment, and passion that you have shared with us over the years. We would like to thank Douglas College’s Jan Carrie and Cheryl Jeffs for giving us the unique means in which we have been able to attain our certification. To see it listed now, as a course with your Continuing Education Program is truly exciting in realizing the dream that one day all individuals who are Deafblind will have access to a trained Intervenor. Lastly, we would like to thank our true teachers - those individuals who are Deafblind and their families for opening up their hearts and homes and allowing us to share in their experiences. Thank you for biting us with the Deafblind bug.

So one part of our education is compete but we continue to walk on and look forward to continuing our learning in this field of deafblindness and support those individuals that have allowed us to share it with them. I think Sue was telling me that we are ready for the Deafblind Collaborative Consulting Certificate ……over to you POP and Douglas College - we will be waiting.