We were greeted by Jed and Kevin’s old classmate from Fremont, Roger Vass, at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind in Tucson. He works in ASDB’s media department, teaching a TV productions class in addition to being responsible for all of the school’s media technology. Roger told us that the ASDB was founded in 1912, a few years before Arizona even became a state. It sits on 86 acres and shares its campus with the blind school. With 132 Deaf students coupled with 145 blind students, the campus serves close to 300 students, explained Roger on the way to his office. There, he had a box of Krispy Kreme donuts waiting for us and they were very good. Thanks Roger!

We were then shown the school’s state-of-the-art auditorium which was built just a few years ago. Roger explained to us that the auditorium was made possible for the school through a bequest, and that a hearing organization not affiliated with the school runs the auditorium because the upkeep and maintenance is more than the school can afford. As a result, many public plays and concerts are held at the large auditorium, and often bring a sell-out crowd. The downside to this is that priority use of the auditorium is granted to the off-campus organization instead of the school, but the upside is that when the school needs to host events, they have an extremely nice auditorium to host it in. While we were guided through the auditorium, we saw the entire middle and high schools on stage with the performing group Rathskellar, who was in Tucson to give a performance at the school that night. Rathskellar was giving them a workshop, teaching them one of their dances, and we could see that all the kids were having a lot of fun.

We were then shown the school’s cafeteria and several classrooms which were unfortunately empty because all of the students were in the auditorium. The campus, unlike PDSD, has more school buildings instead of an open-air classroom, but it still retains a South-Western feel. We finally made our way to the high school, where we talked to Brandon Decker, the supervising teacher. Brandon Decker, unfortunately, is the highest ranking Deaf individual in ASDB’s entire program. This goes on to include every single administrative position, including supervising teacher of middle school and elementary school, school director, and superintendent, all of which are occupied by hearing individuals. Decker, a Gallaudet graduate and former Deaflympic skier, raced against our very own Kevin Dawson in Utah twice, and they split the series. Kevin boasts that even though he lost the first race, he still finished with a medal while Brandon didn’t. We really enjoyed chatting with Brandon and learning a little more about ASDB.

Roger then offered to take us to a local Mexican restaurant, which he swore would be hell of a feast, and which actually was. We’d like to thank Roger once again for giving us a great meal, as well as his wife Tara Lynn who joined us for lunch. We had to cut lunch a little short because we needed to pick up Sprint representative David Strom from the airport. Strom joined us to tonight’s Rathskellar performance and will also ride along with us to Phoenix tomorrow to the Phoenix Deaf Community Center. We picked him up and headed for the Rathskellar performance at ASDB and really enjoyed their performance, which was a part of ASDB’s chapter of the Gallaudet University Alumni Association’s fundraiser to send ASDB students to Gallaudet with scholarships. We are watching Rathskellar once again tomorrow night in Phoenix, but none of us really mind because the performance was so good.

After the performance, we were invited to go to a bar near the University of Arizona with the Tucson people, and Jed, Branic, and Kevin all went to enjoy their night while I stayed behind to catch up with a good friend of mine who performs for Rathskellar, Krystina Adkins.

I had a great time getting to know Roger Vass and seeing the city of Tucson, however small it is. Tomorrow we will have a cook out and see a lot more of the Tucson Deaf community, something I am looking forward to.