We pulled up to a large, new office building tucked away in the middle of a classy office park in San Diego at 10 a.m. Surrounded by beautiful landscaping, a 20,000 square foot building is the home of DawnSignPress, a publishing company that publishes Deaf related books and DVDs, specializing in educational material. The owner and CEO is none other than Joe Dannis, a Gallaudet University graduate who started DawnSignPress with his then-college roommate, Ben Bahan. When founded in 1979, a small bedroom was the headquarters of their corporation that printed t-shirts.

After several years of struggling to print t-shirts, they decided to change their focus to publishing books and later won a $500,000 grant to develop and publish an ASL instruction book which later became the best selling ASL instruction book on the market. His fledging company has since grown to include 33 employees with about half of them Deaf. “All of them,” explained Dannis, “must sign, and have a serious interest in the successful publication of Deaf related material. Every employee rotate going to conferences and representing DSP, because I don’t believe that any employee should spend all of their time stuck in the office.” He took us on a tour of the company’s seven departments which includes shipping, customer service, accounting, operators, book publication, video production, and marketing.

As we walked through the halls of the building, Dannis showed us the many original paintings by renowned Deaf artist Chuck Baird. Dannis explained that he hired Baird for two years to paint exclusively for the purpose of decorating his office building. The paintings are all “Deaf art,” with an animal theme. We then stop off at an office that doubles as Joe’s trophy room. His pride and joy is his Small Business Association’s Small Businessperson of the Year award in 1997. The award, he explains, is not only a huge honor, but it qualified him for the loan that allowed him to buy his fantastic facility.

Everything except printing, explained Dannis, is done in-house. From planning to producing to publishing and marketing, books and DVDs are created in this building. They have published more than 50 titles and add an average of two to three more a year. They have more than 100,000 books on hand in their warehouse and their sales have doubled in the last few years. We had a great time meeting and talking with Joe Dannis, and seeing his very successful business for ourselves. Afterwards, we had lunch and headed to the bowling alley where the Pacific Coast Deaf Bowlers Association tournament was being held

There, I met two of my friends from Gallaudet, Adam Jarashow and Andrew Phillips, both of who live in California. We decided to go eat dinner in nearby Tijuana and catch up on what we have been up to in the last month. We arrived back at the bowling alley at 7 p.m. in time for the No Tap tournament that Jed was bowling in. Adam and I decided at the last minute to join the tournament for the fun and experience. Since we were not ABC members and had no official bowling average, we had no handicap, which all but took away any chance we had of winning. I bowled 104, 155, and 145, which is pretty decent by my standards. Adam carried most of the legwork, bowling a high of 177. Our scores were nothing compared to Jed and Ed Abakumoff, who we bowled with. They both bowled 700 series and Ed had at one point tossed eight consecutive strikes. This was my first competitive bowling experience since I was 10 or so years old, and it was something I really enjoyed.

It is my first time in southern California and I love the rolling hills and the many beautiful houses that sit on the edges of cliffs. It’s a beautiful place to be in, and I’m happy to be here.