Jed was filled with energy after saying goodbye to Kevin last night that he had driven all the way to Sacramento. Branic and I had long since slept before we had even arrived and had a comfortable sleep. Jed parked outside of a free standing Starbucks for the night so that we could have Wi-Fi internet in the morning. Sure enough, we awoke in the morning to a hot cup of Starbucks and the internet, something we have grown to love. We had also planned a lunch with an old friend of Jed’s who lives in Sacramento, Dan Dillard. Dan is one of our biggest supporters of our trip, and is damn proud of it. He’s always emailing us with helpful ideas and suggestions, and our lunch with him at Baja Fresh was no different. We had a great time chatting and I enjoyed watching Dan and Jed reminiscence. Dan’s two young kids were there for lunch as well, and I enjoyed answering their questions about the road trip. It’s always great talking with people who believe in what we are doing, and are behind us 100%.

After lunch, we stayed parked on our three-space spot just like we had been through the night and all morning. Branic did nothing but edit video and I, write. Jed worked on the webpage and planning future stops. We were scheduled to attend a gathering at the NorCal Center on Deafness at 3 p.m. and tour their offices.

NorCal is tucked away in a business office park in California’s capitol city. Its 10,000 square foot office houses 35 full time staff members and serves more than 750,000 Deaf and hard of hearing people in Northern California. The organization that gets its funding from the Department of Rehab, uses its money to provide client advocacy, legal services, infant screening services, health intervention, and among others, Video Remote Interpreting.

Molly Brown, who has been working for NorCal for 10 years, is the manager of VIP. Her program, she explains, “is not like VRS. VIP is done by appointment where Deaf clients can get interpreting services via 2-way webcam with the interpreter working at the call center here in NorCal.” Molly proceeded to give us a live demonstration to show just what exactly the service entailed and it seemed very effective although the video quality did not seem so great. “This is a revolutionary program that allows the interpreters to save drive time since California is so big, and in effect, serve more clients.”

We then met with Sandy Harvey who works with families with a child that has a newfound deafness. She works with state agencies and hospitals in achieving California’s law requiring the screening of every infant for hearing loss. She then takes aside the families with infants that are found deaf and educates them about their options, including recommending a start in ASL. While they do not make the decisions themselves, the agency simply wants parents to get all the information that is out there in an unbiased manner and allowing for better decision making. This department is linked with DCRA and they share staff, information, and other resources in undertaking this huge responsibility. The California law that requires screening has been in effect for just three years and California is one of the first states to have such laws.

Don Lee Hanaumi, our tour guide throughout the offices, also showed us all the art which decorates the walls. There isn’t a single completely white wall, because every corner of the office is either decorated with either Sacramento Kings things or art by Deaf painters. Much of the art, not the Kings pennants, is for sale and it’s a great way for Deaf artists to showcase their work. The office staff clearly loves their basketball team and even some sweatshirts and hats boasting the team could be seen among the gathering of 40 people.

There was a nice program which was kicked off by CEO Shari Farinha, who has spent countless years in working towards her passion of Deaf advocacy. There was then an excellent ASL rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by Zack Camplell and Siera Perez who are in the second and first grades, respectively. They sang the song in front of a sold out Arcos Arena and had center stage rather than just being on the side signing. They did a wonderful job and really inspired the people. Afterwards, everyone crowded inside one of NorCal’s classrooms to see a movie that we made with pictures of our trip that have never been seen by the public before.

Before leaving, we interviewed Shari Farinha who talked about the passions and goals of her staff working at the center. Countless hours and late nights have been spent at the office by all of the staff. She told us she felt that our four hour stay at the center was not enough to truly understand what they do. “I could talk all night and you still wouldn’t understand,” said Shari. She offered a solution: Spend a day with one of their clients. Learn their life story and see firsthand how NorCal has given them a chance at life. They have changed so many lives and have so many success stories. Its an offer DeafNation may take someday.

Our brief program began with us introducing ourselves and then starting a 10 minute movies with more than 100 pictures that are not posted on the website. We then had an open question and answer forum where we answered any and all questions they had about ourselves and our tour. We had a fantastic time of doing it and we have decided to continue doing this at all of our future public appearances. Come on down if we’re in the area and ask us your questions and get to know us and our road trip even better. I hope to see and hear from you!

Until tomorrow….