The drive through Washington was a very scenic one as we drove though mountains covered with beautiful green trees. The city of Seattle is a beautiful one, especially from approach. Driving closer however, the city only becomes more interesting and its true identity of being a liberal open-minded city comes out. We crossed the Seattle Bridge and went to the Lincoln Park where the first annual community picnic was being held. There, seven organizations who each annually host their own picnics and gatherings, all decided to band together and host one large event. We decided to come so that we could meet not only the gathering community, but the seven organizations and centers that joined together to host the picnic. I decided that since there were more than 175 people gathering around the picnic and I knew all but 10 of them, I would play “leapfrog.” I would find one representative of one of the seven organizations, and after interviewing that person, I would have them point me to the next representative. I would do so until I finally talked to all seven. I wanted a brief interview with each person to get a feel of what services Seattle offers the community. I started with the man who welcomed us to the picnic, Chad Ludwig, who also cooked all 400 hot dogs.

Chad works at the Communication Service Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The CSCDHH serves five counties and more than 250,000 Deaf people who live in their service area. They provide counseling, educational training, 911 training as well as running an interpreting agency for the local residents. Their training programs are largely geared towards awareness of how to handle Deaf students and clients in terms of communicating with them efficiently.

Chad then pointed me towards Ariele Belo who represents the Hearing, speech, and Deafness Center whose doors have been open since 1937. They provide Audiology services, Parent Infant Programs, as well as Leadership courses for Deaf Youth and workshops for hearing people in how to communicate better with Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in workplace. Parent Infant Program support parents in communicating better with Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and support early intervention in identifying Deaf/Hard of Hearing infants. I was then pushed in the direction of Libby Stanley, the president of the Washington-Gallaudet University Alumni Association.

The WGUAA was founded in January as a method of having more club events to expose teenagers to the benefits of Gallaudet. She believes that students should have role models from the university and this is the main goal of this chapter of the GUAA. They have ambassadors who travel from school to school in Washington working independently to recruit students to their alma mater. I enjoyed chatting with Libby, probably because I am a Gallaudet student myself and it’s great seeing and chatting with the alums. Libby also told me that WGUAA’s counterparts, the Washington-NTID Alumni Association was at the picnic as well, and she introduced me to their president, Michael Harberson.

Like GUAA, the Washington-NTID Alumni Association is a very young organization, celebrating its first birthday just a few months ago. Their focus is also to recruit students to their alma mater, but they also like to promote education in the community by hosting different workshops and provide job networking. The organization is composed of NTID alums who care about the growth and development of their community, and hope to start providing scholarships for area students to go to NTID. I was then shown the representative for the next organization the Abused Deaf Women Advocacy Services.

I met Marylin J. Smith who has worked with ADWAS for the last 18 years promoting community awareness of sexual violence and domestic abuse. Their main business is legal advocacy, and their office consists of 13 staff members who operate their office and services. When I asked Marylin why ADWAS decided to play a role in the picnic, she said that, “Our philosophy is that our clients are a part of the community so, therefore we should be a part of the community as well.” I was later intrigued to learn that Marylin was good friends with my Aunt Mary who lives in Rochester, and had dinner at her home not two weeks ago. It was good to meet a friend of the family and chatting with Marylin was a lot of fun.

With only two of the seven groups to go, I found my way to Karen Carlsen, one of the seven founders of SignOn, a Seattle-based interpreting agency. They are just seven years old and is the result of seven independent female interpreters deciding to pool their resources and clientele to make a larger company. They have since grown to 30 interpreters and provide VRS services for both CSD and Sprint and have an office in Portland. Their company has become so successful as of late that SignOn is one of the finalists for the Earnest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Karen boasts that their company is the only of the finalists to be female-owned. Last but not least, I met with Deaf Blind Service Center representative Robert J. Steeple who is Deaf-blind.

The DBSC is the first Deaf-blind agency in America and was founded in 1985. They have many programs such as advocacy, mentoring, and a senior Deaf-blind program to boot. They focus on training Deaf-blind interpreters as well and have eight paid staff who not only coordinate services and training, but read letters, buy clothes, and go food shopping for the clients who need the help.

By the time my game of leapfrog had finally finished, I was like an old TTY machine struggling to keep up with the pace of what information was being shared and my actual writing speed. A line had formed for the picnic lunch that was more than 50 people long, and Jed, Branic, and I were resigned to spending the next 15 minutes in line. I stood in line amid a crowd of Deaf people that had doubled initial expectations still thinking about what had felt like the a.c.r.o.n.y.m. fair, meeting people from HSDC, WNAAC, WGUAA, ADWAS, DBSC, and finally, the CSCDHH.

I was thrilled to find that a great friend of mine who lives in Seattle, Nate Elliott, was ale to go to the picnic and I enjoyed catching up with him since I hadn’t seen him in months. He joined us for dinner at an Italian restaurant owned by local Deaf man Robert Esposito, Abbondanza Pizzeria & Italian Cuisine. The restaurant specializes in pizza but serves delicious pasta and wines as well. The restaurant is small, seating at most 30, and tastefully decorated with not only Italian art, but De’VIA as well. We were joined by Washington’s Sprint representative, Dan Brubaker as well as Nate, and had an excellent conversation over an equally excellent meal. All of the waiters and staff, we learned, can sign and understand how to deal with the Deaf customers that frequent the restaurant. The restaurant does not cater exclusively to the Deaf community, however, and has gotten local praise and reviews in the Seattle dining community. While there were two other tables filled with Deaf customers while I was eating, there were several others occupied by hearing customers who seemed to be delighted in their food choices.

After dinner, we thanked Robert for a fantastic meal and I left with a feeling of content that the outstanding meal I had just eaten was made possible by a Deaf man. It was the first time I had ever eaten at a Deaf-owned restaurant, but it is nothing new to the local Seattle community. Just a few years ago, Deaf-owned and Deaf-friendly Ragin’ Cajun was a local hot spot in what Dan Brubaker described to me as one of the most prime locations in Seattle before closing its doors. We had an excellent time at the picnic and at Abbondanza Pizzeria & Italian Cuisine before we needed to start our journey towards Boise and the open country.

After almost three full weeks of hugging the Pacific Coast, we finally said good-bye. For the first time since week two of our road trip, we took heed of the interstate signs that read “East,” and rumbled on with the sun setting behind us.