Signing Santa at New Location is Record-Breaking<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Our annual Signing Santa event, held at our new home for the first time, was a record-breaker as almost 80 children came to see Santa in the SOMI Unified Sports and Inclusion Center for games, crafts, a signed story time and, of course, a chance to visit a Santa who knows their language.<\/p>

For executive director Deb Atwood, the Signing Santa event, which began in 2009, is always a highlight.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“It\u2019s our favorite event of the year,” she said. \u201cTo see a child who is Deaf have that experience with a Deaf Santa who literally knows their language takes my breath away every time.”<\/p>

Board president, Rowan O\u2019Dougherty, was one of many board and staff members there to lend a hand, and he had a smile on his face the entire time.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s really for the children,\u201d he told the Grand Rapids Press (one of numerous media outlets that covered the event). \u201cIt\u2019s a perfect opportunity for them to come and interact with Santa.\u201d<\/p>

The event included not just Santa but also interpreters so that everyone had access, one of the D&HHS hallmarks. Interpreters were at the various craft and activity stations, with Santa, and there for the two signed story times.<\/p>

Also critical to the event’s success, said Erica Chapin, D&HHS community and partnerships manager, were donors, including Quota, State Farm – Sam Martin Agency, Gentex, Catherine’s Health Center, Meijer, Hungerford Nichols, and Sorenson and Marge’s Donut Den which donated cookies for the event.<\/p>

\u201cThank you to all our sponsors,\u201d Chapin said. \u201cAnd thank you to the community for donating gifts. We had enough gifts for every child which was wonderful. And, of course, thank you to the volunteers who made this possible.\u201d<\/p>

Chapin said the energy in the room at this year\u2019s event was cheerful and contagious.<\/p>

\u201cKids were excited to see Santa of course,\u201d she said with a smile. \u201cFamilies were chatting with one another while the kids played games or opened their gifts from Santa. It was great to see so much joy in one space.\u201d<\/p>

Chapin noted that one family traveled from an hour away so their children could interact with a Signing Santa.<\/p>

\u201cThey were grateful to have an event like this for their children to attend,\u201d she said.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSee All Event Photos<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Signing Santa at New Location is Record-Breaking Our annual Signing Santa event, held at our new home for the first time, was a record-breaker as almost 80 children came to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5702"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5717,"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702\/revisions\/5717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafhhs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}