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I wish to introduce myself. I was
born with some hearing loss and also deformed left foot due to my
mother's health, Cystic Fibrosis, the number one killer of children and
young adults. My mother is still living today as the oldest living
person in the United States of America with Cystic Fibrosis at the age
of 73 according to history. At about the age between 18 months and two
years old, I had a very bad case of Whooping Cough and that robbed most
of the hearing what I had left since birth. |
I went to
the public school as a normal person and was always in the front
seat and the teacher would stand near me because of my deafness
so I could read lips as they taught. I was without an
interpreter throughout my whole elementary schooling. I went
through the first grade like this until I finished the ninth
grade, never failed a grade. Since I was in high school, it was
getting harder for me so I began the 10th grade at the North
Carolina School for the Deaf at Morganton, N. C. for three years
and graduated.
While at the N. C. School for the Deaf, I began to work at the
age of 16 as a Counselor of the boy's dorm until graduation.
After graduation, I began to work at a local newspaper office as
a linotype machine operator doing typing for the newspaper for a
year and a half. Then I left there and went to work at a pajamas
factory as an IBM Business Machine Operator typing invoices for
packages to be shipped out to J C Penney, Sears, etc. While
there, I was called and asked by the newly built Eastern North
Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson, N. C. to work with them
since I had experience working with the deaf children.
At that time, I went to work at the school as a Counselor, there
were only two buildings then and no middle school or high school
as they do have now. Most of the staff they had then were only
hearing people. The school opened up in the fall of 1965 and I
went to work there in the fall of 1967. A lady and I were the
first deaf people on the staff. I worked there as a substitute
teacher and a counselor for 6 years.
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My father,
Henry Irvin Shores, was a building contractor, building
beautiful homes for people. He was in need of help with the
office work at the time I was working at the school for the
deaf, so I stopped working there and came back home and helped
my father as well as my mother since she is not able to do much
due to her health. After 14 years as a bookkeeper for my dad as
he retired, I received a call from the Hertford County School
System that they need me to help them with a deaf child who was
enrolled at Ahoskie Grade School. The deaf child could not talk
or hear and was in the first grade. I filled in the place of a
special teacher for the deaf who had to leave the school for
awhile for three years.
Later , I became the instructor of sign language for Roanoke
Chowan Community College in Ahoskie, N. C., Martin Community
College in Williamston, N. C. I have taught at Roanoke Chowan
Community College 8 years. I also have taught at Roanoke Chowan
Hospital in Ahoskie, N. C. to the staffs and friends. Many of my
former students became interpreters for the deaf through my
classes.
I was a substitute teacher for the public schools to hearing
children for about 5 years. While working as a substitute
teacher at elementary schools, I used sign language along with
my voice as I taught the lesson in classes and the children love
it. The children picked up a lot of sign language as I was
teaching. The principal was very supportive for the children to
learn sign language in public schools. I also taught sign
language and math during a summer school at the Southwestern
Elementary School in Windsor, N. C. during an Enrichment
Program.
I have served as an Advisory Board Member with the Wilson
Regional Resource Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing for
several years which is located in Wilson, N. C. that serves 24
counties in the eastern part of North Carolina. This program is
to improve the services for the deaf and hard of hearing. I was
a pusher to the government offices such as sheriff departments,
police departments, etc. to have a TDD, (device to communicate
with the deaf such as a small computer) installed in their
offices to communicate with the deaf so they can have access as
a normal person. I have installed TDDS and trained two sheriff
departments in Hertford County and Bertie County, northeast of
North Carolina.
I am the director of a gospel singing group in sign language
called, "The Signs of Miracles". We have performed Live on TV
many times on Gospel programs, Cystic Fibrosis Telethon each
year Live on TV, performed each year during "Deaf Awareness Day"
at Paramount Kings Dominion, Dowel, Virginia. I have been a
volunteer fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for8 years
to help raise funds to help find a cure for CF. I have raised
alone myself around $10,000.00 during the 8 years as a
volunteer. My gospel group, "The Signs of Miracles" also held a
Road Block each year to raise funds for CF and we present the
checks while we were on TV Live. I was the national Cystic
Fibrosis Walk-A-Thon winner of the two Carolinas back in 1988
for raising the most money for CF. I thank God for all His
blessings on my life. I want to do my best to serve Him.
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