TERRE HAUTE — March is Disability Awareness Month in Indiana, and Indiana State University is sponsoring and hosting a variety of activities to support and raise awareness.
Activities are sponsored by Indiana State’s Blumberg Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Special Education in conjunction with Cunningham Memorial Library.
The monthlong series of activities kicked off Monday with the showing of the film “Children of a Lesser God,” sponsored by the President’s Commission on Enhancement of Diversity Resources and the library.
The film was shown in advance of Marlee Matlin’s appearance at Indiana State next Monday, March 3, as part of the University Speakers Series.
In the 1986 film, Matlin plays Sarah Norman, a deaf and troubled young woman working at a school for the deaf and hard of hearing in New England. An energetic new teacher, James Leeds (played by William Hurt), encourages her to set aside her isolated life of frustration by learning how to talk. As she already uses sign language, Sarah resists James’ attempts to get her to talk.
Romantic interest develops between James and Sarah and they are soon living together, but their differences and stubbornness eventually strain their relationship to a breaking point.
Matlin received worldwide critical acclaim for her motion picture debut in Paramount Pictures’ “Children of a Lesser God,” earning her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
At age 21, she became the youngest recipient of the Best Actress Oscar, making her one of only four actresses to receive that honor for a film debut. In addition to the Oscar, Matlin was honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama.
The film will be shown at 6:30 p.m. in Cunningham Memorial Library, with a discussion following the film led by Tracy Haupt, a teacher of the hearing-impaired with the Covered Bridge Special Education District.
The film is free and open to the public.
In addition, here are special Disability Awareness Month events:
March 3: Oscar-winning actress and author Marlee Matlin will speak at 7 p.m. in Indiana State University’s Tilson Auditorium as part of the 2007-2008 University Speakers Series. A book signing and reception is planned immediately following her presentation “The Roaring Silence: From Oscar to the West Wing” in Heritage Lounge.
In addition to acting, she has authored three books, “Deaf Child Crossing,” “Nobody’s Perfect” and “Leading Ladies.” Matlin currently serves as a national celebrity spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, encouraging Americans to donate blood. She has worked on behalf of closed-captioning and was instrumental in getting Congress to pass federal legislation requiring all televisions manufactured in the United States be equipped with closed-captioning technology.
March 18: Walgreens corporate executive Deb Russell will speak on “Employing People with Disabilities” at 5 p.m. in Cunningham Memorial Library. A reception for Russell will be hosted by the library beginning at 4:30 p.m.
Russell was selected by Walgreen Company to manage its Career Outreach Department in 2006. This department oversees the company’s commitment to have one-third of the work force in its latest and all future distribution centers consist of qualified individuals with disabilities.
The first of these centers opened in January 2007. She has advised and monitored the efforts in order to disseminate lessons that are learned. Walgreen Company is the nation’s largest drugstore chain and the seventh-largest retailer.
Russell’s background includes working for more than 15 years in the field of employment of people with disabilities. These experiences include being a special education teacher, job coach, job developer, director of a job development program, manager of systems change projects at the state level and addressing issues related to people with disabilities within the work force investment system. She has presented nationally on topics related to the employment of people with disabilities and has worked for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Her visit is sponsored by the Blumberg Center, Cunningham Memorial Library and the College of Business.
March 19: David Geeslin, superintendent of the Indiana School for the Deaf, will present a program for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, beginning at 1:30 p.m. at Westminster Village, 1120 E. Davis Drive, Terre Haute.
He will give a short glimpse of the life of deaf community members. He will also answer your questions about living in today’s world as a deaf person and American Sign Language.
Not only was Geeslin the first completely deaf student to earn a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Purdue University, he also was the first deaf person to receive a doctoral degree from a university in Indiana (Indiana University, 2007). He is now superintendent and CEO of the Indiana School for the Deaf, where he attended classes as a child.
Geeslin chairs numerous educational committees and has presented countless workshops, covering topics such as the bilingual approach in deaf education, ASL linguistics, and deaf children’s language and culture. He serves as a board member on the State Advisory Council on the Education of Children with Disabilities and was a 2007 member of the Indianapolis Public Schools Cultural Audit Task Force.
The event is free and open to the public. Geeslin’s appearance is sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Blumberg Center.
March 28-30: The Indiana Special Olympics 2007 Men’s State Basketball Tournament takes place in the Health and Human Services (Arena) Building, north and south gymnasiums. This event is free and open to the public. The Special Olympics Indiana Men’s State Basketball Finals take place at Indiana State University each year in March. Special Olympics Indiana’s roots go deep with Terre Haute and ISU, which have been the host of this tournament since 1971 and the host of the Special Olympics Indiana Summer Games since the early 1970s.
Indiana State has been the only site for the Men’s Basketball Finals. Special Olympics Indiana works very closely with John Lentz, ISU’s director of recreational sports, to produce both the Men’s Basketball Finals and Summer Games. Lentz serves a member of the Special Olympics Indiana Sports Management Team for Basketball and helps organize the facilities for the annual Summer Games.
Features
Related Photos
-
submitted photo
Discussion
ISU to host several disability awareness events in March
- Features
-
-
Banks of the Wabash Festival kicks off
The 2013 Banks of the Wabash Festival, scheduled May 23 through June 1 in Fairbanks Park, celebrates 40 years along the banks of the Wabash River, 30 under the sponsorship of the Terre Haute Parks and Recreation Department.
-
Community Theatre concludes season with ‘Social Security’
Community Theatre of Terre Haute’s main stage season finale opens this Friday, with the hit Broadway comedy “Social Security,” directed by Sonni Crawford.
-
Bruce’s History Lessons: Morse’s telegraph and its impact as a ‘game changer’
This week (May 24) in 1844, Professor Samuel F.B. Morse sat in the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., surrounded by members of Congress, who had come to witness history.
-
Singer-songwriter Aly Tadros to perform at The Verve
Although she calls Brooklyn, N.Y., home, singer/songwriter Aly Tadros has spent the last decade traveling (and touring) across Egypt, Turkey, Canada, Mexico and nearly all of Europe in an attempt to coalesce the diversity that is being both Egyptian and Texan, both a performer and a songwriter. Next on her list is Terre Haute. Tadros will be playing at The Verve on Friday.
-
Longtime weatherman Jesse Walker relates well to people of Wabash Valley
While in middle and high school, Jesse Walker developed a strong interest in the weather. He thought about a career at the National Weather Service or at a storm prediction center, but the idea of becoming a television meteorologist never entered his mind.
-
CULINARY COURSES: Clabber Girl Classroom Kitchen provides variety of cooking courses for the Valley
There are a few taste-bud-tantalizing-perks for having America’s leading baking powder producer in your backyard. For nearly 120 years, Clabber Girl has been a staple in Terre Haute. In 1899, Hulman and Company began offering up what was to become one of the oldest brands in the country, Clabber baking powder. In 1923, the company changed the baking powder brand name to Clabber Girl.
-
RIVER OF SOUND: Composer sees symphony bring his musical imagination to life
David Watkins smiled as he stood on the Tilson Auditorium stage. The audience stood, too, applauding.
Two of his compositions had just been performed by the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra. Neither piece — “A Wabash Portrait” and “River Fanfare” — had been played publicly in decades. -
The Beauties of Spring: Stunning array of wildflowers bloom each spring in Collett Park
Groundskeepers put off the first mowing of Collett Park each spring.
Admirers of the place, Terre Haute’s oldest park, like it that way.
A stunning array of wildflowers covers the 21-acre lawn for a few short weeks. Those plants, known as “spring beauties,” emerge in March, bloom in April and go dormant by May, when the brilliant waves of white and pink flowers disappear. -
Day spent with daughter inspires Valley man to write children’s book for her
It started with a warm sunny blackberry picking outing, a bee buzzing, a little bird nest with eggs in it and a little girl begging her daddy for a night-time story. And from those ingredients the children’s book, “The Bee in the Blackberry Bush” came to fruition.
-
From kilts to haggis, Wabash Valley Scottish Society marks a decade of preserving heritage
As soon as Richard Cooper breaks into his Scottish accent, a smile automatically follows.
It happened last week as he recited a work of legendary Scotland poet Robert Burns. -
Witness to history: April movie chronicles Jackie Robinson’s trials as be breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier — something Vigo County native Harry Taylor witnessed first hand
The upcoming movie “42” aims to show America what Jackie Robinson endured.
Harry Taylor witnessed it firsthand.
Robinson wore jersey No. 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Taylor wore 41. Both were 28-year-old rookies, considerably older than most. Taylor got delayed by military service in World War II. Professional baseball’s unwritten but ironclad code of racial discrimination had kept Robinson and other African-Americans out of the majors since the 1880s. -
Sisterly Habits: Fillenwarth sisters are linked together in more than one sense
The Fillenwarth sisters are sisters in more than one sense of the word.
Both were born two of the eight children of city cop Henry and his wife Catherine Fillenwarth. Both grew up among a large and giving Catholic extended family in inner-city Indianapolis in the 1940s. -
Geocaching Indiana: Clay County man develops idea to use geo-art to create outline of state in caches
Indiana, long-known as the Crossroads of America, has for years been a destination for people coming from around the world to witness such activities as the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, Indianapolis Colts football games and Indiana University Hoosiers basketball games.
Since October 2012, Indiana’s attractions have come to include the surprising geo-art creation of a group of Wabash Valley geocachers — people who use Global Positioning Systems and similar location-sensitive devices to find hidden objects for fun. -
Voice of a Storyteller: Chance meeting of Twain, Paris youngster inspired narrative voice of Huck Finn
The block offers no hints of its place in American literary history.
Customers dodge raindrops, walking in and out of an auto parts store. -
Pearls of the Wabash: Efforts to reintroduce mussels
Broken bricks, shattered large clay tiles and thin strips of lumber nailed into a crimped piece of sheet metal, sit piled down a county road in Hillsdale.
-
Natural Habitat: Meet 17-year-old Ben Cvengros, who has a knack for capturing wildlife — in particular, birds — on his camera
I would like to introduce you to a 17-year-old Parke County teenager who has an incredible level of patience. Ben Cvengros was 12 years old when he found his passion for photography.
-
WORD PLAY: Scrabble Club broadens Greene County youngsters’ vocabularies and experiences in a fun way
Drew Helton nodded his head like a wise college professor dispensing scholarly advice.
-
Doing a lot with a little: Family’s resourcefulness leads it to reuse vegetable oil as fuel
Up a winding driveway, tucked off a main road in Clay County, sits an average-looking house in a hardwood forest. The homeowners, Chris and Lori Hart, are two resourceful people.
-
Coming full circle: Vigo County 4-H’er hopes donation of livestock auction money helps youth
The phrase “giving back” is often quoted but sometimes lacks personal follow through.
-
CRUISIN’ TO A CAREER IN MUSIC: Terre Haute native Will Foraker on a roll with new album, job as cruise ship entertainer
On his way to the Panama Canal, Will Foraker sounded energized.
-
YOUR GREEN VALLEY: Keep your garden — and yourself — safe from lead
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead poisoning is the No. 1 preventable environmental cause of illness in children.
-
TRIED ‘N’ TRUE: Need something for the kids? Try these Ritzy Cookies
When we have dinners at the church, one of the ladies brings these cookies. Nancy Kahl has been making these for some time now. They are so good. Need something for your kids? Make sure that there isn’t any one who can’t have peanuts. These are so easy and extra good.
-
‘A Song for Indiana’ to raise money for Dresser sculpture
Art Spaces will present “A Song for Indiana – The Paul Dresser Project” at 5:30 p.m. on June 6 at the Holiday Inn of Terre Haute.
-
Sign up for Community School of the Arts classes
Summer is the perfect time to enroll children and teens in theater and visual arts and music classes at the Indiana State University Community School of the Arts.
-
FAMILY TIES: While searching for my grandfather, I found my mother
I remember the afternoon my mother received the chilling news from her nephew that her oldest sister and brother-in-law had been killed in a car/bus collision.
-
GRAPE SENSE: Same old whites getting you down? Try something different
If the same old Chardonnay, Riesling or Pinot Grigio is getting you down, try something different.
-
TRIED ‘N’ TRUE: A Rhubarb Nut Bread for the season
Last fall we went to the Covered Bridge Festival. Gene loves to go. Anyway, I got to talking to this lady, Treva Smith, at Bridgeton.
-
Diamond Hill Station goes bold in ‘Katy Bar the Door’ album
On the second track of Diamond Hill Station’s new CD, the band deftly rambles through a catchy, love-gone-wrong song called “Same Old Thing.”
-
Roxie Randle takes next step with single ‘Everything I’m Not’
The next step for singer-songwriter Roxie Randle is a single with the attitude and power to crack radio airplay lists.
-
Opening reception Friday for ‘Mud Musings’
Indiana State University’s Community School of the Arts is scheduled to host an opening reception for an art exhibition from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday in the Gallery Lounge of ISU’s Hulman Memorial Student Union.
- More Features Headlines
-
Raw Video: Washington State Bridge Collapse
Sheriff: No Sign Killing of 2 Kids Was Planned
Raw: Utah Teen Arrested in Death of His Brothers
Raw: Jurors Deadlock on Jodi Arias Penalty
Boy Scouts Decision "First Step" Say Activists
Boy Scouts Approve Plan to Accept Gay Boys
Obama Defends Drone Strikes, With Limits
Officials: Truck Hit Bridge Before Collapse
Closer Look at Okla. School Where Children Died
Boy Scouts Mom Supports Gay Inclusiveness
First Person: Mom Discusses Famous Tornado Photo
Two Suspects in Murder Known to London Police
Raw: Heckler Interrupts Obama on Guantanamo
Raw: Scuffles in London After Hacking Death
Obama Renews Call to Close Gitmo
Britain Attack Believed Linked to Radical Islam
Chain-Reaction School Bus Crash Injures About 50
Obama Offers Drone Strike Defense
Johnson: Don't Blame Islam or UK Policy
Today in History May 23
AK-47-wielding thug may be the most bumbling crook ever
Oklahoma Survivors, Heroes Survey Damage
Trout's cycle a boost for Angels
Raw: New Video of Deadly Oklahoma Tornado
Kim Kardashian Flaunts Pregnant Bikini Body in Greece
NBA star pledges $1M to help tornado recovery
Shakira's Shocking Talent
Morgan Freeman falls asleep on air
GRAPHIC: Blood-Soaked Machete Killer Caught on Tape
Elin Nordegren Furious With Lindsey Vonn For Parading Kids in Public
Camera Captures Climber As He Loses Grip And Falls
Helen Mirren Meets with Dying Boy in Queen Elizabeth's Place
Crowd Chants '¡Si, Se Puede!' After Passage of Immigration Bill
DWTS Crowns a Winner
Police Ram House to End Hostage Standoff
Demi Moore a Rocks Bikini at Harry Morton's Family House
Anthony Weiner: I'm running for New York City mayor
Kate Middleton's Dress Flies Up
VIRAL: Baby makes epic soccer goal
The Hangover Baby All Grown Up
