About the North Country Club of the Deaf…
The North Country Club of the Deaf was founded in the year 1973 in Ellisburg, NY. The purpose of this
non-profit organization was to help the Deaf and hearing-impaired individuals afford a social outlet for
their activities. The objectives of this Deaf club are to:
A) Inform, encourage and help parents of Deaf and hearing-impaired children.
B) Inform, encourage and help Deaf and hearing-impaired adults.
C) Encourage better public understanding of the Deaf and hearing-impaired.
D) Promote an educational philosophy, which involves teaching total communication skills,
including speech production, speech training, finger spelling, sign language, reading and writing.
E) Gather and circulate information concerning Deafness.
General memberships, according to the current by-laws and constitutions last revised on January
2001, is open to all Deaf and hearing-impaired children, adults and their hearing or Deaf spouses.
Honorary membership is open to all persons interested in helping the Deaf.
Due to many current available public or private assistance, this Deaf club can no longer get actively
involved with donating the Deaf and hearing-impaired with their special needs such as TTY
(teletypewriter device for communications over the telephone), closed captioning decoders (since
1993, all new televisions include a built-in closed captioning decoder) or assistive listening devices
such as smoke alarms with strobe lights, door bell with flashing lights, etc.
Currently, the function of this Deaf club is to afford a social outlet for Deaf, hearing-impaired and
hearing people with Deaf background (i.e. - hearing people from a Deaf family, hearing people
learning sign language, sign language interpreters, and teachers of the Deaf, American Sign
Language (ASL) students from local schools or colleges, or just hearing people interested in the Deaf
culture). This Deaf club has hosted numerous events such as the annual picnic (held annually on the
last Saturday of July), no tap bowling tournaments, a couple of New York State Association of the Deaf
bowling tournaments, dinners and other informative seminars such as Sorenson VRS presentation
and CSDVRS presentation.
The North Country Club of the Deaf meets every fourth Saturday of every month throughout the year
except for the month of July due to the annual NCCD picnic for meetings and/or social events. NCCD
runs their meeting like many other organizations do theirs. NCCD has their own officers and
members run their meetings nearly every month as needed to keep the Deaf club remain in existence.
Occasionally, there will be dinner before there is a meeting at 7 or 7:30 pm. For years, the Deaf club
has met at varying places that was afforded to the organization. When the club was first founded, the
meeting would take place at varying member’s homes while the membership numbers back then was
small. When the Deaf club was formed, it started with just 8 members and grew over the years
reaching high up in the upper 30’s. As the numbers grew, the club began meeting at public places
such as local churches, local fire halls, I.B.E.W. hall and at the Northern Regional Center for
Independent Living when they were located in the old Woolworths Building at the Square and then at
Mechanic Street behind the State Street Burger King. When NRCIL moved to its current location (in
the Liberty Building), NCCD has finally decided to call the current Lyme Community Foundation
(Copley House) in Chaumont, NY home for the time-being.
The members and officers of the North Country Club of the Deaf have always wanted a place of their
own but with the small number of memberships (being far less than 100 members); they realized that it
may never be possible. This, however, is still a part of their dream if financing is ever available or if a
place was ever donated to NCCD. If a place was ever donated to NCCD, operating finances will
become a big obstacle (property taxes, utility bills, maintenance, etc).
The members and officers of NCCD also has an interest in getting more actively involved with the
Deaf and hearing-impaired community that exists in the northern New York region (Jefferson, Lewis
and southern St. Lawrence counties). The club is interested in helping the students currently
mainstreaming in their local school districts gain their self identity including their self esteem. The club
is more interested in seeing the students get placed in a residential Deaf school to help the students
better grow in an environment intended for students with hearing impairments. If this is not possible,
then the club is interested in getting the students involved with the club to help them grow to become
independent Deaf and hearing-impaired adults.
Membership to the club for students currently in grade schools (K-12) is free. Parents of students are
strongly encouraged to become involved. Parents are welcome to come so that they can better
understand that the hearing-impaired individuals “belong” to this unique culture and can better realize
the importance of total communication (using voice along with sign language or just strictly using
American Sign Language).
Please feel free to browse our own web site at www.nccd13601.org. For more information, questions
or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us at contact@nccd13601.org.
Come help us grow!