| Letter From The President |
Hello everyone!
I’d like to first apologize to everyone who visits or frequents this site. I’m sure that there have
been several people who clicks on this “President’s Message” only to find that it has not been
updated for quite some time. My biggest fear now is that this “link” would by now be long since
forgotten. Whose fault is that? Mine and mine alone. Thanks to Kathy Ferritto for her
persistence, I got to finally move and get this “President’s Message” going. She had been
persistent since a month after the first one was out. Thanks Kathy.
In the past few weeks, a couple of our North Country Club of the Deaf members has lost a
family member of their own. Michael “Mike” Ferritto lost his brother after a battle with cancer.
George Fuller also lost someone really close to him after a long bout with cancer. His daughter
had just passed away a few days ago. On behalf of the North Country Club of the Deaf, our
sympathies go out to their families.
Well, since my last message, our Deaf club has had a few meetings along with some Holiday
parties…
October…
We had our Halloween party where a few of us members dressed up. Kathy Ferritto was the
scariest as she dressed up as a Zombie. Ooohhhh!!! Francis and Martha Simiele volunteered
to serve us dinner before the party. Anyway, back to Kathy’s role as a Zombie. The funniest
moment came when Kathy went to hide before Esther Morrow’s arrival to the party dressed as
a mean witch. As Esther was playing the role as a mean witch trying to scare us with her
broom, Kathy emerged from a hidden spot and acted as though she was attacking the witch.
As Esther realized a zombie was “attacking” her, she got scared out of her shoes and it looked
as though she was about to have a heart attack! You had to have been there and you would
have thought that it was one of the funniest moments you’ve witnessed. Matt Rogers and
Jeannine Walts were dressed as Indians and brought a friend of theirs dressed as a cowboy.
Mike Ferritto dressed as a walking Pumpkin! Martha Simiele dressed for Halloween with a
mask over her face but she doesn’t know what she dressed as. If you visit our web site for
photos, you’ll get a better picture. I dressed as a Nerd and to my surprise; some of them didn’t
recognized me. I had a real big ugly wig on, borrowed my friend’s big thick black framed
glasses (from the 70’s?) and had my pants on real high. Again, visit the photo page to get a
better picture of what I looked like. I thought people would have known right away who I was but
they didn’t at first.
November…
For November, many of us had probably gained few more pounds because our dinner and a
meeting were held the same week as Thanksgiving. I was in charge of the dinner and I had
really enjoyed cooking up a Thanksgiving meal for everyone. I was late that evening (dinner
was supposed to be at 6:00 pm but I think the dinner wasn’t ready until about 7-ish?) because
the oven I was using was having a hard time “cooking” the turkey. The wall oven I have has the
oven door slightly ajar allowing some heat to escape and it takes longer to “bake” stuff with that
oven. I guess it’s time for a new oven! Nonetheless, we all had a good dinner.
December…
December, we had our small Christmas party. With the forecasted weather to be bad enough
that very night, we had a small gathering at Esther Morrow’s place. Esther served us Ham
dinner and we played some games that night. Some of the members left early to avoid driving
home in the snow but had time enough to play some games and exchange gifts. It was pretty
enjoyable and I stayed long enough to drive home in a little snow storm. I’m just thankful that
everyone got home safely.
NCCD Keeps Growing and Growing…
Latest I’ve heard, we have about 50 members. Welcome aboard, new members!! Well, I have
to be biased for our Deaf club but I feel that we have one of the BEST Deaf clubs in the North
Country . I love how we all get along so great and keep our petty differences aside or resolved
as quickly as we possibly can. Why? We are like one big family who values and cares about
one another. I’m not saying our Deaf club is “perfect” but like many other clubs, we’ve had our
shares of petty differences, mistakes, arguments but we have learned from them. Learning
from mistakes and getting over the differences is very important and is a vital part to making a
club as successful as ours. It just breaks my heart when I see other clubs suffer from their
members’ differences and mistakes. As I keep stressing to those who asked me what made
our Deaf club really successful and how our members get along, get over the past mistakes,
learn from it and set aside your differences! More often than not, other club members look up to
our Deaf club and have asked for my guidance. I just wish for the best for others and hope they
will resolve their petty differences. The key to success is to LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES!!!
Upcoming Events…
For our next meeting this month, Shari Shelnutt will be in charge serving dinner before our
regular meeting. If any of you plan to attend, please let Kathy, Esther or myself know so we can
tell Shari how many people are expected to attend. She would like to know so that she can
make enough. As far as I know, she plans to make Chili and Sloppy Joe. Yummy!
March 1st, there will be a movie in Syracuse by ASL Films. This movie is called, “Wrong
Game” and is completely in ASL! I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing this movie! For
synopsis of this movie, visit www.aslfilms.com. As part of our community service, providing that
there will be enough students from JCC’s ASL classes, our Deaf club will provide their
transportation and admission to the movie. I really hope enough members from our Deaf club
will attend and perhaps go out to Old Country Buffet afterwards.
May 10th, our Deaf club will be hosting the No Tap Bowling event to be held at South Jefferson
Lanes with buffet dinner to follow. The members will be cooking and making stuff for dinner.
Come and join us! Flyers will be distributed soon
July 26th will be our 2nd Annual William “Bill” Morrow picnic at Westcott Beach State Park .
The flyers will be distributed soon.
October 18th, we will be celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the North Country Club of the
Deaf! The officers and members of the club will be organizing this event to make this our best
and most memorable one ever! This event will be open to all members and friends of NCCD.
Our club was actually founded during November of 1973 but we’re celebrating this a month
early before the snowbirds leave the New York State . If any of you members are interested in
assisting this event, please contact our general chairpersons Kathy Ferritto, Esther Morrow and
myself.
In closing, I’d like to once again stress that I am getting more interested in seeing our Deaf club
do some community service for our Deaf community in this area. Please forward any ideas to
our members so that we may get this goal going.
Sincerely,
Dennis J Brady
NCCD President
I’d like to first apologize to everyone who visits or frequents this site. I’m sure that there have
been several people who clicks on this “President’s Message” only to find that it has not been
updated for quite some time. My biggest fear now is that this “link” would by now be long since
forgotten. Whose fault is that? Mine and mine alone. Thanks to Kathy Ferritto for her
persistence, I got to finally move and get this “President’s Message” going. She had been
persistent since a month after the first one was out. Thanks Kathy.
In the past few weeks, a couple of our North Country Club of the Deaf members has lost a
family member of their own. Michael “Mike” Ferritto lost his brother after a battle with cancer.
George Fuller also lost someone really close to him after a long bout with cancer. His daughter
had just passed away a few days ago. On behalf of the North Country Club of the Deaf, our
sympathies go out to their families.
Well, since my last message, our Deaf club has had a few meetings along with some Holiday
parties…
October…
We had our Halloween party where a few of us members dressed up. Kathy Ferritto was the
scariest as she dressed up as a Zombie. Ooohhhh!!! Francis and Martha Simiele volunteered
to serve us dinner before the party. Anyway, back to Kathy’s role as a Zombie. The funniest
moment came when Kathy went to hide before Esther Morrow’s arrival to the party dressed as
a mean witch. As Esther was playing the role as a mean witch trying to scare us with her
broom, Kathy emerged from a hidden spot and acted as though she was attacking the witch.
As Esther realized a zombie was “attacking” her, she got scared out of her shoes and it looked
as though she was about to have a heart attack! You had to have been there and you would
have thought that it was one of the funniest moments you’ve witnessed. Matt Rogers and
Jeannine Walts were dressed as Indians and brought a friend of theirs dressed as a cowboy.
Mike Ferritto dressed as a walking Pumpkin! Martha Simiele dressed for Halloween with a
mask over her face but she doesn’t know what she dressed as. If you visit our web site for
photos, you’ll get a better picture. I dressed as a Nerd and to my surprise; some of them didn’t
recognized me. I had a real big ugly wig on, borrowed my friend’s big thick black framed
glasses (from the 70’s?) and had my pants on real high. Again, visit the photo page to get a
better picture of what I looked like. I thought people would have known right away who I was but
they didn’t at first.
November…
For November, many of us had probably gained few more pounds because our dinner and a
meeting were held the same week as Thanksgiving. I was in charge of the dinner and I had
really enjoyed cooking up a Thanksgiving meal for everyone. I was late that evening (dinner
was supposed to be at 6:00 pm but I think the dinner wasn’t ready until about 7-ish?) because
the oven I was using was having a hard time “cooking” the turkey. The wall oven I have has the
oven door slightly ajar allowing some heat to escape and it takes longer to “bake” stuff with that
oven. I guess it’s time for a new oven! Nonetheless, we all had a good dinner.
December…
December, we had our small Christmas party. With the forecasted weather to be bad enough
that very night, we had a small gathering at Esther Morrow’s place. Esther served us Ham
dinner and we played some games that night. Some of the members left early to avoid driving
home in the snow but had time enough to play some games and exchange gifts. It was pretty
enjoyable and I stayed long enough to drive home in a little snow storm. I’m just thankful that
everyone got home safely.
NCCD Keeps Growing and Growing…
Latest I’ve heard, we have about 50 members. Welcome aboard, new members!! Well, I have
to be biased for our Deaf club but I feel that we have one of the BEST Deaf clubs in the North
Country . I love how we all get along so great and keep our petty differences aside or resolved
as quickly as we possibly can. Why? We are like one big family who values and cares about
one another. I’m not saying our Deaf club is “perfect” but like many other clubs, we’ve had our
shares of petty differences, mistakes, arguments but we have learned from them. Learning
from mistakes and getting over the differences is very important and is a vital part to making a
club as successful as ours. It just breaks my heart when I see other clubs suffer from their
members’ differences and mistakes. As I keep stressing to those who asked me what made
our Deaf club really successful and how our members get along, get over the past mistakes,
learn from it and set aside your differences! More often than not, other club members look up to
our Deaf club and have asked for my guidance. I just wish for the best for others and hope they
will resolve their petty differences. The key to success is to LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES!!!
Upcoming Events…
For our next meeting this month, Shari Shelnutt will be in charge serving dinner before our
regular meeting. If any of you plan to attend, please let Kathy, Esther or myself know so we can
tell Shari how many people are expected to attend. She would like to know so that she can
make enough. As far as I know, she plans to make Chili and Sloppy Joe. Yummy!
March 1st, there will be a movie in Syracuse by ASL Films. This movie is called, “Wrong
Game” and is completely in ASL! I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing this movie! For
synopsis of this movie, visit www.aslfilms.com. As part of our community service, providing that
there will be enough students from JCC’s ASL classes, our Deaf club will provide their
transportation and admission to the movie. I really hope enough members from our Deaf club
will attend and perhaps go out to Old Country Buffet afterwards.
May 10th, our Deaf club will be hosting the No Tap Bowling event to be held at South Jefferson
Lanes with buffet dinner to follow. The members will be cooking and making stuff for dinner.
Come and join us! Flyers will be distributed soon
July 26th will be our 2nd Annual William “Bill” Morrow picnic at Westcott Beach State Park .
The flyers will be distributed soon.
October 18th, we will be celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the North Country Club of the
Deaf! The officers and members of the club will be organizing this event to make this our best
and most memorable one ever! This event will be open to all members and friends of NCCD.
Our club was actually founded during November of 1973 but we’re celebrating this a month
early before the snowbirds leave the New York State . If any of you members are interested in
assisting this event, please contact our general chairpersons Kathy Ferritto, Esther Morrow and
myself.
In closing, I’d like to once again stress that I am getting more interested in seeing our Deaf club
do some community service for our Deaf community in this area. Please forward any ideas to
our members so that we may get this goal going.
Sincerely,
Dennis J Brady
NCCD President