Your Job

Your job isn't to judge. Your job isn't to figure out if someone deserves something or decide who is right or wrong. Your job is to lift the fallen, restore the broken, and heal the hurting.

Joel Osteen

Sage Advice from Kurt Vonnegut

Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard.

Do not let pain make you hate.

Do not let bitterness steal your sweetness.

"Mastery of Change" by Sean Morgan (Part 1)

Today's post is the first is a series of 7 by my guest, Sean O'Donoghue Morgan. When I read Sean's book, I felt compelled to ask him to share his story and his work with my readers.

This is the review I published on Amazon:

Sean's book is simply wonderful! It's perfect for people wanting changes in life but are either overwhelmed or don't know where to start. I love the simple examples and the applications he provides at the end of each section. It is simply genius! I can see all the research he has put into this book, and I love how he simplifies so anyone - ANYONE can apply themselves to begin taking their thoughts and life in a new, better direction. ~ Xpressive Handz

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Hello, my name is Sean Morgan.  I just met Joyce and her husband and we hit it off due to our mutual appreciation for the healing art of Reiki.  I recently self-published a book about mental and emotional healing.  Joyce was gracious enough to allow me to share this book with you on her blog.  I'd like to start out by saying that I do not have a lot of experience writing to people with special physical needs.  I have not been in connection with the deaf/hard of hearing and hearing loss communities until now.  However, I do write about challenges.  We all have major and minor challenges that come in waves throughout each particular phase of our lifetime.  Just like all challenges, deafness and hearing loss are both a difficulty and a gift.  If one views it as a curse, it will become one.  If one is open-minded, it can become an opportunity.  

My book was born due to a few of the challenges in my life. 

From adolecense, I was prone to introversion, rumination, anxiety, and depression.  In my twenties, I was infected with Lyme disease and suffered tremendous physical challenges and pain.  I learned first hand what it is like to blame others and the world.  I learned what it feels like to believe I was a victim of circumstance.  That kind of mindset sent me on a downward spiral deeper into depression and fear.  I continued to lose the things I loved such as health, happiness, financial security, and even my fiance.

It wasn’t until I hit bottom that I was willing to try a different mindset.  At first it was just an experiment.  If I could create my life and if I did have power, what would I do?  I then made every day a laboratory to see how much I could improve through positive actions.  The results were very immediate.  I improved my health, mood, finances, and I’m back with my fiance.  I looked back and reverse engineered why I spiraled downward and how I bounced back.  I did a lot of research to make sure that what I found to be true for me was actually evidence-based.  I hope that you find my story inspiring.  I encourage you to embrace change and try new behaviors in your life when you encounter challenges.  You might find that a curse is actually just a blessing in disguise.

The path of negativity is a path toward death.  You may be in the thick of darkness right now.  I know how it can be, that’s why I’m writing this message right now.  I had a wrong-minded view of the world, and I suffered as a consequence.  I was mostly functional, meaning I could still take care of my minimum responsibilities in the world, such as school and work.  Yet, at times I would go into darkness to the point of suicidal thoughts, especially in the winters.

Sometimes I would spend over 10 hours a day on the computer.  After I tried to find the answers to life by trying marijuana, I developed panic disorder and a dissociative disorder called depersonalization/derealization.  I was hospitalized and medicated.  The anxiety and depersonalization attacks were very traumatic for me.  Earlier in my life, I couldn’t imagine that it would have been possible to live in such terror.  I didn’t want the answers to life anymore...I just wanted to feel normal again.  The medication caused more problems such as rage attacks.  Later, my medication was taken off the market for minors because it was shown to cause suicidal thoughts.  Luckily, I had enough of a sense of autonomy to take myself off of the medication, even before this was known.

 Social anxiety and introversion have always affected me, making it difficult for me to connect with others or “put myself out there” in social situations.  As a  result, I went through college without a social life.  I spent hours a day alone in my room singing songs with my guitar.  Even though music was cathartic for me, I also romanticized the victim story of myself through the sadness of the music.  I went through cycles.  Times weren’t always bad.  I met an amazing woman, but we argued a lot. Then I became infected with a debilitating case of chronic Lyme disease, and it reinforced the victim role I had carved out for myself.  Some days I couldn’t walk, and I developed a more chronic form of depression.  

I  had always wanted my girlfriend to play the nurturing role for my victim story.  She wanted me to help myself.  I refused to take antibiotics because my research had confirmed that it made things worse for many people.  Looking back, I was clinging to my illness as a way to keep my victim story relevant.  Luckily, after a year of hell I began to change, grow, learn, and take responsibility.  I took antibiotics and was cured within weeks.  Although antibiotics cured my Lyme disease, it seemed to make my depression a lot worse.  How ironic that as I escaped physical pain, I started to feel terrorized by mental pain.  Slowly, through healthy lifestyle choices, I fully recovered and started to feel normal again.  Sometimes you don’t realize how depressed you really are until you begin to feel like a normal balanced person.

Shortly after my Lyme disease recovery, my girlfriend and I got engaged and went on a long-term trip to Puerto Rico.  We continued to have problems, and I continued to blame her because I felt unloved.  My neediness became too much for her to bear, and she shut down her affections.  I had created a monster, which made it easier for me to blame her more.  The blame finally ended the engagement.  The lack of independence, self sufficiency, and responsibility for my emotions ended a beautiful love story.  After we broke up, I continued to blame her and play the victim for the following months.  Being alone forced me to sink or swim.  I chose to swim.  I chose to better myself and challenge myself.  I changed my diet and fitness routine, took dance lessons, and challenged myself to be social.  I worked with the loneliness and neediness inside myself.  I applied myself professionally and gained financial independence and power.  The healthier I got, the more the victim story crumbled.  Finally, I let go of the ignorant mental disease of blame and resentment.  

Today, I’m happy to say that I feel even better than “normal”.  I feel joyful every day and I have the confidence to achieve things I never dreamed for myself before.  I still have challenges in my life and I have experienced anxiety and depersonalization attacks pretty recently, but now I am ready for them.  I know that I have the tools and the strength to meet them if they visit me.  In fact, the more challenges I meet, the stronger I get.  Being a master of change is not about being the best, it’s about being courageous and smart enough to dance with life instead of against it.

I’ve been in the thick of darkness, and now that I’ve seen the light I want to share it with others.  I’ve spent years discovering the most effective methods for self-transformation and empowerment.  It didn’t matter where it came from; if it worked I would use it.  I learned from resources including many religions, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Ayurveda, Reiki, massage, yoga, inquiry, hypnosis, Western research, and many wonderful teachers.  Using my intuition and intellect, I created a lifestyle with habits that deliver.  Only recently have I begun to understand why the practices work.  I have connected the dots to the point where I can now explain them in a holistic model.  I hope my model can give you a framework for understanding why every action you take makes such a huge difference.  You are powerful, but you may have been using your power against yourself.  You have the power of your consciousness, which is your attention and focus.  Perhaps you have just been pointing it in the wrong direction.  

At the end of The Mastery Of Change is a workbook, which will allow you to put the practices you learned about into action.  I call it The Darkness To Daylight 30 Day Challenge.  It is designed to take someone with low energy and low motivation to a place of achievement and happiness.  

Thank you for reading my story.  We all go through a sort of “hero’s journey”.  The further into darkness we slip on that journey makes the light of day that much sweeter.  May your journey through this book and through your healing be exciting and rewarding.  As the Navajo blessing goes… May you walk in beauty:)

It might seem that we are born into a cold and dangerous world.  Our first emotion may be terror from the traumatic change of going from womb to alien environment.  At first we are defenseless and dependent creatures.  Some children suffer and some die.  But that is not what usually happens.  We have mechanisms to deal with crisis.  We are beings of resilience because there is a vast intelligence within us.  We have genetic programming to nurture our own and others’ offspring.  Nature’s intelligence strives toward life.

Our genetic programming gives us instincts.  Some of them are useful for our particular environment and some of them are not.  Luckily, we have been endowed with the capacity to adapt.  We can consciously choose behaviors even if they run counter to our genetic programming.  Modern science is now realizing that we are more adaptable than we first assumed.  Neuroplasticity is now an accepted phenomenon, but to relegate adaptability to the brain would be shortsighted.  We operate as whole beings.

We are easily influenced by our environment and programmed by our caregivers and community.  Just like genetic programming, some of this programming is useful and some is not.  The useful conditioning encourages wellbeing.  Wellbeing is toward life, health, happiness, growth or homeostasis.  Unhealthy conditioning is toward death, pain, suffering, and danger.

One exception is the pain (discomfort) of rapid change for the purpose of adaptation.  This is where our conscious mind really comes in handy.  Our bodies have a strong survival response to protect us.  However, sometimes it is triggered when we aren’t really in danger.  One example is the common fear of public speaking.  Our conscious mind can override our survival response in order to adapt to our environment in the way we see fit.  

Changing ourselves takes resources from our being; therefore, there is a natural resistance to it.  It can also trigger our survival response to a certain degree.  As an example, tearing too much muscle in a short amount of time in weightlifting would be damaging.  Pain is a sign that we need to change, but it also protects us from potential danger.  If we resist the perfect amount of challenging weight, we experience some pain (discomfort) but not to a dangerous level.  We use resources such as energy to lift a weight, and we tear muscle to build it.  In the end, a somewhat painful process allowed us to adapt and gain a layer of protection in times of crisis.  

It was not easy to change.  Something had to be destroyed in order for something new to emerge.  Change is awkward. The pain and resistance we feel is the physical experience of rewiring our being.  It may seem easier not to change when we meet a challenge, but if we don’t change and grow, we will inevitably suffer.

Free will is our ability to consciously participate in the evolutionary process. To choose when, where, how, and how much to challenge ourselves to change for the better or for the worse.   Some change happens automatically, such as body temperature regulation, but we also have the conscious choice to wear warm or cool clothing or build a shelter.

I propose that the world is a nurturing place that supports our survival and happiness.  Most children are happy by nature and grow to an important point: The point of conscious evolution.  This is the point when we begin to take responsibility.  That’s when the greatest opportunity arises if we have the grace to recognize it.

All of this seems obvious, but it is not.  If we were all aware of our free will, we would choose not to suffer.  Yet suffering can be one of the greatest gifts of life because it is through its unignorable alarm that we can be notified that we are not in the flow of nature.  It’s the way we can tell that we are not adapting toward wellbeing.  You could also look at it as God’s call to us that we have missed the mark (the literal translation of sin).  It notifies us that we have taken a step toward death and away from life.

Let’s say that you normally feel great after you eat pizza.  If you get sick every time you eat at Tony’s pizzeria, you would be crazy to continue the pattern.  If you get sick with suffering every time you think negatively about your body, why would you continue to do so?  Humans continue to consume the poison of disempowering beliefs and negative emotions even when they are easily seen in predictable patterns.  This is all due to lack of awareness and habitual behavior.

This book’s purpose is to bring hope that you can choose to be happy.  There are many paths, but the basic message is to notice the patterns in your life that bring pain and notice the ones that bring joy.  Choose to be kind to yourself and those around you by embracing positivity.  Changing from a victim to a responsible being takes focus and effort.  It doesn’t always feel comfortable, but it is the only path of sanity.  Notice that virtually everything is in constant change. Any attempt to hold onto anything will stagnate the flow of life’s energy through you.  This stagnation of energy is what causes pain and suffering.

Website: http://www.MasteryofChange.com

Buy The Book: http://www.amazon.com/Sean-Morgan/e/B00KU2NWZS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_7?qid=1403707123&sr=8-7

"We Believe What We Tell Ourselves"

TELL YOURSELF:

Everything WILL work out.

Things WILL get better.

You ARE important.

You ARE worthy of great things.

You ARE lovable.

The time IS now.

This too SHALL pass.

You CAN BE who you really are.

The best IS yet to come.

You ARE strong.

You CAN do this.

"Encouragers"

Encouragers. Who are they? Are they in your life? I hope you are as blessed to have many encouragers in your life as I am blessed to have in mine.

Encouragers are the ones who lift us up and help us soar.

They are the ones who share a post written by another, leave a comment, or simply a click "like" on a Facebook post.  They take a moment to share a kind word. Encouragers take time to nominate and vote for us. 

Today, I want to share with you one of my encouragers. Sarah's kind nomination helped put me in the running for a new pair of hearing aids. Her encouraging words in her post cut straight to my heart. I am both honored, humbled  and encouraged by Sarah's gracious post today.

http://speakuplibrarian.blogspot.com/2014/06/why-joyce-edmiston-is-inspiration-to-me.html?m=1

Encouragers - May you be blessed with many in your life; and may we all be encouragers to one another.

CCRA Online shares my recent Captioning Experience

Saba McKinley recently contacted me and asked if I would be interested in sharing my experience with the California Court Reporters Association Publication, Volume 14, Issue 6. It was nice to see my story on pages 5 and 7, complete with the photos from the event. Have a peek and check out the other items in this issue while your at it.

http://www.cal-ccra.org/assets/media/ccraonline/ccranewsletter_vol14iss6_fnl.pdf

Thank you Saba for referring me, and thank you,  CCRA Online for giving me a place to share my experience from the perspective of a deafened person who relies on Real Time Captioning.

Patt's "Lifeline" - Guest Post by Patt Kelsey

Today's post is written by Patt Kelsey. I very recently met Patt on a Facebook forum, Church CART Providers. Pat shares what it was like for her to have CART at a "Joni and Friends" event over Memorial weekend. Pat shares a few of her photos from her weekend at the end of this post.

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I would like to share the amazing experience I had Memorial Weekend, with having CART provided for me...my FIRST EVER experience with it...at a Joni and Friends event!! (Marriage Getaway on Lake Tahoe). When I contacted the headquarters for Joni and Friends, as well as the Central CA location (which is where I'm located), I was ultimately directed to the Sacramento branch, which is the local group that was hosting the getaway weekend (for couples dealing with either a spouse, or a child, with disabilities of any kind). They weren't aware of CART or what exactly it involved, and apologized, but said 'maybe next year'.

To make a long story short, after numerous facebook messages, and emails, and working out the details, and offering to bring in a CART provider from back East (the only one I knew, though I'd never met her yet! Bernice Kramer Radavich) the staff with Joni and Friends, Sacramento gave us the 'ok'...and I promptly registered my husband and I for the weekend! The staff was wonderfully accommodating. (And they also are now aware of CART!)

I can not express just how AMAZING it was to have every word captioned as it was spoken (and Bernice will tell you there were MANY words spoken throughout that weekend!) I didn't really know what to expect as it all began Friday evening...but within MINUTES of the captions filling the monitor I felt myself relax and I immediately began to take in and enjoy EVERY WORD!! For the first time in years I was able to 'listen', participate in discussions, answer questions, 'hear' all that was being taught and shared!! I laughed and cried right along with everyone else...actually KNOWING what I was laughing and crying about!

As a 'bonus' my pastor and his wife happened to be the guest speakers for the retreat...and they saw first hand the benefits and 'inner workings' of CART! They have promised me they will be doing what they have to in order to provide CART at the Sunday services at our church, as soon as possible! BIG thanks to Bernice, (amazing CART provider; professional, quick/accurate, and SO sweet and thoughtful!) as well as Joni and Friends, Sacramento! I am now, more than ever, spreading the word about CART and advocating for it every chance that I get! Anyone who wants to help 'spread the word'...ask your pastors about adding CART (live real time captioning is the quick definition) for the many Hard of Hearing, and deaf (who don't know or use Sign Language to communicate).

As Bernice was packing up her 'gear', and heading away from the resort,  I felt an instant and very real 'disconnect' from everyone around me.  I literally said out loud, 'There goes my 'lifeline'. Because, that's exactly how I felt throughout the retreat...CART had made my world come to 'life' again, through the spoken words that Bernice so skillfully captioned. Standing outside with the other couples (having just finished the renewal of our wedding vows) the world was once again put on 'mute'. With CART it was almost as if I were actually able to HEAR again! Now there was 'silence'.  

Thank you, Patt, for sharing your experience and photos with us!

Check out this Smart Phone Captioning APP at a Convention

Here is an exciting new app that could change everything for church goers - who have smart phones. Of course, open captioning is always best, but this is a wonderful technology to help us go places with captioning. Thanks to Lauren Storcke, Collaborative for Communication Access via Captioning for sharing this video on Facebook.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zGc-Yw-lpz8&feature=youtu.be

from the Southern Baptist Church Convention

What it would mean for me to win Oticon's Advocate of the Year 2014

When Sarah Wegley, Speak Up Librarian a former Oticon Advocate of the Year winner 2011 learned that the hearing aids I was given would not work for me, she nominated me for the category of Advocate of the Year Award with Oticon. Oticon selects 3 people from each category, student, adult and advocate to recognize their positive contribution to the deaf and hearing loss community to help remove the stigma that used to surround people with hearing loss. There is also a special award for Hearing Care Practitioners. Each finalist in each category is outstanding, and I wish we could all win. What an honor it is to be a finalist among this group.

I am extremely grateful to Sarah for this nomination, and I am equally grateful to Oticon for choosing me as one of the finalists in the category of "Advocate".

Let me share with you what it would mean for me to win Oticon's Advocate of the Year award.

To begin with, winners get a pair of new hearing aids. If you read an earlier post about what happened when my Fabulous Husband tried to get a pair fixed that were donated to me, you understand what we have gone through this past year. (Read that post here: http://xpressivehandz.blogspot.com/2014/05/my-experience-and-tips-regarding.html)

My current hearing aids came to me courtesy of the Coos Bay Lions Club, Coos Bay, Oregon. I've had them nearly 10 years, and they were used before they came to me. The estimated age of these are about 15 years. The volume is nearly always to maximum these days, and they are wearing out. A small part of the outer casing is actually missing from one of them. I don't expect them to last much longer, however, I am blessed beyond measure they have lasted this long.

My mother passed away in December. We pretty much wiped out our funds to fly back to the West Coast to be with my family and take care of things. At this time a huge purchase would just be a hardship for my family, and I don't want to put my family in that position.

Secondly, our local Hearing Loss Association of America Chapter here in Lancaster County, PA needs the extra funds for Real Time Captioning. The donation from Oticon for $1000 would give us more time to have captioning. Currently, we only get one hour of captions for the presentations. When that hour is up, the captions stop and we no have no captioning for the "question and answer" segment of the presentation or conversations at the close of our meetings. This donation would help cover the cost to extend Real Time Captioning to the end of our meetings.

I would appreciate your vote. I want you to know I am tremendously grateful to YOU, Readers, Guest Writers, Fellow Bloggers and Supporters because you have all helped this blog become what it is today. This is OUR voice, and, in the words of Helen Keller, "... together we can do so much."

Vote for Joyce Edmiston in the category of "Advocate".

http://www.oticonusa.com/about/people-first/focus-on-people/overview.aspx

With sincere appreciation,

Joyce Edmiston,    Xpressive Handz

Happy Father's Day

Today I am grateful for the precious gift of my Fabulous Husband who not only chose to marry me, but stepped in as DAD to my children.

I'm An Oticon "Focus On People" Advocate Finalist for 2014

Vote for Joyce Edmiston in the 2014 Focus on People Awards! 

http://speakuplibrarian.blogspot.com/2014/06/why-joyce-edmiston-is-inspiration-to-me.html

Vote Online at oticonusa.com now through July 15 

Oticon, Inc. has narrowed this year’s finalists down to nine outstanding people with hearing loss who are helping to change negative stereotypes of what it means to have a hearing loss.   

Each is unique, remarkable and inspiring.  And we are pleased to announce that Joyce Edmiston has been chosen as a finalist in the Advocacy category! 

Please help us recognize Joyce as one of the top finalists by casting your vote at oticonusa.com. 

This is the 16th year that the Oticon Focus on People Awards has honored hearing impaired students, adults and advocacy volunteers who have demonstrated through their accomplishments that hearing loss does not limit a person’s ability to make a positive difference in the world.  

We encourage you to read all of the stories from this year’s finalists.  Our goal is to help Oticon reach as many people as possible with the inspirational stories of the Focus on People Award finalists.   

Please share this email with your family, friends and anyone you think would enjoy reading about the accomplishments of some remarkable people with hearing loss who show that hearing loss does not limit a person’s ability to achieve, contribute and inspire. 

And please encourage them to vote for Joyce! 

Voting closes on July 15. Winners will be announced in August. 

Page Break 

2014 Oticon Focus on People Awards – Advocacy Category Finalist 

Joyce Edmiston 

As a child with hearing loss, Joyce Edmiston lost many opportunities to interact with other children in social and school activities. As a young adult, she recognized that “I missed out on friendships, meeting fascinating new people . . . I didn’t know how to explain my hearing loss or advocate for myself.”   

Over time, with encouragement from her husband, bloggers and Hearing Loss Association of America, she gained the courage and wisdom to make her voice heard in a hearing world.  

Today, Joyce freely shares her hard-won knowledge as a vocal advocate for people with all degrees of hearing loss. Through her popular blog Xpressive HandZ (http://xpressivehandz.blogspot.com/), Joyce provides a forum for discussion of a wide range of issues for people with hearing loss around the world.    

Her insightful, heartfelt postings aim to generate thought-provoking discussion that allows others to be “heard” as well.  All viewpoints, opinions and stories are welcome.  Joyce writes, “I love reading stories about deafened, hard of hearing, and Deaf people. . .  you’ll learn, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll understand, and you'll relate.”  

A scan of her posts reveals the scope of her efforts to encourage the teaching of ASL in schools, to inform the deaf and hard-of-hearing population of valuable, useful information, and to meet the communication needs of those who do not use sign language as their primary mode of communication.   

Though passionate about the teaching of American Sign Language (ASL), Joyce formed a committee to educate local churches the need to provide captioned services for those who do not communicate by sign language.  This same committee brought live captioning to the Giant Center in Hershey, PA for the first time. 

Joyce volunteers with the Telecommunications Relay Service Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania PUC, the Collaborative for Communication via Captioning, and with HLAA at both local and state levels. 

Vote for Joyce here: http://www.oticonusa.com/about/people-first/focus-on-people/overview/joyce-edmiston.aspx

Speaking Faith Into Their Destiny

"When people know that you believe in them and you go around speaking faith into their destiny, it ignites hope on the inside. Use your words to lift others up."      Joel Osteen

When you encourage someone like this, it not only lifts them up, it lifts your own spirit, as well. Try it today and see what happens.

"Captions Capture the Votes"

Are you running for office? Do you want to reach millions citizens that have been overlooked when it comes to the media and getting your message out? Do you vote, but don't feel you have all the information because candidates don't caption their videos so you can understand what they are saying?

Hop over to Sarah Wegley's blog and learn what you can do to change this:

http://speakuplibrarian.blogspot.com/2014/06/captions-capture-votes.html

Share her post and use her letter as a foundation to write yours. Inform those running for office in your state and in your community that you need access to language in order to make an informed decision at election time.

Look what we found in Paradise

You never know what you may see while driving around Pennsylvania. We decided to take a Sunday jaunt yesterday. Usually this time of year the roads are cluttered with the horse and buggy traffic of the Amish communities. It's Rumspringa and courtship time among the young adults of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

We were moving along without the bustle of carriages and cars and tourists, and we were able to look more closely at the sights along the road.

Just outside of Paradise... Paradise, Pennsylvania, we found this sign:

"Christ's Home Office"

We didn't stop to see if Jesus was in.. It being a Sunday and all.. :-) 

There's also the city of "Eden" in PA, as well.

Have the Courage to Follow Your Heart and Intuition

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

 Don't be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

 Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your inner voice. 

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Steve Jobs

Nancy Kingsley Wins Community Leadership Award from Hamilton CapTel Relay

As soon as I learned that Hamilton CapTel was taking nominations for this award, I nominated my friend and mentor Nancy Kingsley. I'm pleased to share with you that Nancy is the Pennsylvania recipient of the Hamilton CapTel Relay's Better Hearing & Speech Month Community Leadership Award. 

Nancy has been the "Go-to person" in our community. If there is information we need, or a person to contact for a specific issue, Nancy always has that information at her fingertips. She has been and inspiration and a champion to all of us in the hearing loss community by educating us to know our rights as people with hearing loss and to advocate for our communication needs. She shows us by example how to advocate diplomatically.

Nancy is our local Lancaster Hearing Loss Association of America chapter leader, as well as our Director for  HLAA-PA State Advisory Council.

This weekend, Nancy was in Washington DC graduating from Gallaudet University in the Peer Mentorship Program. We are a stronger community having Nancy lead us as an advocate and a mentor.

Sudan Khan, the Outreach Coordinator for Pennsylvania Captioned Telephone Relay Service explains the award:

The award is Hamilton Relay’s Better Hearing & Speech Month Community Leadership Award. Hamilton seeks nominations for individuals who are hard of hearing, late-deafened, or have speech difficulties and who have demonstrated leadership within the community by helping others to enhance the lives. 

Sudan Khan (left) awards Nancy Kingsley (right) at the Hearing Loss Association of America Lancaster County Chapter meeting in May, 2014.

Learn more about Hamilton CapTel Relay here: http://www.hamiltonrelay.com/index.html

Check out our website: http://www.hlaa-pa.org