Exploring Family Learning
& Camps for Deaf Children
Stacy Abrams, MA, a project manager for early intervention at the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, in Washington, D.C., holds degrees from Gallaudet University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. With a focus on supporting hearing families with deaf children, she taught for five years and served as a Deaf Mentor Program coordinator. She also created #whyisign, aiming to inspire by sharing individuals’ reasons for signing. Abrams and her husband are parents to two bilingual teens.
Beth Adams, EdD, is a strategic initiatives specialist with the Health and Human Services Commission, specializing in advocating for accessibility for people with disabilities. With expertise in equality and dismantling disability oppression, Adams provides consulting and training. As a Deaf mother of three Deaf children and a full-time sports mom, she navigates the sports world to ensure her kids have an experience equivalent to their hearing peers.
Beth Adams has tirelessly researched the different laws regarding after-school programs and activities to ensure her three deaf daughters—Renalyn, Nessalyn, and Avalyn—are able to participate in local leagues and competitive sports just like any other child. The girls now know how to advocate for themselves to ensure they are understood and able to communicate with their coaches, peers, and others. Learn about the family’s experiences as well as the importance of accountability on both sides—the organizers and the Deaf community—in supporting organizations in finding interpreters, learning the correct signs, and giving support back to the communities.
Bart Goldbar, MA, a lifelong Missoula, Montana, resident, is a paraprofessional at Sentinel High School and owner of Goldbar Defense, a self-defense business. Alongside his wife, Dorothy, and three children, including Trinity, born with a rare genetic disorder, Goldbar navigates challenges, including Trinity’s immunocompromised health and nonverbal communication using American Sign Language. Passionate about the special needs community, the family volunteers with the Special Olympics. Goldbar has also led support groups for fathers of children with hearing differences.
Trinity Goldbar; her siblings, Sydney and Kaleb; and her parents, Bart and Dorothy, have attended family learning vacations at the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind (MSDB) for several years. Trinity has also joined MSDB’s deaf camp during several summers, having lots of fun with her friends, both old and new. Bart has led the fathers group during the family learning vacations to support other fathers on their journey raising deaf and hard of hearing children. Learn how these family learning vacation experiences aided the Goldbars in their communication journey with Trinity.
Claudia Hernandez, BS, a Las Cruces native now in Santa Fe, holds degrees in sign language interpreting, Spanish, and human services. For a decade, she has contributed to the New Mexico School for the Deaf, serving three years as a trilingual interpreter and volunteering as an interpreter coordinator for the Santa Fe Storm Volleyball Club. A mother of three, including a deaf daughter, the trilingual family actively participates in immersion programs, deaf camps, and volleyball leagues.
Angelique Quinonez attended her first deaf camp at age 5. It was hard for her family, especially mom Claudia, to let her go, but after two weeks at camp she came back a different child—much happier and with a thirst for learning and having fun. Learn how full communication access at deaf camps gave Angelique the opportunity to develop leadership skills, connect with deaf and hard of hearing peers and adults, and finally put her phone away and dive into the experience of just being a kid.
