Our family's dream is to build a camp for children, families and educators that depend on American Sign Language (ASL) as a primary means of communicating. Heart Sign recognizes that American Sign Language (ASL) is the backbone of the American deaf culture. It is also used by many people with different special needs.  Providing an opportunity to socialize through this necessary form of communication is one of our main goals. Other communities have embraced this language for its clients (autistic, cognitively delayed), yet their families and caregivers more often than not, are not trained to use ASL. Thus, our family has a dream to build a camp for kids, respite facility for the families and training center for all who have embraced ASL, but have limited access to high level training.

Yes, we have a Dream. We have donated the land that will one day allow us to fulfill this dream. And we are well on our way to learning all we must learn to create our Dream in a responsible way. We are so excited to partner with our neighbors Camp Aranzazu to create our first pilot camp for kids in August 2010. This camp will include children who are Deaf alongside hearing children of Deaf adults (CODA's) and students of ASL. Camp Aranzazu will allow us to focus on programs and not capital campaigns as they have a wonderful facility built to accommodate all special needs kids! In March we will host a Deaf/CODA/ASL Adult Retreat with the help of Camp Aranzazu and their wonderfully experienced staff!

We are raising funds today for scholarships for the campers who will benefit greatly from this experience. If you or a child you know ever attended camp, there really is no explanation needed other than the kids in our part of the state cannot afford the funds for extracurricular activities like a weekend or week at camp. So, please join us as we begin the work of changing the world, one scholarship, one child, one family at a time.

Thank you Houston Texans for your support!