  {"id":53463,"date":"2016-11-29T10:57:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T20:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=53463"},"modified":"2020-03-05T16:00:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T02:00:07","slug":"american-sign-language-elf-concierges-brighten-the-holiday-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/11\/29\/american-sign-language-elf-concierges-brighten-the-holiday-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"American Sign Language elf concierges brighten the holiday spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_53523\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53523\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kapiolani-deafsanta-readinglist.jpg\" alt=\"Santa reading a Christmas wish list\" width=\"620\" height=\"442\" class=\"size-full wp-image-53523\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kapiolani-deafsanta-readinglist.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kapiolani-deafsanta-readinglist-260x185.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53523\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa looks over wish list at the annual <em>Yes Virginia, There is a Deaf Santa Claus!<\/em> event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"clear-photo\">Several American Sign Language (ASL) students and interpreters from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> Community College<\/a> will serve as &ldquo;elf concierges&rdquo; at the 25th annual <em>Yes Virginia, There is a Deaf Santa Claus!<\/em> event. The event is scheduled for December 8, 10 a.m.&#8211;12 p.m. at the <a href=\"http:\/\/pearlridgeonline.com\/events-news\/event\/25th-anniversary-deaf-santa-celebration\">Pearl Ridge Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Many of the children who chatted with Deaf Santa when they were young, now have keiki\u00a0of their own or are performers for the Deaf Santa&#8217;s show,&rdquo; said Jan Fried, one of the event&#8217;s organizers. &ldquo;It is a heartfelt experience to see parents burst into tears while they watch their children chat with Deaf Santa in <abbr>ASL<\/abbr>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Golden Circle of Angels, the performers and organizations\/sponsors that have supported this event for all 25 years, will also be at the event.<\/p>\n<h2>Yes Virginia, There is a Deaf Santa Claus!<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_53522\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53522\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kapiolani-deafsanta-event.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" height=\"241\" class=\"size-full wp-image-53522\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kapiolani-deafsanta-event.jpg 310w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/kapiolani-deafsanta-event-260x202.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53522\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keiki participate in performance activites<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first event occurred in 1991 at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hsdb.k12.hi.us\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> School for the Deaf and the Blind<\/a>, formerly known as the Statewide Center for Students with Visual and Hearing Impairments.<\/p>\n<p>In 1992, Pearl Ridge Center partnered with the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> School for the Deaf and Blind to develop a holiday event catering to all communities. Every second Thursday in December, for the past 25 years, Pearl Ridge Center and its management team have created elaborate sets, provided incredible promotion and arranged for special treats for the children. For the past three years, Pearl Ridge Center Merchants Association have also sponsored the school buses that transport children and their teachers to watch the performances.<\/p>\n<p>This year, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaiipublicschools.org\/Pages\/Home.aspx\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> State Department of Education<\/a> approved funding to bring neighbor island children and their teachers to <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> for Deaf Santa&#8217;s 25th celebration.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Louise Yamamoto<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students from Kapi&#699;olani <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> connect with the deaf community at the <em>Yes Virginia, There is a Deaf Santa Claus!<\/em> event. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[63,214,71],"class_list":["post-53463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-language","tag-uh-community-colleges","entry","no-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53463"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112598,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53463\/revisions\/112598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}