When Rachel returned from Ghana in 2008, she brought home some beautiful fabrics from different cities in Ghana: Accra (the capital), Mampong (where the School for the Deaf is located), and Aburi. Rachel used the fabrics to create three beautiful quilts, which are being auctioned on eBay to help support Signing Time Foundation’s Operation Ghana 2012 with Signs of Hope International. The funds will be used to help deaf children in Ghana attend the School for the Deaf where they can learn sign language. The quilt auction ends on January 12th. Bid now!

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1/17/2012
Rachel’s quilts received a total of 47 bids and brought in almost $800 in funds for the Signing Time Foundation’s Operation Ghana. Woo hoo!

Why I want to go to Ghana – by Ellie Brumett (age 14)

I want to go to Ghana because it’s a good experience. I also want to improve the lives of the deaf kids in Ghana as much as I can. I have been interested in Sign Language ever since I was little. My mom taught me a lot and so did Signing Time. It was very cool in 2005 when I met Leah Coleman at the Signing Time Family Camp. We became instant friends.

As our friendship has developed over the years so have my signing abilities. Having Leah as a friend has really encouraged me to learn more ASL. I am happy that I get to go with Rachel and Leah (and my mom) to Africa. I have a lot of Deaf friends here in Minnesota that I enjoy signing with and I think it is amazing that kids in Ghana have a chance to learn sign language! I am looking forward to talking with them and seeing their view of the world. I have never been out of the USA, so I am scared, but I’m mostly excited to go on this wonderful trip.

If you would like to help Ellie participate in Operation Ghana with Signs of Hope International, you can make a tax-deductible donation here:

or buy the Limited Edition Pin:

When Sara Nelson Cosmi made this post on our Facebook page, she grabbed our attention!

I just wanted to share a quick story. My husband is a firefighter/EMT and went on a call last night to a house with hearing impaired patients. He was able to communicate with them, asking them “where does it hurt” and spelling out simple words all from watching Baby Signing Time with our daughter. It’s really neat to know that not only is Signing Time teaching our children but we gain from it as well. It encourages us to keep learning ASL and hopefully our children will continue to learn it as a second language. Thank You!

• Tell us about your family. How did you get started with signing?
  Jeff and I married about 5 and 1/2 years ago and moved from Portland, OR to a little town just North called La Center. We both actually work in Longview, WA, Jeff as a firefighter and I am a letter carrier with the USPS. When we were pregnant with our daughter we were already talking about trying to teach her some basic signs.  Neither Jeff or I knew any signs, I think I remembered part of the alphabet from when I was in elementary school but that was all we knew. We had heard that signing really helped communication and that Lily would benefit from it in so many ways. So we bought a basic sign with your baby book. After Lillian was born a couple people had told us about baby signing time, so we bought the first volume to try it out. Lily loved watching baby signing time, she quickly learned a few signs and we bought volumes 2 and 3. By a year and a half Lily was a signing machine (we aren’t biased or anything).  Me and Jeff were learning a lot too, it was really cool, we knew animals and foods and colors! Lillian is now 2 1/2 and has a baby brother, Baker, who we are turning onto the DVDs. Lily sings the songs to him and is a big help in trying to teach him.
• So what happened when your husband went out on the call you posted about?
  A drunk driver had crashed into the side of someone’s house in the middle of the night and landed in a gentleman’s bedroom. The man, his wife and their daughter were all hearing impaired. When Jeff arrived on scene he found out that the family was deaf and asked the man, in sign language, “Where does it hurt?” The man promptly showed him and after they got him stable, Jeff asked, “Where is your I.D?” by signing ‘where’ and then spelling out I.D. The family was able to communicate really well, Jeff said that they were able to read lips fairly well and that they had paper and pens to write stuff out, too. The paramedics came and took over with the gentleman (he was the one in the bed when the car came through the wall) and Jeff tried talking with the wife a bit. She asked him to tell her husband to call on his phone when he got to the hospital and Jeff was able to do so.
• What was your husband’s reaction to this?
  Jeff doesn’t really feel like he did anything special. He was able to make some people feel more comfortable because he was able to communicate, however small it may have been, with them at a difficult time and it was all from watching Baby Signing Time with our daughter. Jeff never thought that he would need to use signing on the job but was excited to be able to and is ready to learn more.
• How else has signing impacted your family?
  It is really neat to us to be at a gathering or a restaurant and be able to communicate across the room. Or for us to look across the playground and tell Lily to ‘share with her friend’ or ask her to say please. Signing is an awesome way to communicate and we are anxious to learn more. Thank you for helping our family open our eyes to another world..signing!

Carissa Martos has been invited to go with the Signing Time Foundation to Ghana in January of 2012,  in partnership with Signs of Hope International to help provide tuition and supplies for students who cannot afford to attend a School for the Deaf.

“When the Ghana trip with the Signing Time Foundation presented itself, I leaped at the chance. I solicited donations from my interpreting classmates, from families I’d worked with, and from my friends and family. I set up a page on my website, explaining the purpose trip and the mission of Signs of Hope. I went to a trade show, sold DVDs and solicited donations on Black Friday weekend and the one after. My daughter Rory made a video about the trip, and we asked for money towards the trip in lieu of Christmas gifts.

The donations were eeking along, and then we received a donation from the mother of my husband’s late best friend, Tony. Tony had passed away in a diving accident 2.5 years ago, after he and my husband had been friends for 20 years, and his mother felt this was something her son would have been excited to see happen. We’ve almost made our goal, and are hopeful we’ll make it!”

As of press time, Carissa is within $1000 of her fund-raising goal.
Donate directly to Carissa’s fund:

Donors who contribute $50 or more will receive a limited edition pin!

About Signs of Hope International

About Carissa

“When Signing Time opened the door to the world for my son, Julian, I became as involved as it seemed possible to be. I joined the Signing Time Academy, became the Northwest Region’s Associate Director, and I was grateful for the opportunity to serve in that role until November of 2011. I saw children’s lives change as they were able to “talk” for the first time. I watched their families become closer, happier. When I was able to teach an older gentleman with disabilities his first 200 signs, and he was finally able to start communicating with the outside world, I felt I was reaching people.

It didn’t feel like enough, though, so I began taking more ASL classes at my local college, joined a Deaf Dragonboating team, started volunteering with our local Deaf-Hearing Outreach, and at our local School For the Deaf, and my family moved to the Deaf service at our church. It still didn’t feel like I was contributing enough to the community that was so welcoming to my son and our family. After putting on my first STA Community Concert in Seattle, and seeing the hundreds of people that event touched, I knew I’d found a way to reach more people about the usefulness of ASL as a language, and the simple fact that Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do, except hear.

As the Foundation’s Signing Time Academy Outreach coordinator, I was fortunate enough to help in the set up 12 concerts in 2011. We reached thousands of families, some for the first time, and I felt touched to be able to support the marvelous women who took on the planning of these concerts. More are in planning stages for 2012, but I realized that I still wanted to do more.

In spring I applied to the Sign Language Interpreting Program at our local college, and began the program this fall. With classes not only in ASL and interpreting, but in Linguistics, Fingerspelling and Deaf Culture, and field experience hours, I finally felt like I was able to see where I was going to fit in among the people with whom my family spends so much of our time.”

This guest blog post is by Jennifer Richards Sanchez and is part of our Making a Difference series.

After the birth of my daughter, Ava-now 20 months old, I was talking with a woman at my work (Becky Sawruck) whose son, Aidan, is hearing impaired. She said that the Signing Time series had made a huge impact on their life and enabled early communication with their son. I think Aiden knew close to two hundred signs by the time he was just two years old. Becky loaned me the Baby Signing Time DVDs to start with and we began watching them when Ava was around 6 months old. We have now collected all but four DVDs between both series, and Ava just soaks it all up with amazing retention. Her favorite DVD is Leah’s Farm She insists on fast-forwarding to the songs and grabbing everyone in the room, forcing us all into one big dance off! No one sits it out when that video is on!

I posted my story on the Signing Time Facebook Page because it was so touching:

Today at the Botanic Gardens, my daughter Ava and I met a 5-year-old girl who had a trach (a small tube in her neck through which she breathes due to respiratory failure). Because of the trach, she was unable to speak, but she could SIGN! I am sure Ava was staring at her neck with a confused look on her face and as a result the little girl signed to her mom that Ava was SAD. The mom told the little girl that Ava was not sad, and Ava chimed in by saying “hap” and signing HAPPY. I told them that we were excited to see the flowers and all the water ponds and waterfalls. Ava squealed and signed EXCITED!! The little girl giggled at Ava and her mom said, “You guys must watch Signing Time!”  It was amazing to watch Ava connect with and ‘talk’ to that little girl!

We are hoping to become fluent, keeping sign language as a second language for our family. With that as a goal, we are planning on taking a sign language class at the community college this fall to expand our signing and work on technique and everyday conversation. Watching the DVDs has kept us so motivated! Signing Time has been so motivating that my adult step children watch the videos with Ava when they visit, and two of the kids have enrolled in college sign language classes in order to better communicate with their sister. They also plan on teaching their children to sign in the future.

-Jennifer