BY RICHARD TYLER
Some days everything goes just right and you know you have been blessed. That is what happened to me a few weeks back when I was enjoying a cup of coffee and some conversation at my local Starbucks with a friend. That friend is Sheila Johnstone. Having known Sheila for a number of years I was well aware of her capabilities. She is a remarkable woman with a boundless amount of energy and talent to match. I was also aware of Sheila’s work in teaching American Sign Language over the years. As a matter of fact, when speaking of her teaching abilities with ASL, Sheila told me, “It’s always well and good to have knowledge of a subject, but in addition I have Kareena Heath, Kathy Walters and Darla Conner to thank for my abilitities to teach ASL. They are dear and important mentors to me, and I thank them.”
On this day Sheila was sharing with me a need she saw in the community for education classes, open to everyone that had interest in learning to communicate with someone that is deaf or hard of hearing. She thought those interested in learning would come from family and friends but also from the business community. Sheila thought businesses would be interested in hiring the deaf if they could learn to effectively communicate with them. As a former Chairman and a current Advisory Board Member of Be An Angel™ the conversation had special meaning to me. You see, Be An Angel™ ‘s “Mission is to improve the quality of life for children with multiple disabilities or profound deafness by providing wheelchairs, hearing aids and other adaptive equipment and select services to individuals and institutions that require a supplement to alternative means of funding.”
As you might imagine we both thought it would be a great undertaking for the Charity. Sheila generously offered her services and I made the calls and set up the meetings. Marti Boone, the Executive Director of Be An Angel™ was enthusiastic once we explained the idea. Of course, we needed a location. We all agreed that T.H.Rogers School would be perfect. T.H.Rogers School has a Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing which serves students of all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds from age 3 through Middle School. Be An Angel™ works with T.H.Rogers School on many programs throughout the year for both the profoundly deaf children an the children with multiple disabilities and their families. Marti contacted David Muzyka, the Principal for T.H.Rogers School. Dave is a fantastic Principal and a genuinely nice human being. He loved the idea and offered to host the Program. And as they say,”The rest is history.”
The article below is from The Houston Chronicle and it will give you some important information about the Program and American Sign Language. We are all very grateful to them for their coverage and to Flori Meeks for writing the piece. It will also give you a glimmer of insight into Sheila Johnstone, a wonderful person who always seems to give back more than she ever expects in return.
SPECIAL NOTE: As of the time I am writing this intro the positive response from the community has been overwhelming. We have five times the number of participants than we expected for the first course and they are still rolling in. Sheila has enlisted an assistant, Stacie Rieger, to help out with one on one teaching needs and Be An Angel™ is setting up dates for the next Program.
I am very pleased that Richard Tyler International, Inc.® is able to underwrite this Program. I’ll finish as I started; “Some days everything goes just right and you know you have been blessed.” I just had one of those days.
