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Have a very Happy Thanksgiving
from the WRAD Board of Directors

We wish to thank many of you for your support in participating in our past exciting activities and events in 2005 so far.
They were as follows: Magic Mountain Amusement Park, Universal Studios Hollywood,. Halloween Costume Ball, Bicycling event at the beach, DHH Beach Day, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Professionals Gatherings at the Bungalow Club, Saddle Ranch Chop House, and the Barney's Beanery, Coffee Gatherings at Starbucks at Farmers Market and Porter Ranch as well as Pizza Nights.
We also want to thank our sponsors like , , the deaf and hard of hearing people and hearing people for their donations and contributions for our organization. We also had informational booths at Deafestival, Deafnation Expo, and other exhibitions promoting WRAD, Inc.

Have a great Thanksgiving and hope to see you in our upcoming activities and events.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gathering at the Grove

Saturday December 3, 2005

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gathering at the Grove to see the huge Christmas lighted tree and see the SNOW at 7pm and 8pm around the Christmas tree. A perfect place to bring your family and friends. DHH Gathering by the water fountain next to the Christmas tree.There are many restaurants for you to choose if you want to have dinner including the Cheesecake Factory, The Morels French Steakhouse, and many others at Farmers Market. Parking for a fee at the Grove with validation if you buy something. The Grove is near Beverly Drive and Fairfax next to Farmers Market.

The Grove welcomes winter to the west coast with the arrival of Los Angeles largest Christmas Tree! The 80 year old, 110 foot White Fir arrives November 1st after a long journey from McLeod, CA, near Mt. Shasta. Not to worry, the process is entirely ecologically sound. Come the end of the holiday season, the branches will become mulch, the trunk will become firewood, and back in the McLeod forest, 14 new White Firs will be planted and nurtured in the tree's original place and like magic! Speaking of magic, The Grove tree will be adorned with 15,000 lights and 10,000 ornaments, transforming it into the most beautiful Christmas Tree in the country!

The Grove has been Holiday Central in Los Angeles with its beautiful decoration s and warming atmosphere for the last three year. But this year, we're taking the holidays to the next level by out doing ourselves! A constellation of gold stars will illuminate First Street while giant topiary bears will herald the season throughout the property. A new tree base will accentuate the grandeur of the 110 foot tree adorned with brand new ornaments. Everyone's favorite spot to see snow in Los Angeles, will feature fresh flurries throughout the ENTIRE CENTER two times each night from November 20th through the beginning of January. Each tree in the Town Square will be reminiscent of Tavern on the Green as they glisten with 48,000 lights each. Santa will have a new enchanted home near the Angel Statue and be available for photos daily from November 20th-December 24th. The Grove's stunning Menorah will illuminate through the darkness as it gets lit on each night of Chanukah.

Need help finding your way to The Grove? Enter
your address below and we'll show you the way.
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Deaf and Hard of Hearing Dinner Night at the Brand New Greek Restaurant in Palmdale, CA

Thursday night December 8, 2005

Mythos Greek Cuisine 39340 10th Street West Palmdale CA 93551

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Dinner Gathering from 5pm to 9pm (At the Barnes and Nobles/ Staples Shopping Center on 10th Street West) Food Specializing in Authentic Home Made Greek and Mediterranean Cuisine Very REASONABLE prices!!!!!!! Enjoy this Greek food as it is a really good place to dine Greek food in Palmdale. The restaurant is brand new. Hearing people including parents and sign language students are welcome to attend too!!!!

A Fundraiser for the WRAD, Inc. organization. For more info, contact Bruce Gross at wradceo@aol.com
or Videophone 661-943-8879

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Holiday Cheers to celebrate the Holiday Season at the SaddleRanch ChopHouse................

Friday night December 9, 2005 6:00PM - 2:00AM

8371 Sunset Blvd (between Crescent Heights and La Cienega Blvds) in West Hollywood, California

It is a popular restaurant/bar where you "can ride the wild pony" on the mechanical bull for a small fee. The restaurant is on Sunset Strip- a perfect place for visitors to Los Angeles. ( They have delicious steaks and other food on the menu) There is also a fire pit outside where you can order s'mores if you like. The staff is friendly and the place gets very very crowded after 9pm so be sure to go there before 6pm if you want to have dinner and to find a place to park your vehicle at the restaurant for a small fee. You have to be 21 or over to enter in the evening hours. We will have our gathering outside the restaurant in the patio area next to the fire pit.

For more info contact Bruce Gross at brucegross@aol.com. Come one, come all. See you there and you can forward this message to others.

Saturday night December 10, 2005
8:00PM - 2:00AM

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gathering at the beautiful bar/restaurant in West Hollywood called THE ABBEY

692 N Robertson Boulevard
West Hollywood, California 90069
(between Santa Monica Blvd and Melrose)

"Sin is in the air" at everybody's favorite hangout" in West Hollywood where "beautiful boys" who look like they stepped off the cover of a magazine and act like it. Martinis are delicious but expensive around $12 per drink. It is impossible not to have a good time at this gay and gay-friendly guy central at Abbey's. The place looks like a church in an European country in the 1800's. You can have dinner there if you come early and they have delicious dessert too! Very crowded after 9pm so come early.No cover charge but you must be 21 or older to enter.

WRAD Bike Day on November 6th was a Success!

Our WRAD bicycle day was on Sunday November 6th and the bicycle path was beautiful with view of the Pacific.

We had a couple of people and one deaf scooter on this day. To my surprise there were many new faces (mostly Orange County residents) and a few old faces from Los Angeles riding the beach bike path along the beach.

The weather was warm and sunny in the morning but the fog rolled in the afternoon after 2:30pm. We stopped at the world famous Venice Beach to watch some excellent street performers. Some bicyclists stopped for lunch at the Redondo Beach Pier and Hermosa Beach . A few bicyclists gave up after they started riding from Santa Monica but many did make the 32 miles round trip from Santa Monica to Redondo Beach and back. Of course by the end of the bike day we were exhausted from the long ride but we felt very good especially riding 32 miles round trip. We had a splendid time.

I am more than happy to host a bike day again in the spring of 2006. Watch for our upcoming bike day activity to be posted on the WRAD website between March and May 2006.

Prepared by Reynaldo "Rey" Llarena, WRAD Chairman for Bike Day, and WRAD First Vice President>

We are starting a new group called the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Professionals Happy Hour once a month on the SECOND Friday of the month to meet other professionals in any field for the purpose of exchanging information and to have a good time.

New Location will be on Friday Nov 11, 2005 from 5pm until 2am

8447 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, California

It is on Santa Monica Blvd not far from La Cienega Blvd in West Hollywood, California There are 132 Imported and Domestic Beers with 22 Beers on Tap!!!!!! It is Los Angeles's premiere fun spot with BEST burgers and chili among other selections of food in town. Good food and good fun- VERY reasonable prices. Thanks to Monica Harr for the referral. Everyone is welcome including friends of the deaf and hard of hearing. For more info about the place you can visit the website at barneysbeanery. Free wireless internet on site. See you on Friday November 11th at Barney's Beanery Click here to visit their website.

For more information about the DHH-PHH group, contact Bruce Gross at wradceo@aol.com

Over 125 deaf and hard of hearing and some hearing people came to the WRAD's 4th Halloween Costume Ball on Friday night October 28th at the beautiful and huge Friendship Auditorium near Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Most came in costumes and cash prizes were given to the winners. The Grand Prize winner was Linda Kerstein who received a free Sidekick 2 pager from T-Mobile.

Bob Hiltermann, the deaf Hollywood actor performed magnificently as the Master of Ceremony. Many people in the audience enjoyed his performance and we also had breakdancers from the FlowCo. Entertainment with Alex Nevarez and his group who demonstrated excellent breakdancing skills after the costume contest ended.

Many of us were deaf but Joe Mc Roberts, himself deaf, was the head DJ providing great music to our ears and feet to feel the vibrations during the Halloween Ball. Some of people danced and many enjoyed feeling or listening to the music. Joe Mc Roberts also brought many of his Halloween life-sized monsters to the stage of Friendship Auditorium where Gino Giudice, also a deaf artist, did the background stage that was very professional and beautiful. Gino, who is the master in wearing creative costumes, surprised many people after he removed his home-made witch costume with a mask. Many did not recognize him when he was wearing the costume.

We had a special guest, Jerry Ferris, the TV celebrity from the Bachelorette TV show on ABC, who came to the Halloween Ball to meet and entertain with the guests. He is a CODA and is a very good signer. It was Sprint who sponsored Jerry Ferris to the event. Sprint also provided pictures of Jerry for him to autograph for the guests of the party. It was wonderful to have Jerry with us all night at the party and he was very friendly and loved to chat with everyone.

WRAD would like to thank the four sponsors who made contributions to the Halloween Ball. They are Sprint, T-Mobile, Los Angeles Councilman La Bonge and Joe Mc Roberts of his DJ music.

DJ Music: Joe McRoberts

The Judges for the evening were Bernard Bragg, Lilly Crisman, and Mary Ruth Summers.We also had volunteers to help with the event. They were Paul Davis, Anthony Natale, Rey Llarena, Marlene Riley, Richard Mercanto, Diane Gomez and her husband Salvador, Rudy Ramirez, and Misty Romero.

Both Bruce Gross, the Founder of the WRAD organization over 20 years ago and the current President/CEO, and Gino Guidice both were the Co-chairpersons of the Halloween Ball.

Rey Llarena, the 1st Vice President of WRAD, also took pictures of the Halloween Ball.He also is coordinating the WRAD website as the Webmaster. It was the 4th Halloween Costume Ball that the WRAD organization organized and we are thinking about hosting a 5th one within the next few years.

Click here to view more Halloween pictures #1 - 167kb
Click here to view more Halloween pictures #2 - 162kb

Greetings from the Chair of the 2006 Convention! First, I would like to thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity to serve in the role of Chairperson of the 2006 U.S. Deaf Ski and SnowboardAssociation (USDSSA) convention. It is great to be chosen as Chair, especially given that the location of the convention will be Telluride. It is a town full of world class ski slopes and is located in San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado. The town is on the edge of paradise a place filled with the awesome force of natures artistry, the mountains, people filled with gentle spirits, great lifestyle with warm hearts. Telluride, once earned its livelihood as a base for mining and is now a recreation mecca filled with wintertime adventure.

It is a major ski resort and in the evenings you will be able to stroll through a charming Victorian town filled with examples of its fascinating past and modernistic ammenities that actually dip into the future. I can say this because I was there and its simply a wonderfully appealing site for our ski convention. It is not too early to consider serving on the committee as it will be a great group of people working together.

Please feel free to email me at StephenHlibok@usdssa.org if you are interested in being part of this positive process and event. More details will be announced during the 2004 convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. Meanwhile, why not insert www.tellurideskiresort.com as a favorite bookmark. Afterall, it is not too early for me to say "Welcome to the Telluride, 2006 USDSSA Convention!" For more information, Click here

Courtesy by: Stephen Hilbok, Chairperson 2004 USDSSA.

Convention of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the
Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Pittsburgh, PA June 23-27, 2006

Build your bridge to the 2006 Convention with a presentation proposal designed to inform education and hearing health professionals, parents and adults with hearing loss about trends and current practices in the field of deafness and spoken language. For more information, Click here

Greetings fellow members of the DEAFLYMPICS family, The 2007 Deaflympics Organizing Committee has been very busy this year. With all the support we now have, the 2007 Deaflympic Winter Games should become one of the very best ever staged!

I want to share with you what our committee has accomplished so far:

The 2007 Deaflympics headquarters hotel will be Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City, an 880 room hotel which also was used for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. We have a great deal with the hotel, which includes unlimited gourmet buffet breakfasts and dinners. Little America Hotel will be an "Olympic Village" where athletes can meet, relax, and socialize. Teams staying at Little America Hotel will be provided with free bus transportation to the competition venues and ceremonies. More information on Little America Hotel and the costs, which include meals, is available in our website, 2007 Deaflympics
The Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony will be at the 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park, 5 minutes from Little America Hotel. This will be a gala event with lighting of the Deaflympic flame on the 2002 Olympics cauldron.
The alpine skiing and snowboarding competition will be at Park City Mountain Resort, and most of the competition events will be held on the same courses used during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Park City is a 25 minute ride from Little America Hotel.
The Nordic skiing competition will be at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, and will use the same courses used in the 2002 Olympics. Soldier Hollow is a 45 minute drive from Little America Hotel.
The ice hockey and curling competition will be at Steiner's Ice Arena in Salt Lake City, which is a 5 minute ride from Little America Hotel.
Several entertaining arts and culture events will be held in Salt Lake City during the Deaflympics week; art shows, International Deaf Club, International Deaf Coffeehouse, Deaf theatre, and more. All arts and culture events will be held either in Little America Hotel or within a short walk of the hotel.
After the Closing Ceremony, there will be a gala closing banquet followed with a closing party at the Salt Lake City Convention Center, a few blocks from Little America Hotel.

Little America Hotel is now accepting room reservations from both teams and fans, and room reservations may be booked. Because Little America Hotel is in the center of most 2007 Deaflympics activities and will provide teams staying at the hotel with free transportation to competition venues, I strongly encourage teams to make their reservations at Little America Hotel as soon as they can, before the hotel releases rooms not reserved to Deaflympic Games fans and other visitors to Salt Lake City. I look forward to seeing you all in Salt Lake City USA February 1-10, 2007!

Courtesy by: Dwight Benedict, Chairperson 2007 Deaflympic Winter Games Organizing Committee.