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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

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