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Hello Everyone !

Hope you are having a good summer so far. It has been a great summer for me as I went to several wonderful conferences both here and abroad. We are also having some exciting events coming up soon so I hope you will have the opportunity to attend them.

I attended the AGBELL Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was pleased to meet other wonderful deaf people in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Section of the AGBell as many of them were successful professionals and graduates of hearing universities. The conference was packed with interesting scientific workshops relating to cochlear implants and technology.

Immediately after the AGBell I attended the NAD Conference in Palm Desert, California at the beautiful resort there. It was well attended by a few thousand deaf and hard of hearing people and their workshops were mainly consumer-education related. Interesting and it was good seeing many old new friends from my old college days as well as the past WRAD activities.

After the NAD I flew to Europe and the Middle East for my vacation as well as giving a lecture in Tel Aviv, Israel about WRAD. I also attended the Deaf International History Conference in Berlin, Germany.

I arrived to Israel the day after the war broke out between Israel and the Hezbollah. I was advised by my American friends and relatives to leave Israel immediately because of the war but I decided to stay since I love Israel and want to show my love and support to the Jewish state. I stayed in Israel for two weeks and had a good time sightseeing and to meet deaf and hard of hearing people at deaf clubs and at the beach. I also attended the bar mitzvah of a friend's son at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I was in Tel Aviv when they had a big beach party with over 300 deaf people mainly to select the Israeli volleyball team to participate in the next Deaflympics in 2009. What amazed me the most was to meet a few DEAF soldiers serving in the Israeli military. Yes, Israel allowed for the deaf soldiers to serve but they were non-combat. At least they were given the opportunity to serve for their country. I was impressed.

After Israel I flew to Berlin, Germany with a stopover in Budapest. I was in Berlin for a week to attend the International Deaf History Conference and to see the sights after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In fact I was in Berlin when the Communists were in power and I have seen big changes in Berlin on my recent visit without both East and West Berlin. Berlin is now one big city and it is beautiful with many buildings making changes in the former East Berlin section. At the conference I met some survivors of the Holocaust of the Second World War and they gave emotional presentations about their experiences in Nazi Germany. About 300 people attended the conference and the next one will be in Sweden in 2008.

I am going to write my travel experiences in Hungary, Israel, and Germany in the Travel section of the WRAD website in the near future with enclosed pictures so look for them soon.

For those of you in California or planning to be in California, we will have the following fun activities lined up for you. They are as follows:

1. Saturday August 12th- Bike event from Santa Monica to Hermosa Beach round trip. Meet at Santa Monica Pier 9:30am as we will leave no later than 945am for the leisurely bike ride on the beach. Read the website for more details.

2. Saturday August 26- Beach party sponsored by both WRAD and Tri-County GLAD at Marina Beach in Ventura. This is a beautiful beach and we are planning fun activities for you. Hope to see you there. See the website for more details.

3. Saturday September 30th- WRAD is one of the sponsors of the Deafestival at Woodley Park in Van Nuys. This is an annual event and it is free. Good opportunity to meet old and new friends and to see many other exhibitions. Shows and lectures are planned too.

4. Saturday October 14th- Deaf and Hard of Hearing Day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. See this website for more details as we are hoping for a very good turnout of deaf and hard of hearing community and their friends and relatives. Tickets are now on sale through the website or request a flyer as we can mail you some.