Why NWTA weekend for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Men?
It was two men’s vision.
 
Greg Gondron and Roger Dobitz
Roger Dobitz and Greg Gondron envisioned and talked about holding a weekend for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing men.
Roger Dobitz, a hard-of-hearing man, is an advocate of hard of hearing people while Gondron is an educator/advocate of deaf. Both men had done the weekend training themselves.
It was not till 1997 when Chuck Daube was brought in to interpret for the first deaf man in Milwaukee. Like Dobitz and Gondron, he is an educator/advocate of deaf and had done the weekend training himself.
Two years later, Gondron joined Daube to interpret for Brian Determan in Houston (1999), and again for AJ Roupp in Washington, DC five years later (2004).
Brian Determan
AJ Roupp
In 2005, Gondron, Daube, and Determan were brought in to staff with Roupp at a NWTA weekend at Washington, DC for another deaf man, Windy Windhorn.
Unknown to them, there was another deaf man, who went through his weekend with during the same year at different time in different place.
First D/HH NWTA Weekend
From there, Gondron, Daube, Determan, and Roupp agreed to form a committee to make Gondron’s vision a reality. Since Dobitz shared the same vision, so he joined the committee afterwards.
With help from the Houston and Greater Washington communities, the committee made this vision a reality. They held the first Deaf/HH NWTA weekend on November 3-5, 2006 on the site of the Land of My Grandfathers (LOMG) near Houston, Texas.
First D/HH NWTA group
Among the 32 new initiates, 9 men were deaf. Among 41 men who staffed that weekend are 2 deaf and 1 hard-of-hearing man, 4 hearing men who served as interpreters, and 2 hearing men who are signers.
It was a roaring success!
The committee wholeheartedly agreed to offer a second Deaf/HH NWTA again this year.
Second D/HH NWTA Weekend
The second D/HH NWTA weekend was held again on November 9-11, 2007 at the Land of My Grandfathers. This weekend was very different from the first weekend in many respects and it was a success.
Second D/HH NWTA group
Among the 27 new initiates, 6 men were deaf, one man is hearing father of a deaf man who attended that same weekend, and another hearing man is an interpreter.
One of biggest changes is the make up of 40 staff men, which consisted of 13 men who staffed first D/HH weekend---those same men returned to staff for this second weekend, 7 deaf men (out of 7 deaf men, 5 returned first time as new staff men) and two hard-of-hearing men, 4 hearing men who served as interpreters, 4 hearing men who are CODA (children of Deaf adults), and 3 hearing men who are signers.
Due to the changes in the make up of staff men, the second weekend was conducted differently from the first weekend---which allowed more active participation of deaf staff men in weekend activities to make them more friendly and visible for deaf and hard-of-hearing men throughout the weekend.
Because of these efforts, a community of deaf warriors born as a result from the first and second weekend, and at this rate, if the committee continues offering D/HH weekends; it is foreseeable that this community will continue to grow.
The committee voted a new name and new logo, SILENT WARRIOR WEEKEND, to represent this ongoing endeavor---
Third D/HH NWTA Weekend
SILENT WARRIOR WEEKEND
The third D/HH NWTA now named SILENT WARRIOR WEEKEND was held again on the weekend of November 14-16, 2008 at the Land of My Grandfathers, brought a total of 26 deaf men already initiated so far.
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