Yayyyy! Donna (Smith) Farris donated $100! She is an alumni of four Deaf Schools: Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and North Carolina. A secret to a lifetime friendship is through Deaf Schools! Find out how my best friend, Donna and I did to keep in touch for many years! ♥️
[Video Transcript]
Adonia: Hello! I’m here to announce that my best friend Donna (Smith) Farris has donated $100! She had already donated $100 some time ago, but now have donated again…that totaled $200! And what’s more, she promised me she will keep donating until she had contributed a total of $1,000! The reason: she wanted her name engraved in a brick with the info that she had attended four Deaf schools while growing up. So, that way the brick will be on display at the Primary Building (PB) that was once a part of old GSD campus! ASL Rose’s goal is to purchase PB and turn it into three divisions – National Deaf Schools Museum, a new home of GSD Museum, and ASL Rose studio/store!
Adonia: Donna and I have a special bond/friendship from 1970s to this year 2020, and I know our friendship will continue into the future, indefinitely! We grew up writing to each other for many, many years. She entered GSD first – that’s where we met! She has two Deaf brothers; their last name, like mine, is Smith. Once, I looked in a yearbook and saw that our pictures are placed together in a perfect row, with our last name in display. And I was the first picture in the row because of my first name Adonia! (Donna’s brother Chance was next to my picture, then Donna, then her other brother Tony!) I felt like they were my brothers and sister! (In spirit, of course!)
Adonia: Anyway, because Donna’s father was in the military, the Smith family had to move away but Donna and I continued to write to each other. Look at those letters from Donna! And I have lots of them that I saved in the box at home, too! That is just a handful I’m showing you now. From 1970s till today, though we also chatted via Videophone as well as texting to each other now. We kept in touch because of our connection through GSD! Deaf children should go to Deaf schools because they’ll develop a lifelong friendship with other Deaf students that will continue beyond the school! That is extremely important. If no friends, I don’t think they can continue very long. That is vital that they start a friendship from early age in a Deaf school and that friendship will grow for the rest of their lives! I’m so thankful for Deaf schools!
Adonia: Those letters Donna had written to me, I have kept every single of them! She wrote from different places, for example, in Kentucky. Remember, she went to four different Deaf Schools – Georgia School for the Deaf, Kentucky School for the Deaf, Florida School for the Deaf and North Carolina for the Deaf. This letter she wrote was from Kentucky in 1983. See? Neat, isn’t it. Another letter was from Florida in 1985. And this letter was from North Carolina in 1988! I absolutely loved receiving and reading letters from Donna! It is really neat to see how much she has changed as she grew older while writing letters to me over years! I asked her if she has kept my letters too, and she admitted she hasn’t. Oh well. I wish I could see my own letters and to see how I have changed over the years, too!
Adonia: Nevertheless, it’s exciting to know we will always be friends forever, and also that she have donated another $100! Thank you Donna again! ILY!
10 percent from all purchased ASL Rose products (www.aslrose.com/shop) will go to the National Deaf Schools Museum, and we also welcome ANY amount of donation toward the purchasing of the Primary Building (or PB for short).
Please help make a dream come true in purchasing and turning the PB into three divisions: the future National Deaf Schools Museum, a new home for GSD Museum, and also a new home for ASL Rose: https://www.facebook.com/donate/436509450618919/?fundraiser_source=external_url
