Hearing-impaired students are in good hands
Evan Andrews
Correspondent
Although they may have many
different professors, deaf students at
Cape Fear Community College and
UNC-Wilmington get all their class
lectures from the hands of one man:
interpreter Joe Malott. For almost
one year now, Malott has operated
Good Hands, an interpreting ser
vice for the deaf and hard-of-hear-
ing community in Wilmington.
“I consider myself a deaf advo
cate,” said Malott, 30. “It used to be
if you were deaf you’d get pushed to
the side.. .People just didn’t under
stand.”
Malott knows the deaf perspec
tive well, having been around it his
whole life. Bom in Dayton, Ohio,
Malott grew up in a family where
both parents were deaf, as well as
one of his three brothers. As a child
he learned to talk through interac
tion with his grandmother and other
kids in the neighborhood, but by age
3 he was already signing to his par
ents, and he learned sign language
at a very young age. Growing up,
Malott would act as an interpreter
for his parents and brother, helping
them to communicate with those
who could not sign.
“It was definitely different,”
Malott said. “When the phone
would ring there would be lights
in the house blinking.. but looking
back it was a neat experience.”
Malott spent his youth in Ohio
working an assortment of jobs. Sign
language came so naturally to him
that he did not consider making a
job out of it for some time, but he
eventually decided to see if he could
make a living as an interpreter.
“I finally realized I might be able
to make a profession out of this gift
that I had,” Malott said. After attend
ing an interpreter-training program
at Sinclair Community College in
Ohio and getting licensed, he went
to work in the Dayton area.
Malott moved to Wilmington a
year ago and soon started his own
business. Good Hands Interpreting.
He teaches sign language, often
doing workshops for people who
work with the handicapped, as well
as one-on-one teaching with adults
or children at any level. He works
with a variety of clients, but the
majority of his time is spent at
Cape Fear Community College and
UNCW, interpreting class lectures
for deaf students as well as inter
preting speeches and assemblies,
including the last UNCW com
mencement.
“Without sign language inter
pretation, deaf students do not have
access to verbal parts of their educa
tion,” said Virginia Lundeen, stu
dent manager of UNCW’s Disability
t m
Nicole Smith I THE SEAHAWK
Joe Malott practices ASL back and forth with Tonya Caddie, a junior political science major. For a
year he has been operating Good Hands, an interpreting service that also helps UNCW students.
Services. “Our interpreters provide
that access.”
Recently, Malott has made a
number of music videos for the
deaf, wherein he tapes himself sign
ing the lyrics of whatever kind of
music a person has chosen.
“Deaf people can’t hear the
music, but they can feel it,” he said.
“It’s kind of like painting a picture
of the song, so they can enjoy music,
too.”
In a city like Wilmington, where
there are fewer than ten working
interpreters, Malott hopes to start an
agency that employs the interpreters
and finds jobs for them, as in other
cities.
“I just want to raise the bar,” he
said.
In the meantime, Malott will
continue to interpret and assist the
deaf, just as he did for his own fam
ily when he was growing up
“My heart is in it,” he said. “I
feel like I’m making a difference.”
‘One Tree Hill’ stars bring Wilmington together for a good cause
Melanie Bussi
Staff writer
The studios of Wilmington are
one of the largest in the United
States, producing over 300 high pro
file television, feature films, com
mercials and music videos in the
last 20 years. At the moment. Screen
Gem Studios, located on North 23rd
Street, is filming the second season
of the WB’s hit television series,
One Tree Hill,” which airs Tuesday
nights at 9 p.m.
The star of the show, Chad
Michael Murray, who has also graced
%
"One Tree Hill" star
Chad Michael Murray
holds games to raise
funds for local charities.
the big screen in movies such as
“Freal^ Friday” and “A Cinderella
Story,” hosted an all-star celebrity
football game to raise money for
Hunter’s Hope and the Pop Warner
League. The teams consisted of
Murray himself, as well as many of
his fellow cast members and crew.
Cingular Wireless at Ashley High
School sponsored the charity event
on Saturday Oct. 23,2004.
UNCW biology major Emily
Leclair said, “I came to this event
to help raise money for the charity
event and to try and meet some of
the “One Tree Hill” cast. 1 only got
a photo with Barbara Alyn Woods,
[who plays Deb Scott,] but it was
worth it.”
Hunter’s Hope is an organiza
tion established by ex- Buffalo Bills
quarterback, Jim Kelly, and his wife,
Jill, for Krabbe Leukodystrophy.
Krabbe Leukodystrophy is a geneti
cally acquired incurable disease
that affects the nervous system and
can cause blindness, deafness, loss
of motor skills, etc. Hunter’s Hope
works to inform the public and raise
money for future research on the
disease. More information can be
found at www.huntershope.org.
“I heard about this event on TV
and thought it would be fun to check
it out. I’m a nursing major, so what
really interested me was the fact
that they were raising money'for
two good causes, the Pop Warner
League and Hunter’s Hope. So
not only do you get to meet some
celebrities from the local TV show,
“One Tree Hill,” but you are donat
ing money for a good cause,” said
UNCW senior Heather Honeycutt.
“1 wish more celebrities would
use their popularity for such great
opportunities as Chad Michael
Murray and the rest of the “One
Tree Hill” cast has done.”