NCRA and its members give back through many projects and organizations. This month, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc., and the Julie Brandau Community Service Memorial Project are highlighted.
Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
On Aug. 29, NCRA sponsored the 22nd TDI Biennial Conference, held in Bethesda, Md.
The conference, which attracted hundreds of attendees, offered three days of panels and guest speakers addressing the latest issues affecting the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.
“NCRA has a long history of working with TDI to support the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, including shaping telecom policy recommendations of the Disability Advisory Council of the Federal Communications Commissions,” said Mathew R. Barusch, NCRA’s Manager, State Government Relations.
“NCRA is proud to support TDI and looks forward to a continued partnership,” he added.
National Disaster Search Dog Foundation
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated the Houston, Texas, area last week, two Julie Brandau Project–sponsored search dog teams, trained at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, have been deployed to the area to aid in search-and-rescue efforts.
The teams of Patti Kraft and Billy as well as Andi Sutcliffe and Skye joined two other canine teams from the Texas Task Force in San Antonio to await their deployment. The Dallas-based teams also joined rescue teams sent from Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego, Calif. A local news station aired a story about the duo did responding to tornadoes that struck Garland, Texas, in December 2015.
In addition, Kristi Bartlett and Ivan, based in Fairfax, Va., have been deployed in preparation for Hurricane Irma. Bartlett and Ivan have also been sponsored by the Julie Brandau Project, and they are “part of one of only two FEMA Task Forces in the United States that respond internationally,” according to the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. Bartlett and Ivan join teams from California, Pennsylvania, and New York.
The Julie Brandau Community Service Memorial Project was established by the court reporting community in honor of the court reporter who was murdered in an Atlanta, Ga., courtroom in 2005. The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation rescues high-energy dogs and trains them to become search-and-rescue canines for firefighters and other first responders at no cost to their agencies.
