Signing their Way to Success
28/11/2011
The Dee-Sign British SIGN Language choir is celebrating after winning a national competition for the second year in a row, coming away once again with the coveted Gold Award scoring (90).
Dee-Sign Choir, based at Chester Deaf Centre, was crowned champions of the Open Class Section of The Jersey Eisteddfod on Saturday, November 12th, 2011.
“One of our Deaf members, who has been in the choir for ten years, was selected to go up and receive the award, he was so proud and held it up high, and did not want to leave the stage.” said Anne Hesketh, Choir Director.
“I am sure as a Deaf person, he never imagined being on stage at the Jersey Opera House receiving a cup for performing to music.
We all came away very happy, but sad our time in Jersey was coming to an end”
The choir, which has 64 members, and a waiting list, raised funds, and sought sponsorship in order to attend the competition. A wonderful amount £12,201.35p. was donated to enable all the volunteers in the choir to enjoy the weekend for free(details of this sponsorship can be viewed on the choir website www.deesignchoir.co.uk Their uniform was also sponsored by Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service. The weather was wonderful, and the hotel was excellent, and they all managed to cram a lot of fun into the weekend. Following the competition the Judge, Dr.Paul Whittaker OBE, of the charity ‘Music & the Deaf’ held a Master Class and all benefited from his teaching, and the fun generated by him and his interpreter Andy Higgins.
This year the choir also entered the 18 and under Class, with their 14 young members ‘Dee-Sign Dynamix’ who were only formed in February but came away with a silver Award (85)
The choir does brilliant work promoting Deaf Awareness and the beauty of British Sign Language (BSL) as well as raising much needed funds for Chester & District Committee for Deaf People and Deafness Support Network having raised over £150,000 since its formation in 1997.
Anne Hesketh – Director.