Getting organized
In 1987, Carmel, Ginnie, and Melanie attended a speech reading class that Barbara Eisenmenger at the University of Louisville and some of her students were conducting. Also in the class were Judy Rogers, Adele Loring (Judy's mother), and Layne Michler, all of whom decided to join our fledgling group. At Ginnie's suggestion, the group was finally given a name, Derbytown SHHH, and Barbara was persuaded to be the group's professional advisor. Barbara is still with the group and was often the only reason the group kept going! Soon afterward, Reva and Marvin Kruer joined the group. Ann Rosenbaum and Lois Straus also joined early on.

Still, the group remained primarily a support group. Communication was difficult. There were no captioners then, and no one knew sign language. No one had a TDD or even knew anything about them. Email and the Internet were still in the future, and few people had a computer at home, anyway. Because there was no way to communicate effectively, getting speakers was mostly out of the question. Still, in retrospect, some progress was made. The group received twice-yearly lists of prospects from SHHH national and faithfully wrote letters inviting these people to meetings. Few new members were gained this way, however. By 1989, officers had been elected: Melanie Magruder became president, Judy Rogers was vice president, and Reva Kruer was secretary-treasurer. The group began a letter-writing campaign to get the television stations to caption their local news. It wasn't long before one station began captioning its news. Captioning had been in the works at that particular station before we began writing the letters, so Derbytown really can't take credit for that. However, the other stations followed suit and began captioning their news within about a year. Several members bought TDDs (the huge, noisy ones from the early days) and thus had a way to communicate with each other between meetings, although we still couldn't communicate with hearing people as there was no relay. But the clunky TDDs were quicker than writing letters and postcards to each other. Melanie began sending out a rudimentary "newsletter" (or more often than not, just a postcard!) on a monthly basis.

Moving along
Theresa Kidwell (then Queenan) joined Derbytown SHHH in 1990 and was elected president of the group in 1991. Her vice-president was Layne Michler, and her secretary-treasurer was Ann Rosenbaum. Theresa continued to send out a newsletter and then persuaded Roland Fowler to take it over. As editor, Roland put out the group's first professional-looking newsletter. Theresa remembers that SHHH national was very picky about the way the newsletter was printed (a copy was sent to them each month), and Roland had to abide by their stylistic rules. Theresa had more contacts in the HOH/Deaf world than most of us and was able to get speakers for some monthly meetings; other meetings were "rap" sessions that were issue-oriented, not just the "complaining and commiserating" of the early days. All these were good changes. Theresa says, "I just know I was able to keep the group going and that is an accomplishment for all of us who have served as president."

Theresa was also the SHHH representative on the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (KCDHH) from 1990 through 1995. In 1994-95, she was president of the commission.

David Bayersdorfer followed Theresa as president in 1993. Theresa became vice-president, and Lois Straus became secretary-treasurer. David continued to get interesting speakers for our monthly meetings, most notably executives from the local television stations. We had some success in getting them to improve their captioning of the local news. David improved communication at the meetings by getting a loop system (assistive listening system) with money from an anonymous donor. Barbara Eisenmenger, our professional advisor, also used an overhead projector to summarize what was said at the meetings. Many people preferred the loop system; others did not benefit that much from it and preferred to read what was written on the overhead projector.

Gathering steam
Mary Lee Nelson, a relatively new Derbytown member, became president in 1995, because as Mary Lee jokes, "I was the only person who would do it!" David Bayersdorfer moved down to vice-president. The secretary-treasurer position was split; Theresa Kidwell became secretary, and Lois Straus remained as treasurer.

A lot of good things happened when Mary Lee took charge. For one thing, she saw the need for real-time captioning, and found a captioner, Teri Hockersmith, who was willing to donate her services to caption our meetings. We had been meeting at Harvey Browne Presbyterian Church, but the rooms there were not equipped for captioning. Mary Lee discovered that the Metro United Way Building downtown had a projector for captioning, and we began meeting there. The room cost $25 an hour, however, and Father Fowler at Trinity Catholic Church offered to pay for it until we could find a free meeting place. Teri Hockersmith eventually moved to another state, but the captioners at McLendon-Kogut Captioning agreed to take turns captioning our meetings for free. They are still with the group, and we are very grateful for their faithfulness.

Mary Lee worked to expand and update the chapter's newsletter. Jay Kidwell, Theresa's husband, began editing the newsletter during this period. Also during this period, Roland Fowler developed a Derbytown web site.

During her term as president, Mary Lee, a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, was active on a state level. She served on various committees in Frankfort at the KCDHH and the Kentucky Department of Education. In all of these committees, her concern was getting attention to the needs of hard of hearing kids, who were often lost in the shuffle. After serving as president, she was appointed as the first state coordinator for Kentucky SHHH groups/chapters. She set up a state web site to connect 300+ Kentucky SHHH members and also wrote and edited a state newsletter. As state coordinator, she saw the Northern Kentucky SHHH group reactivated and the formation of new groups in Frankfort and Danville, thanks to the hard work of local hard of hearing people in these areas. However, all three of these groups eventually disbanded.

Mary Lee set up the chapter's first official election at the end of her term so that we could become an official SHHH chapter. Carla Frizzle was elected. Carla wrote the bylaws for the chapter and sent in the application for chapterhood. Donna Sorkin, who was then Executive Director of SHHH national, was in Louisville in November 1997 and came to our meeting to present a chapter charter. It was a memorable meeting!

Carla's vice-president was Louise Wisdom, Mary Mahorney was secretary, and Judy Rogers was treasurer. Carla was a very capable president, and we had some interesting meetings during this period. This was also a time when we become more aware of educating the public about hearing loss and advocating for our rights.

Louise Wisdom was elected Derbytown president in 1999, and became a KCDHH commissioner as well. Reva Kruer was vice-president, Hazel Tucker was secretary, and Judy Rogers remained as treasurer. At this time, Melanie Magruder began editing the newsletter.

Louise was soon challenged with finding a free meeting place, as Trinity Catholic Church's funding commitment was running out. The group began meeting at the Louisville Free Public Library, which has a room that is equipped for captioning.

Making a difference
During her presidency, Louise focused on educating community service providers about hearing loss, particularly health care providers, policemen, firemen, and librarians. Captioning of the local news continued to be an issue of concern for the chapter, and Vice Pres Reva Kruer worked hard on getting local stations to improve their captioning. She arranged a tour of WHAS-TV for Derbytown members so they could see how captioning was done in the studio. In May 2000, Paula Esterle organized an outreach activity in conjunction with Better Speech and Hearing Month. Many volunteers from Derbytown worked with Jewish Hospital's Healthy Lifestyle Centers, Easter Seals, Derbytown's professional advisor Barbara Eisenmenger with Louisville Audiological Associates, and other local hearing aid dealers to offer free hearing screenings to the public and raise awareness of hearing health issues. In August 2000, Melanie Magruder wrote an article about what medical personnel can do to make communication with hard of hearing patients easier. Mary Lee Nelson put it on the Kentucky SHHH web site, and a small portion of it was included in the Kentucky Hospital Association newsletter.

By this time, Derbytown was well into public education and advocacy. Paula Esterle was invited to attend the leadership training course at the SHHH national office in Bethesda Maryland, and thus was well prepared when she was elected Derbytown president in 2001. Dale Hottle was her vice president, Melanie Magruder was secretary, and Judy Rogers was once again elected treasurer.

Paula continued with the community service provider education plan that Louise Wisdom had begun. The confusing, sporadic captioned coverage of the events of September 11, 2001 prompted Derbytown members to contact area TV stations about the situation and to stay in touch with them afterwards. Along with KCDHH commissioner Trish Freeman and other members of the deaf and hard of hearing community, Derbytown members lobbied for legislation that mandated health insurance coverage for hearing aids for those aged 18 and under. The bill was passed in 2002. Paula Esterle and Merle Williams appeared on the radio show "Savvy Seniors" to address hearing loss. Paula, Judy Rogers, Jayan Thomas, and Ed Schickel made a presentation to HUD on the necessity of accommodating persons with hearing loss. In August 2003, Derbytown members volunteered to staff the KCDHH booth at the Kentucky State Fair, where many folks learned how to contact SHHH and received free hearing aid batteries, which proved to be a major draw.

Fund raising became a necessity. Judy Rogers has taken yard sales as her pet project, and now holds annual yard sales to benefit Derbytown. A silent auction was held at Derbytown's holiday party in 2002, and has become an annual tradition. Derbytown has been fortunate in having Hazel Tucker, our long-term social chairman, and Judy Rogers, who in addition to being the Yard Sale Queen, has helped with social activities as well as holding various other offices.

As more Derbytown members have gone online, we have better communication and have been able to trim costs. Most members now receive their newsletters by email. Mary Lee Nelson started both a statewide and a Derbytown email list, and she was the webmaster of both the state and Derbytown web sites. Across the country, SHHH leaders can learn from others' expertise through the SHHH leadership email list. Through the Internet, more inquiries are coming in each month and the officers work to inform people of the advantages of belonging to SHHH, the nation's largest consumer organization for hard of hearing people.

Becoming more business-like and media oriented
In 2003, Ed Schickel was elected president. At the same time, our long-term state SHHH coordinator, Mary Lee Nelson, resigned and turned the job over to Paula Esterle. Judy Rogers, our long-term treasurer, gave up that job to become Ed's vice-president, Linda Freiberger was elected secretary, and Bob Stuckey took over the treasurer's job.

Ed, a retired chemical dependency therapist with Seven Counties Services and a former school counselor and assistant principal, has taken the leadership training course at SHHH national and also the Hearing Assistive Technology (HAT) course. In addition to public education and advocacy, Ed wants to focus on coping issues, increase Derbytown membership, and reach out to hard of hearing people in other communities. He was well prepared to lead the chapter in these endeavors.

Ed's tenure as president was marked by a number of achievements. In additiona to overseeing our Hearing Assistive Technology Booth (HAT House) at the Kentucky State Fair, he linked with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the Offices on Health & Aging to do HAT/Hearing Issues presentations, to audiences of 10 to 100, throughout the state. He met with AARP chapter to introduce hearing information and train social workers to work with hard of hearing seniors in retirement and nursing facilities. In addition, Ed and other Derbytown members, notably Paula Esterle and Mary Lee Nelson, worked with KCDHH in chaging their website and name of the TDD Distribution probram to be more HOH-friendly.

Ed developed connectins with the media, which resulted in a TV story promoting the CapTel distribution and an article on hearing issues in the Health Section of the "Courier-Journal." Thanks to Ed's efforts in securing a sponsor, WDRB-TV introduced captioned newscasts and emergency broadcasts in 2005. The "Courier-Journal" begin listing our speaker's meetings, resulting in an increase in attendance. We moved our meetings from a small board room at the Louisville Free Public Library to the spacious library at St. Leanard's Elementary School.

Other notable achievements during Ed's tenure were the development of a Newcomer's Folder, which contained information on issues related to hearing loss, and the creation of two new brochures, which were distributed at presentations, workshops, and audiologist's offices. Our board became more active in running the chapter. We rewrote our bylaws and began established committees to take on the workload of the chapter. Membership in the chapter was re-defined to be in line with SHHH National, and we earned our position under National's Non-Profit 501c.3 umbrella. We established a budget process and filed our first IRS report, which will allow us to make grant applications. Thus, the chapter was moved into a more business-like position.

In 2005, Bob Stuckey was elected president. Carlene Ballard (vice-president), Marilyn Fenwick (secretary), and Pat Flaherty (treasurer) are his able assistants. Ed Schickel took an appointed position, outreach director, which will allow him to continue doing the outreach and education projects that he enjoys.

Conventions
National SHHH conventions have become an important means of bringing news to Derbytown members. Ginnie Mason attended a convention during Derbytown's very earliest days. Judy Rogers and Reva Kruer went to a convention early on, too, in Iowa. In 1995, Theresa Kidwell, Reva Kruer, Judy Rogers, David Bayersdorfer, and Mary Lee Nelson went to the convention in Dallas, and things just snowballed from there. Derbytowners have attended every convention since then. Mary Lee says the convention in Boston was memorable because she and Judy Rogers had dinner with some of the members of the Beyond Hearing online email list, whom they had not met face-to-face before, and also because "Boston was drowning in rain …. The city seemed deserted. Hoses in the street were emptying basements of floodwaters. Ambulances and fire trucks screamed down the streets." The 2003 convention in Atlanta was particularly helpful for Mary Lee, because she interviewed people from all the cochlear implant companies to help her make a decision about whether to get an implant. She did undergo cochlear implant surgery in late October 2003. The conventions in New Orleans and Seattle were memorable to Derbytowners for the food-lots of red beans and rice in New Orleans and clam soup in Seattle. Mary Lee said of the Seattle convention, "We had our dinner night on an Indian reservation island out in the bay. They served us clam soup-with the shells in the soup. Eat the soup, dump the shells on the beach, and stomp on them." Ed Schickel, our new president, attended his first convention this year in Atlanta. Ed said "I was most impressed with the panel of hearing aid manufacturers, the vendor booths, and the closing panel on cochlear implants. I learned about the atrophy that takes place in the brain as our hearing decreases."

Remembering …
A number of members have died during the organization's twenty years of existence. They are George Anderson, Edith Andrews, Dorothy Doucette, Maurine Fowler, Ann Lee, Adele Loring, Charlotte Pugliese, Ann Rosenbaum, Mary Elinor Smith, Mona Stiff, and Lois Straus. Each contributed something to Derbytown SHHH and each has been truly missed.

---by Melanie Magruder (with input from Paula Esterle, Theresa Kidwell, Ed Schickel, Mary Lee Nelson, Hazel Tucker, Judy Rogers, and Louise Wisdom)