A Center of Our Own

[pic]

“A CENTER OF OUR OWN”

ETA

GROUP A

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

ENGLISH 597

KIM MILLINGTON

I attended the grand opening of the Ohio School for the Deaf Alumni Association Columbus Colony Community Center on October 16, 2010. Columbus Colony is located on Colony Drive on the east side of Westerville off of Sunbury Road. The new Community Center was built entirely on donations in the amount of $7 million and took 15 months to construct. Columbus Colony is known for housing, nursing home, rehabilitation and outpatient therapy services for the deaf and blind. The new center is 32,400 square feet which includes a state of the art theater, concession stand, banquet hall, historical achieves and offices.

The Ohio School for the Deaf Alumni Association (OSDAA) was established in 1870. It is the oldest alumni association in existence in the nation. Current members are made up of former students and graduates of the Ohio School for the Deaf. They are proud to say that every member of the alumni association is deaf and that is how they want it to stay in the future. The Board of Governors for OSDAA is elected by members and holds a reunion every two years. The idea for Columbus Colony was formed by OSDAA because deaf people at the time were isolated and spread out all over the state of Ohio. The deaf were limited in areas of religion, social interaction and basic communication that the hearing took for granted. A committee was formed in 1880 to discuss building a place like Columbus Colony to help meet the basic needs of the deaf population. The same year the National Association of the Deaf was formed. In 1892, OSDAA purchased Central College in Westerville for $3,300. The purchase granted them rights to a building and 15 acres of land. On December 12, 1896, The Ohio Home for the Aged and Infirm Deaf (OHAD) opened. Another 156 acres was purchased and turned into a self-supporting farm. The farm housed livestock and crops. The residents worked the...