In May of 2003 Beau and I traveled to China to buy product for the store and ended up in a very empty Beijing during the SARS scare. The panic was world-wide, if you recall, and when I got home I was politely asked to self-quarantine for a couple of weeks before returning to my gym. Beau and I had the photo shoot for the naked fund-raising calendar coming up and it was going to be embarrassing enough without the loss of two weeks worth of desperately working my beer-belly, so I started running.

Two years later, I felt it was appropriate to try to run my first marathon by signing on to the Great Wall Marathon on May 21st 2005.

That brings me to the fund-raiser aspect of this whole diatribe. We're often asked to donate items to raise funds for worthy causes here on the Peninsula; now it's my turn to do the asking. Deafness runs in my family, both biologically and by marriage. My grandmother, Evelyn, was deaf; my sister, Tracy has hearing-loss and my sister, Keri's partner, Justin, and her partner-in-law, Jesse, are hard of hearing & deaf respectively, so I figure I should put Homescapes' high profile to some social good and run for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Center in Salinas.

You can still donate. Click here to download the form with instructions.

- Thompson Lange

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You didn't think you could get away with not hearing from me, now did you?

When Thompson first talked about raising funds for DHHSC, I was personally moved. Since I have been with Justin I have become an active member of the deaf and hard of hearing community - most notably by joining "deaf nights" where I clumsily sign my way to order a cola and somehow end up with a burrito. I've gotten better, though, and have become a better person for it. As a hearing person in a deaf world, I easily understand and appreciate what they have had to overcome and accomplish.

Without DHHSC as a focal point for the deaf community, many of these events wouldn't happen. DHHSC serves as a commonplace for the deaf to know where to find jobs, schools and support in a hearing world.

Jesse Lewis (my brother "out-law") is the director for DHHSC. The office runs on the manpower of (I think) four people to help the deaf community in all of Monterey County.

On April 13, 2005 Jesse, Justin & I will be holding an event to raise awareness of Deaf Culture at our (Justin's and mine) art studio on Cannery Row. Justin & I are constructing a portable mural for - and to be painted by - the deaf and hard of hearing which will be placed in the DHHSC Office in Salinas. We chose to make it portable because DHHSC rents the building and it is designed to be an empowering icon for and by the community, wherever that community shall incorporate. Basically, they want to take it with 'em if they gotta go. T=his is a public event, and you're certainly welcome to join us - deaf, hard of hearing or not.

Justin & I are doing this to support DHHSC and the assistance they provide for the Deaf Community on the Monterey Peninsula. For more information on what DHHSC provides, please visit their website at www.dhhsc.org For more information on the mural project, please see http://www.jklmstudios.com.

So to follow up on what Thompson is doing, I'll be putting up a downloadable donation/fundraiser form as soon as we figure out the logistics of the fundraiser. Of course, if you wish to donate today, just let us know.

Yours sincerely,
Keri Marion