That Wu-Tang Interpreter Girl from Bonnaroo

Happy Friday, everyone! I have a few different things to mention today. First, our first group of counselors will be going up to Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp this weekend to get ready for session one of camp. Good luck, and have fun!

Also, Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp's 80^th birthday is coming up. MHKC has been around an impressively long time, and such a great camp is worth celebrating. It's a good thing, then, that on Thursday, July 25^th, Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp is having a birthday celebration up at the camp! It sounds like it's going to be quite the shindig, with cake, live entertainment, some rad historical photos (like the one at the left), and a barbeque dinner. The festivities start at 4:00 pm, barbeque dinner begins at 6:00, followed by skits at 7:00. Bring your own lawn chair and $10 for dinner. It should be a good time! For more information or to RSVP (by July 5^th), email Terri at terri@mhkc.org.

And now, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, a little commentary on the most popular ASL interpreter since Lydia Calas. There has been quite a buzz around a woman named Holly Maniatty who interpreted for Wu-Tang Clan, Matt and Kim, and R. Kelly at this year's Bonnaroo music festival. Many have commented that she stole the show and was more entertaining than the performers.

Maniatty has been a certified interpreter for 13 years and a performance interpreter for ten of those 13. This year was her sixth or seventh interpreting at Bonnaroo, and though the attention she has been getting recently is overwhelming, Maniatty says that she is thankful for the positive regard being brought to Bonnaroo as an accessible music festival:

“I guess I am in front of a lot of people but I'm always so absorbed in doing a good job—it's just about the deaf patrons who are there. I hope it spreads the word that Bonnaroo has an accessible festival and amazing interpreters that come from all over the country.”

This video may contain language that is offensive to some viewers.

At festivals like Bonnaroo, teams of many interpreters work together based on skill level, music specialty (for example, one interpreter may be particularly good at signing folk music where another is better at rap), or familiarity with a particular band. Often, multiple interpreters will sign for a single band, going back and forth to reflect different artists' voices. For example, Maniatty was signing with another woman, Jenn Abbott, during the Wu-Tang performance.

Maniatty also notes that it takes a lot more than just interpreting words as they are presented. She spent about 50-80 hours studying Wu-Tang's music, background, and interviews so she could know them as well as possible. That way, she can interpret their lyrics, often filled with metaphors, as accurately as possible. Also, should a member of the group decide to freestyle, she can freestyle, too, and not lose the meaning of the lyrics.

Some of you may know that I'm interested in becoming an interpreter, but, man! Performance interpretation looks exhausting! Have any of you ever been to a concert that was interpreted? What was it like?

Also, don't forget about MHKC's birthday party, and wish the first wave of counselors well!

Click here for a full interview with Holly Maniatty.

Shock Treatment: A Thing of the Past?

I thought electric shock therapy was a thing of the past, a bizarre—albeit effective, in some cases—treatment for severe depression and bipolar disorder, so I was surprised to find that there is a school in Canton, Massachusetts that still uses electric shock therapy, also called electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). But this school does not use ECT to treat depression or bipolar disorder. Rather, it uses this treatment to address behavioral problems in kids and adults who have developmental disabilities.

Various types of electric therapy have been around as early as the 16^th century, but ECT—the only form of shock therapy used in modern medicine—didn't become widespread in the UK and US until the 1940s and -50s. Today it is estimated that about 1 million people worldwide receive ECT every year, usually in a course of 6–12 treatments administered 2 or 3 times a week.

There is, of course, a lot of controversy regarding the effectiveness and validity of ECT. For one, reports of ECT's effectiveness are only documented in the short term. That is, the treatment may be effective, but only for one to six months, and research psychiatrist Colin A. Ross found that there was no single study that showed a significant difference between real and placebo ECT at one month post-treatment. Furthermore, most ECT research is done with the effectiveness of depression and bipolar disorder treatment, not behavioral problems among the developmentally disabled. So why is ECT being used in that setting?

As is turns out, parents have found ECT to be very helpful in treating their children. Last year, NBC New York published a story about Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, that school in Massachusetts that uses ECT on its students, and explained that while the facility gets a lot of negative feedback in response to its methods, many parents continue to show their support:

“In 2006, the parents of Samantha Shear told NBC New York they were desperate after their daughter couldn’t stop hurting herself by hitting herself in the eyes. The Shear family insists skin shock therapy was a last resort that improved their daughter’s life.
'The thought process is, “we need something severe enough to make this kid stop hurting herself,”' said Marcia Shear. 'And you know something, it worked.'”

However, many people find ECT to be an inhumane, torturous method of treatment. A video of Rotenberg released in 2002 shows a patient, Andre McCollins, tied to a mat, receiving more than 30 electric shocks, each lasting two seconds. In 2006, another student, Antwone Nicholson withdrew from the school after receiving similar treatment. Though she did sign consent forms, Antwone's mother, Evelyn Nicholson, claimed that the extent of the shocking and the potential for abuse were never disclosed.

Now Rotenberg is back in the spotlight. In a legal filing last week, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley moved to end a court order that has limited the state’s regulatory authority of the Rotenberg center since the 1980s. The state aims to get broader authority over the facility and insists that ECT is an unacceptable method of treatment for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Naturally, I hope the state wins. What do you think? Do you have any experience with electroconvulsive therapy?

KOIN News Features Kiwanis!

"It's changing lives," says KOIN Local News, introducing viewers to Mt. Hood Kiwanis camp and camper Kendal in particular. Who apparently talked about "girl stuff and kissing" with the other campers. I knew those boys got up to mischief during break time...

Session I folks may remember KOIN being up there filming! They were very impressed! Great job from Session I folks and a huge round of applause for Session II counselors finishing up their first week. Session Oners can tell you guys all about what that's like!

Get your Arts and Crafts on, yo

This was an exciting year for the Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp capstone! We collaborated with another capstone, a marketing capstone, to bring PSU's longest-running service learning program up to date with an all new look and, for the first time in its history, a presence in social media!

This blog is one of the results; later this month we'll show you guys the amazing tri-fold Kiosk that was hand built out of Douglas Fir and plywood. If you take a walk over to Neuberger's first floor, you'll be able to see our new giant poster, too!

And then there's this work of hilarity, the first ever MHKC rap!

Jesse Hansen, Nic Henderson, Brian Williams, and Sam Humphrey (that's Sam singing) were the PSU seniors who came up with the lyrics and laid down the tracks.

I wish I could say that Bieber's endorsed it himself, but we haven't been able to get a hold of him for comment. We would love to get YOUR comments, though! Let us know what you think about the video and, while you're at it, please like our facebook page! It's going to be the place where alumni can keep in touch with each other and where new counselors can go to ask questions about how scared they should be on their first day of camp. We'll also be posting photos from camp, stories from camp, and videos focusing on campers and the camp experience.

Join us and share some of your own favorite camp memories!