There’s something very important to you happening this summer at Towson University.

Okay, sure, so CueSign Camp is probably another family camp where the main population will be ankle-biters dragging around parents who are either frantically trying to figure out the best way to deal with having deaf kids or seeking support in continuing to deal.

But this camp is a little different than your standard come-learn-to-talk-to-your-kid camp. And that’s why you should care.

For one thing, English and ASL both have equal value here. CueSign Camp goes a step beyond deaf schools that claim to be bilingual or dual-lingual. Sure, in theory, they might be, but not in the sense that students regularly converse face-to-face in English or actually use genuine ASL. In the same sense, we go beyond mainstream programs where exposure to (visual or) sign language and the rich heritage that comes with simply having a hearing loss is often added as an afterthought. Both ASL and cued English have their places at CueSign Camp, and they are: everywhere, all the time.

For another, CueSign Camp’s focus is also inclusively cultural. Gone is the discussion about bridging two worlds. Moot is the internal debate about just how capital D deaf or how “hearing” a person with a hearing loss can or should be. Why should any deaf kid be forced to spend his or her life constantly choosing and re-evaluating his or her identity or views based on these imaginary borderlines? CueSign Camp recognizes the importance of BOTH the mainstream culture that most hearing people live in as well as the deaf community that thrives even as the former culture remains mostly ignorant. And CueSign Camp thinks access to both cultures is a right every deaf child should have.

And even if the main focus of CueSign Camp is on deaf kids and all the parents and professionals who are responsible for their wellbeing, CueSign Camp refuses to be just that exclusive. CueSign Camp is also offering a conference day as well as a teen leadership camp.

CueSign Camp’s committee members mean what they say, and they’re gonna have a blast for one week this summer promoting these inclusive beliefs. After all, they know education about language and culture doesn’t just happen in the classroom. It also happens while rock-climbing, swimming, drinking coffee, or telling a two-year-old to be quiet for one minute so you can talk to someone else.

Don’t care for rugrats? Well, you were one too once. And somewhere along the way, choices were made for you. Chances are, those choices had to do with choosing between either the big wide world where hearing people live and deaf people were (are!) often ignored or the exclusive deaf community where, although empowerment was a constant motto, “hearing people” were almost always equated with foreigners. If you were one of the lucky few deaf kids encouraged to experience every and anything regardless of perceived cultural or linguistic limitations, remember just how blessed you were.

So, even if you haven’t the foggiest idea what you’d do with it if you learned to cue, or if you live a life that really doesn’t require you to refine your signing skills, you should care about CueSign Camp.

If you couldn’t care less about a family camp that’s happening this summer that you’re not going to attend, remember your childhood. Remember how important the ideological views your parents had were in shaping who you are today.

So do it right now. Go to the CueSign Camp website and contact Camp Director Amy Crumrine (cuesign@aol.com) about helping the camp where worlds align and dual citizenship is the norm. Help = donating money or one of the items on the wish list, requesting a sponsorship packet, volunteering, attending, self-education, and/or just simply spreading the word about CueSign Camp.

For every parent, professional, or friend of a deaf kid you tell about CueSign Camp, there’s gonna be some deaf kid, just like you used to be, somewhere living a happy, all-inclusive, literate life and having you to thank for it.

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