Eyes widened and jaws dropped Friday as five elementary students got their first glance at Santa Claus at the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf.
The youngsters grew even more excited when they discovered the jolly old elf could use his hands to talk.
Santa was a signer.
“It is such joy to see that, because so much of the world is often not accessible to them,” said Mike Chapman, a Santa Claus portrayal artist who used sign language to fill out his list of children’s wishes for this Christmas. “To have a Santa that can communicate with their language fully and they don’t have to go through an interpreter, it is such huge joy.”
Oswaldo Casarrubias, 11, of Wilson, said it was his first time ever meeting Santa Claus.
“Yes, My heart was beating fast,” Oswaldo said.
Oswaldo asked Santa for Legos, Spider-Man and Batman toys and a remote control car.
“Now I can sleep and I will be excited,” Oswaldo said.
Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf director Michelle Handley invited Chapman to listen to students’ Christmas wishes. All 49 ENCSD students use sign language.
“I’m not sure that Santa makes much sense if you don’t know all of the magic behind it,”Handley said. “You go to him, you tell him what you want and then it magically appears on Christmas mornings.”
For these deaf and hard of hearing students, it was a chance to have a magical childhood experience just like other children.
“He really is doing an amazing job with them, the conversations he is having with each one,” Handley said of the signing Santa.
Nine-year-old Danny Rodriguez of Bailey asked Santa how he would visit his home, which doesn’t have a chimney.
Santa showed Danny a magical key that allows him entry to leave presents on Christmas mornings.
Danny asked if Santa would bring him a game to play.
Emerson Rodriguez, 10, of Warsaw, asked Santa if he flew to Wilson in a sleigh.
“I had to hide it to keep the reindeer safe,” Santa told him.
“Just like any child, they have their own wishes and dreams. But they also want to be heard, and that is something that often doesn’t happen,” Chapman said. “Many of these children do not have a lot of communication in the home. Some parents are wonderful in learning sign language. Others do not. So, outside of the school environment, often these children do not get heard. So that is one opportunity I enjoy bringing to them, the opportunity that Santa can not only sign to them but can understand their wishes.”
Handley said the encounter was special for some high school students because they might not have ever been able to communicate with Santa Claus before.
“It’s the specialness of Santa,” Handley said. “It’s like the wonder of what happened when they were kids. They probably remember that. They probably remember that they got up and there were presents there and they weren’t sure who they came from, and maybe somebody said it was Santa.”
Some students who are hard of hearing may use their voices in addition to sign language.
“The idea of this school is that sign language is necessary for instruction and learning, and then we provide them with a very typical school experience that’s fully accessible because their teachers can communicate directly to them with sign language,” Handley said. “The teachers’ assistants and the cafeteria workers and the custodians and everybody can communicate directly with them in sign language so they get to have a typical school experience.”
Bringing in a signing Santa for the students further rounded that educational experience.
“Just like any other opportunity to interact with children, I want to bring joy,” Chapman said. “It has been such a hard two years with this pandemic that any opportunity to bring joy to anyone is really the goal.”
