Thank you, Gallaudet! Over 60 People Attend Meeting

We had a great town hall meeting at Gallaudet University, and we’d like to really thank Todd Newman of Student Body Government for sponsoring this event. Over 60 people showed up, and most of them were students… we had several faculty and staff show up as well. The presentation resulted in 11 reservation forms being filled out. We now have over 30 forms, and we will be posting their names and city and state in the order we received the forms.

At the end of the presentation, the perception shifted markedly from “No way this is going to happen… especially South Dakota, no one is going to move there.” to “Wow… this looks real. I think this is really going to happen.”

The fact we chose South Dakota still perplexes people, and this is okay with us. We could have gone through a much longer process in selecting a “perfect” location anywhere in the U.S. We feel that by choosing South Dakota, we will accomplish much in a short time frame thus meeting our ambitious goal of breaking ground on Laurent in Spring 2005.

Main reasons, once again, for choosing South Dakota:

1. Low total population in the state (750,000) and specifically, McCook County (5,800) which will enable us to have a good political voice and influence.

2. Sunny state, low taxes and low regulatory environment

3. Already “deaf-friendly” thanks to the success of CSD.

4. Tourism is very important to South Dakota.

5. Did we say sunny? Over 230 sunny days a year.

6. Winter climate is usually warmer than Minneapolis/St. Paul/

7. Less snow in winter than Michigan or Minneapolis.

8. This place is really great! Trust us.

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