Moving Day for Us
We are moving out of our office on the Main Street this week into my home office. We simply did not have enough funds coming in to support the overhead of having an office open as well as the fact that we are working on something really positive and will change some things. Yup, we WILL build world’s first sign language friendly town in South Dakota. That will not change. 
Stay tuned. The move has gone very well, and we have switched over to VOIP (voice over IP) telephone and fax service. We’re pretty amazed by the service’s features for the price. Our new phone number is 605-413-4140 voice. 605-413-4206 fax. We will also operate fully under The Laurent Institute, the non-profit organization, from now on. The Laurent Company will remain inactive until a future date.
Despite the changes and challenges we face, we remain absolutely optimistic about our future as a signing community and I know that we will yet build that town, and it will be a wonderful thing for many people worldwide.
September 27th, 2006 at 5:40 am
Marvin, I really admire your undying persistence. I am behind you every step of the way and really am excited to see things grow for you and many others who want to be part of the exciting future.To Laurent! *glass clinking*
September 27th, 2006 at 6:10 am
Marvin…keep on, there are so many of us behind you. Besides, now you get to work in your jammies at your home office
September 27th, 2006 at 6:44 am
You cant get enough support because youre not making any solid intentions on inclusivity of all spectrums of hearing loss and all of their communication methods.I’m seeing a repeat of the California ASL Camp story here.
September 28th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Let’s just say "those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it". Look at Wyndholme Village… and while CSD’s Olde Grinde Apartments in Sioux Falls did become a reality for a while, it too folded for a general lack of interest among the SD deaf community… (CSD did at one time envision a project extremely similar to what you’re trying to accomplish, but for various reasons, it just never got beyond the planning stages) Don’t get me wrong - I like the concept, but that’s all it may ever be at this point. It may also have been a giant misstep to rely almost totally on the ‘angel’ donor instead of writing grant requests like crazy. (and I have figured out to within 3 guesses of who the ‘angel’ is)
September 29th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
I love critics. They are such an all-knowing people who can anticipate failures well in advance. I just hope they can leave this earthly life having accomplished much good.Wyndholme Village failed not because of lack of demand. They failed because there were funds being misappropriated and the deposits of hard earned senior citizens disappeared. If I am wrong, please correct me.This is why we have not accepted monetary deposits.
October 1st, 2006 at 5:45 am
This is to reply to Marv’s discussion on establishing a Deaf prison. My thought that came up when I first read your comment was that if all goes well with Laurent, it would then indeed make some kind of impact on the general communities throughout the neighboring communities around Laurent. In turn, prisons, if any, in South Dakota is bound to be more aware in how to serve deaf inmates’ needs better. Of course, they wouldn’t get "it" immediately, but, still it’s going to be better than having a prison in Laurent pro/con wise. Just my 1 cent worth…SarahP.S. Hey Marv, I’m still enjoying my blue cement pancakes and it’s truly a delight to see how it has impacted you with wanting to establish an organic/natural market today, heh.