Signing Santa delivers Christmas surprise for deaf girl

[jnelsoninjax]

WESTMINSTER, MA -- A local little girl and her family discovered this year that Santa's magic comes in many languages.

Sadie Adam, 6, lives in Westminster with her parents and her older sister, Taylor. Like many children her age, Sadie loves Santa Claus and asks him for presents each year.

But Sadie has been deaf for most of her life, so when she went to see Santa at this year's town tree-lighting ceremony, she was expecting her mother, Ronelle Adam, to interpret her conversation with Santa. When she went to sit on Santa's lap, though, he started speaking to her in sign language.

"He said, 'Hello Sadie, merry Christmas,' and her jaw just dropped," Ronelle Adam said.

What she didn't know is that Santa was actually Police Chief Sam Albert, who had learned to sign especially for Sadie.

"They had posted on the Police Department page that they were going to be doing the tree-lighting," Ronelle Adam said. "I emailed them and asked if whoever was playing Santa would be interested in learning sign language so Sadie could talk with him, and (Albert) got back to me within minutes and said, 'Absolutely.'"

She met with Albert at the police station for about a half hour, Adam said, teaching him American Sign Language, or ASL, phrases related to Christmas.

Albert said he learned the signs for some of the gifts Sadie had requested, like dress-up clothes, a baby doll and nail polish.

"It seemed overwhelming in the beginning," Albert said. "But after practicing it and going over it again, it was a lot of quick stuff to learn."

He practiced for a few days, and by Sunday, Dec. 7, the day of the tree-lighting, Albert was dressed as Santa and ready to talk to Sadie.

"I was very happy to do it, but I was afraid I was going to screw it up," he said with a laugh.

"Usually, the kids run up and sit right on my lap," Albert said.

When he started signing to Sadie, he said, "She just stopped in her tracks."

"Her mother was signing, 'Can you believe it, Santa knows sign language?" he said. "At the same time, her mother is crying, and so I'm bubbling up. She was looking at me, amazed."

Adam said Sadie has been signing for almost her whole life.

"When she was born, we were told she was hearing and there were no issues," Adam said. "But we went to ASL with her anyway because of her older sister. We wanted her to be able to communicate with her. And then when Sadie was about 2, we found out she was going to lose her hearing."

It is definitely not typical for Adam to experience the kindness Albert showed Sadie, she said.

"Absolutely not, not even close," she said. "I'm not usually one to come about and say, 'Can you do this for my daughter?' But for something like (talking to Santa), you want your daughter to be able to experience that."

Adam said her family usually attends holiday events in Framingham, where both Sadie and her sister, Taylor, who is deaf, attend school at the Learning Center for the Deaf. This was the first town event they had been to in Westminster, and it was an amazing experience for Sadie, Adam said.

"She's still talking about it," she said. "Just last night, she was watching 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas,' and she said, 'Santa knows my name. You know that, right?'"

Adam said she and Sadie are going to bring Albert a thank-you gift at the police station, and she told Sadie "the chief was a good friend of Santa's."

"He went above and beyond what Santa should have to do," she said. "He so deserves to be recognized for that."

But Sadie herself won't know the real identity of her signing Santa Claus, at least not for a few years.

"I'm assuming she will make it a yearly thing," Albert said of Adam bringing Sadie to see Santa. "So my goal is to learn at least a little bit more for next year, so we can have a conversation."

Source

[DocM]

Cool (y)

[COKid]

Indeed, nice story!