Back from New Orleans, Louisiana from NAD Conference

Wow- what a journey to New Orleans, Louisiana. I have to admit that this was my first time attending a NAD Conference and I was very pleased working with over 25 State Pageant Directors and 22 wonderful contestants. I also worked closely with our Miss Deaf Minnesota Katy and her chaperone Sarah Houge; I am very proud of Katy. She put in effort during the Miss Deaf America Pageant- she did not place in the final six but she will always be our winner for Minnesota!

Emory Dively, Cythnia Weitzel, Galinda Goss-Kuehn and I enjoyed sightseeing in famous New Orleans and wished we had more time in the city. New Orleans is full of history and delicious food. We had a full schedule with meetings and discussions relating to NAD and the pageant. We learned much from each other.

What a journey! I encourage you to attend the 50th Biennial NAD Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in July 2010. MADC and MDMP have already expressed our interest in bidding for the 51st Biennial NAD Conference in 2012; the last time Minnesota hosted the conference was in 1899 and 1970. Let's bring our STRONG Deaf and Hard of hearing community together to welcome them to our state!

Andrew J. Oehrlein

State Director

Miss Deaf Minnesota Pageant