2024 ANNUAL REPORT

When we started our mission to get a US Commemorative Postal Stamp for Laurent we are not aware of the directions it would take.

While our mission remains the same, this annual report will show you the paths we have taken to reach our goal.

Research and Consolidation

This year was filled with the exploration of the wonderful new Laurent Clerc material donated in 2023 by the Galloway-Clerc family. The coveted collection was donated to the American School for the Deaf Archives and its vastness is only now becoming apparent after a year of examining its contents. The collection has given us enough work for many years to come. To keep up to date with our voyage through its history visit us at our Facebook page, Laurent Clerc Who?

Throughout the year we are working to expand our knowledge about Laurent Clerc. The search of his papers and of the Internet bring us to some very interesting places. With this work we are expanding what we know about Laurent's life in France and America.

Here are samples: What do Laurent and Eliza Clerc have to do with the famous poem "The Night Before Christmas"? or Laurent Clerc and the Great World of 1918.

In an effort to consolidate Laurent's history into one place (electronic version also) we are working on "The Clercible", the most comprehensive collection of Laurent Clerc history. Now growing to 6 volumes, it will give fans and researchers a one stop shop of Laurent Clerc history. On completion it will be housed in the future at the ASD Archives.

Social Media Growth

Our Facebook page, Laurent Clerc Who? Now 16 years since its creation, we are devoting more time to exploring Laurent Clerc's amazing history. With close to 1500 followers we are engaging others in the life and legacy of this amazing man and educator.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/64625327737

Our Laurent Clerc website continues to grow and disseminate Laurent history and resources. Explore this expanding site which is now the most comprehensive website devoted to Laurent Clerc.

Laurent Clerc has been presented to the world in many forms. We have continued to capture these drawings, paintings and digital art forms in one place for the convenience of our Clerc fans. Come and join the our virtual art gallery with all things Laurent .

Thanks to Kristy Whilden, lego artist and Laurent Clerc fan, new art about Laurent was displayed in a lego exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Education

In our effort to raise Laurent's profile we determined that we need to develop more educational opportunities and content. To this end we have began presenting Laurent Clerc to Deaf and hearing communities. Here are some of the events and initiative that we created in 2024.

On December 3rd we celebrated Clerc-Gallaudet Week with an online event, Laurent Clerc 2 Night. 33 members of the Clerc community attended this hour and a half event to ask questions about Laurent, his family, his origin story and his years teaching in American. Our interpreters were provided by VANCRO interpreting services and they enabled us to further explore Laurent's legacy and life. We hope to hold these types of online events quarterly and to grow our Laurent Clerc audience.

Yale University is the home of a significant collection of Laurent Clerc Papers. It is a place of growing participation in American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language. We had the opportunity to visit, participate and present in their classrooms and are very excited for their future.

We presented some early Deaf history, mostly from Laurent Clerc's viewpoint, to an ASL class at Rowan College of South Jersey.

Our Flat Laurent Challenge helps to get our poster boy cutout of Laurent out to masses to promote his legacy and contributions. Here Alice Hagemeyer (center), Founder of Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action, with him on September 30, 2024 in Annapolis, Maryland for the Proclamation of the September Deaf Culture Awareness Month.

We have been experiencing with new formats for sharing Laurent's history with deaf and hearing folks around the nation.

We were honoured to virtually present about Laurent Clerc at the 4th Annual Columbus Museum of Art
Deaf Themed Art Contest in Ohio.

Networking

An important part of expanding the milieu in which we work to promote Laurent Clerc is to connect with the people and organizations that safeguard early Deaf history. To this end we are forging alliances with like minded groups.

We continue to develop relationships with Deaf history organizations around the world, especially ones that related directly to Laurent's development as the educator and influencer he became. We welcome The Friends of L’abbé de l’Épée.

We are glad to announce our association with an amazing ASL musical theatre group from Southern New Jersey, Hands Up Silent Theatre.

We continue to support ASL oriented businesses and service providers to the Deaf. This year we are privileged to have support of VANCRO interpreting services.

No year would be complete without connecting with our friends in France. We attended and presented at the anniversary celebration for the Laurent Clerc Association in Laurent's home town of La Balme-les-Grottes in June.

Preservation

The Laurent and Elizabeth Clerc Gravesite Garden has been a project of special love and commitment over these last several years. We are preserving Laurent's last resting place and honouring his memory. We appreciate all the help we have received. -LCH-

We continue to preserve and beautify the final resting place of Laurent and Eliza Clerc at Spring Grove Cemetery in Hartford, CT.

The garden continues to mature and this spring we will be installing garden gravel within the enclosure.

Support for this project is much appreciated.

Thanks to generous gifts from Laurent Clerc's fans we were able to restore the broken headstone of Laurent's son, Charles Michael.

Also, we had a gravesite clean up day and worked with ASD students to prepare the site for visitors.

Promotion

A significant part of our society's mission is to safeguard Laurent's legacy and the place that he called home for over 40+ years of teaching. We ensure that travellers interested in Laurent's life can easily find literature about him. And towards this end we look for any opportunity to work with the American School for the Deaf and their archives which house the majority of Laurent Clerc material.

This year we worked on a video piece with the creators at the Connecticut Valley Views program to promote the ASD Archives work. Here is a link to our collaboration.

There is a growing number of biographies and stories on our website that cover Laurent's life and those close to him. We bring these together for his fans with easy access.

Education begins at home. Here Flat Laurent visits with Barbara Cassin, the first deaf board of directors of the American School for the Deaf, at ASD's annual meeting in October.

The Clerc family continues its 207 years of supporting the American School for the Deaf with the election of Laurent Clerc's 4x great grandson as a board comparator, who hopes to focus on expanding ASD's archives on early Deaf history.

We continue to encourage libraries across the United States to increase their exposure of Deaf History related books. A new copy of Harlan Lane's book in the Wilton Library, Wilton, CT.

The Stamp Project

The Laurent Clerc Stamp is the original reason that we started this whole hot mess. While drinking coffee at the Cogswell Heritage House a plan was hatched to resurrect the same efforts tried in the 1990's. We continue to experiment with ways to engage folks and for them to show their support.

Our SOS (Selfie of Support) Program hopes to show the US Postal Service Stamp Committee something special that will result in their acceptance of Laurent as a subject for a commemorative stamp this time around.

Come and join our efforts! Consider sending your SOS today!