Deaf News Briefs: Deaf hero honored posthumously; Milwaukee Bucks ASL interpreter
Here are two deaf news briefs.
Keawe Michael Pestana, a 34-year-old deaf man who died trying to save his three young cousins from a swift river in Idaho in 2019, was posthumously honored with the Carnegie Medal.
KTVB 7 News explained that this medal is considered the highest civilian honor for heroism.
What happened to Keawe? On April 26, 2019, he saw his three cousins and their father fall from their canoe into the fast-moving Salmon River. Keawe was standing on the bank of the river and jumped into the water to try to rescue them, but unfortunately he was pulled down into the water in a circular current and drowned. The three children and their father were wearing life jackets and were carried by the river to calmer waters around half a mile downstream and got to safety. Kewae was missing for a few weeks until his body was found somewhere else on the Salmon River.
The Daily Moth did coverage of Keawe’s death and a tribute to his life in 2019. You can view the videos at the links in the transcript. Keawe was born and raised in Hawaii and his mother’s side of the family is from Idaho.
KTVB 7 News said Keawe’s family will receive a financial award in his honor from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
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The NBA team Milwaukee Bucks is providing an ASL interpreter for its press conferences. TMJ 4 News said they are the first professional sports team to provide a sign language interpreter for team interviews.
On the Bucks team website, you can see that an interpreter in an on-screen PIP is provided for most of Coach Mike Budenholzer’s press conferences and for some previous interviews with players.
The interpreter’s name is Brice Christianson, who is a Coda. He told TMJ 4 News that the Milwaukee Bucks President Peter Feigin’s support for ASL interpreters was key to making things happen. He said he hopes people don’t scoff when they look at sports interpreting because it is still accessible, even though it is not the same as interpreters for emergency situations.
The Bucks currently have a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals over the Atlanta Hawks. They’ll play Game 4 tonight. So if you’re not sure of which team to root for, maybe consider the Bucks? What do you think of sports teams providing ASL interpreters?
That’s the two deaf news briefs for today.