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Hey Eric, what are you doing?
Oh I'm just writing down a list of my favorite memories, You know Bridges has been here since 1998.
Wow! 15 years!
Yep, we've been in this same building since 1998. Soon, the first week of June, Bridges will move.
Really?
Yeah, we are going to move to a great, brand new building.
Oh, really? Eric, you have been here for a long time. How many years?
I started working here at Bridges in 2004.
Oh wow, 11 years!
Yeah.
Can you talk a little bit about some of your favorite memories related to this building?
Oh yeah, I was just writing a list of those! I remember when I first moved here. The Youth Center was very new. It was growing slowly, and we were in the process of building it up.
But now, I have seen many students who started there in elementary school go through the program all the way through high school graduation! It's been really awesome to watch and very interesting.
Just this past weekend, I went to camp, and actuallym many of the students who started as very very young kids who had been kind of awkward signers are now awesome signers, and are graduating this month!
Also, I've noticed the interpreting program has just exploded. When I first got here, we did a fair number of interpreting hours. We did maybe 800 or 900 hours a month.
Now, we have doubled that and are doing about 1400 interpreting hours every month.
Plus we have a new Wellness program, which you know becuase you're involved in that. It's really interesting. We provide a lot of information in sign language, so that's really cool.
And I know you moved here, when was that?
I moved here in 1995. Looking back, when I started college at Lipscomb, I needed an interpreter, so I came to Bridges, which was known as the Leagure for the Hearing Impaired.
That agency, since then, is that same agency. I have good memories. And I really love working here and with all the staff. We have great relationships.
I noticed that you said LHI, but you know, that phrase "hearing impaired" is not acceptable. But back then, that was what we called it. So our name has changed over the years to fit the community.
That's true, and it's really interesting. I'm going to miss this place.
Me too, but the new building is going to be Awesome! We will have new things there, some new services. We are going to have a gym!
It's going to be wonderful!
There is going to be an exercise room, outside there will be a grassy area. Over here, everything is concrete and there's nothing outside.
But we are going to have grass and trees, and it will be wonderful. Are you excited?
Yes, I am excited. I'll meet you there now, ok Eric?
Alright, Mike. See you there!