HOW THE NEWSLETTER GOT STARTED:
Way back in 1972 Ray & Marjorie Barner and
their daughter Christine began the newsletter at Forest Park Methodist Church, with Grace Nunery. Grace thought it would
be a great idea if the deaf group started a church informational newsletter about the up and coming events that the deaf and
hard-of-hearing would like to become involved with at the church. Grace thought Marjorie would like to do that since
Ray, Marjorie and Christine were all in the H.I.M. (Hearing Impaired Ministering) group. The Barners were mostly busy
with Adult Deaf Camp, but Marjorie would report what was happening in Fort Wayne. Soon she was getting more and more
information from all over the state that would have things to do for the deaf and news of deaths/weddings/births, etc.
Hence, "Silent Link" was born.
"Silent Link" started out with approximately 4 pages, like a church
bulletin, and over the years it grew up to 12 pages long!
For many years Marjorie would be the only one to get this information.
She would paste the newsletter together and type up a master copy. Then Ray would take her to the church and they would
hand copy each page on the church copy machine. When they were done copying the pages, they would go back home, put
them all together, fold them, and take them to the post office, where they were metered and and mailed out. They did
this over and over, month after month, year after year, and it was all done free of charge.
Ray & Majorie devoted 28 years of their lives to the "Silent Link".
They retired the newsletter in February 2001, and turned over the names and addresses to Deaflink at Anthony Wayne Services
(AWS). Deaflink searched for several months for someone to do the newsletter. Meanwhile, Kim Drake was looking
for ways to do a newsletter for the deaf community, unaware that Deaflink was also searching for an editor. Kim and
Deaflink eventually met up. A contest was held to re-name the newsletter since "Silent Link" was special
and unique to Ray & Marjorie.
Starting in November 2001, "What's Up!" was born and Kim's
been volunteering her time to write the newsletter every single month, gathering information from various sources. Over
200 people were getting access to it via e-mail, and approximately 80 people paid to get the hard
copy from the post office. At this time she was working with Anthony Wayne Services (AWS) - she would type the
newsletter and they would mail it out, using their funds.
On July 3, 2004 Ray Barner passed away. The August 2004 issue
of this newsletter was devoted to him, and many people had such kind words about him. He will be missed by many.
In September 2004 Kim resigned her volunteer position with AWS and ventured
out on her own. She now maintains all records and control from her home. The new mailing list started out with
20 subscribers and continues to grow monthly.
In October 2009, Kim has decided to resign as Editor for the "What's
Up!" - both the newsletter and website - after 8 years. It was time to move on to other things in her life. The
original plans were to let both "die"...but Sara Dunten, with some help from her husband, Donald ("Ducky"), have agreed to
take over, informing the Deaf community of events in and around Fort Wayne.
