Fearless woman united community for Deaf Action Center

Susan Reeks

A trip to the Betty and Leonard Phillips Deaf Action Center this time of year reveals a quiet happy group of people sitting around the lobby.

Upon closer observation, they are actually bustling with activity in preparation for the center’s biggest fundraiser, Las Vegas Night 2015 at 7 p.m. Dec. 12 at Wine Country Bistro.

“The people who have received services here produce their own social events and they help with Las Vegas Night,” David Hylan, executive director of the Betty and Leonard Phillips Deaf Action Center, said. “I remember years ago having a conversation with one of our deaf clients, Patty Warmack. They wanted to give back to the center and they couldn’t give thousands of dollars so they said, ‘let’s do something.’ They rallied support in the deaf community for these events. They help us in so many ways and they love doing it.”

“They love this place,” Collin Phillips, chair of Las Vegas Night and grandson of the late Betty and Leonard Phillips, founders of the Deaf Action Center, said. “This is a beautiful way to carry on my grandmother’s legacy.”

Betty and Leonard’s daughter is Sandi Kallenberg and she is a founding board member of the Deaf Action Center.

“It all started in [1982],” Kallenberg said. “The arts council brought in the National Theatre of the Deaf from Gallaudet, and they were phenomenal. What we didn’t realize was that there were no interpreters in town. We were sitting around the table trying to plan the event and all we could do was write everything down. I distinctly remember writing reams and reams.”

“I asked Mom and Dad to come to the performance,” Kallenberg said. “Mother came with us to the party afterward at the Barnwell Center and there was not one sound because everybody was signing.

Mother realized that she knew how to fingerspell. She had learned how to do that in school. Mimi (Betty) was fingerspelling to all of these deaf people. They couldn’t believe it. We realized there was a big problem, so we asked mom and dad to fund the center.”

Betty and Leonard did fund the Deaf Action Center but Betty did so much more. “I can remember Mimi sitting there on the phone calling for sponsorships, just calling and calling,” Phillips said. “She was a bouncing board for everything in my life. This center was her passion. That’s what’s so amazing to me, for her to see a need and go after it.”

Betty Phillips was an amazing force that the staff and clients at the Deaf Action Center remember with fondness, respect and humor. Hylan remembers the first time he met her. “Betty came in here in this blinding yellow suit. She said, ‘I heard you started work here and I wanted to stop by and meet you. I can’t stay long because I have a box of carrots in my car. My horse won a race and I need to thank him by giving him a box of carrots.”

Kallenberg described Betty as someone who already lived a full happy life but did what she had to do when she saw the need. “She loved to travel. She played gin and played golf, and she never cooked a lick. She could shoot some mean craps, though.”

Las Vegas Night seems to be the perfect tribute for a woman who wasn’t afraid to do anything, including raising money for a good cause. “There was nothing she wouldn’t do for people,” Phillips said. “We’d go to dinner and it would take twenty minutes to get to the table. She’d stop and talk to everybody.”

“People adored her,” Hylan said. “It was never just a handshake. She would talk to everyone. She would come in to the center and the deaf people would crowd all around her.”

Patty Warmack has received services from the Deaf Action Center for years. She remembers Betty warmly and through an interpreter, said, “Betty Phillips was part of that group that put [telecommunication devices for the deaf] in businesses. Betty made a big difference in the lives of the deaf community. She gave of herself so much because she believed in equal access. We could not have lived without Betty Phillips.”

“No matter what else we get involved with, the basis of service we provide is interpretation services,” Hylan said. “Communication is key. The reason that is so critical is because we believe very strongly in empowering deaf people to be in control of their own lives. Not being able to communicate causes frustration and isolation, but for the deaf individual it’s much more intense and fearful. These are free-thinking, dignified adults.”

The center has evolved to fit the need of the deaf community, tackling one goal at a time. “We used to have the largest employment program in the Southwest and we literally put ourselves out of work,” Hylan said. “We put everybody to work that wanted to go to work. Now, we’re short on interpreters. We are in a critical shortage nationally.”

“When we reach out to the community, we are representing Betty,” Hylan said. “We are just the hand that provides this service. That is one thing that I miss more than anything is my conversations with Betty. I’d bring an idea to her and she’d ask, ‘how does this help deaf individuals?’ She was so incredibly wise.”

Want to go?

Tickets to Las Vegas Night are $250 per person and include $500 in chips to play games with professional dealers.

There will be a buffet prepared by executive chef Jason Brady and an open bar. Dress is black-tie optional.

For more information, go to www.deafactioncenter.org or call 425-7781.