Students sing and sign a Valentine song

MOSES LAKE - Valentine's Day seemed like the perfect occasion for Chief Moses Middle School students to sing a love song to residents at Columbia Crest extended care facility. And students in the school's sign language club got the chance to show off their newly acquired skills.

The sign language club chose a song by Martina McBride, "Valentine," and have been practicing for a few months, coach Kelly Frederick said. She suggested showing off their skills by making it a community service project. "The idea was enthusiastically endorsed by the students, including Liz Peterson, who had just had a tonsillectomy and wished her mom had known sign language," Frederick said.

They chose Columbia Crest because they wanted to do a service project with their new skills. "We got to sign for the elders and make the elders happy," Shyanee Knowles said, who's in the club.

"They smiled and they clapped for us after we did it," said club member Gina Skinner.

"They started crying," Savannah Weston said.

The club members went from room to room, thanks to Marion Balderos, who provided batteries to make the audiovisual equipment moveable, Frederick said. "Now we can go to their rooms, they don't have to come to us," Marion said.

The club has been practicing for a few months, the club members said. They learned "how to do our ABCs and our name," Shyanee said.

"And we did a few colors and numbers," Gina said. "We also learned other people's names," Savannah said. They learned some signs they use every day, and some they hardly use at all, she said.

The students liked the idea of going to Columbia Crest to show off their new skills. Some of the residents, are "missing their Valentine, and we made them smile," Gina said.

Club members also made Valentine cards for the residents, Frederick said.