In our 98th year of service, starting our 99th year in September 2025, BridgesDHH continued to grow, watching the Educational Interpreter Development Program (EIDP) take off, seeing great growth from BridgesEAST, watching BridgesWEST and BridgesTN continue to thrive. A personal triumph for me has been the growth over the last year of Little ACEs, tripling the number of families enrolled just over a year ago. Little ACEs is one of the programs I helped conceive here, and its early language deprivation and language acquisition work is the foundation of breaking down barriers, creating equality, and establishing a better future for our beloved Community.

I've also been excited about the increase in outreach and engagement with our young professionals and families. New, part-time staff have had a series of events and meet-ups in the community, and we've enjoyed time together.

Our Bridge Builder Day of Giving set a new record for us, and we had a great time--including new, in-person gatherings during the virtual event and some lovely messages of support from leaders in the national Deaf community. The partnership, leadership, and trust of the communities we serve is an extraordinary gift and the reason we continue to grow and thrive almost a century later. 

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The last year also brought challenges with new competition in interpreting services. Here, the fees we earn providing the highest-quality ASL interpreting in the state go right back to providing programs and services from birth through elder years at no cost to our Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and hard of hearing communities. For both quality in services and quality in investments in the community, choosing us really does matter. We also saw changes at the national and state levels that continue to unfold rapidly and sometimes unexpectedly, making it harder to predict and to plan for the future, but we stay focused on who we are and serving each and every day. 

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We continue to define this civil rights work and to seek to engage and empower the Community that leads us. From birth through elder years, we identify barriers and needs, removing the former and meeting the latter, and all of it is done on a foundation of excellence, innovation, and love. I am thankful for every minute and for all the extraordinary people who make this work possible.