One Family, Two Sides of Quota Caring

Dean Barton-Smith works for Australian Communication Exchange in Melbourne as an executive officer overseeing work on TTY to hearing- and speech-impaired people. He is particularly qualified for the job because he is not only a bright and determined young man, but also one who understands hearing problems, for Dean Barton-Smith is deaf.

Of course, he has enjoyed the encouragement of an indefatigable mother: Pamela Smith is a speech reading teacher for the Cairns chapter of Better Hearing Australia, for which she also serves as president. And, Pamela is a new recruit of the Cairns Quota club.

However, Quota isn't new to Pamela and Dean. The family encountered Quota caring when Dean was 17 years old, and they were living at Deception Bay near Redcliffe, Queensland. Dean was raising funds to compete in his first World Games for the Deaf in Los Angeles, California, and the Redcliffe Quota club provided a donation.

Since then, Dean has represented Australia in every World Games for the Deaf, and competed for his country as a decathlete in the Barcelona Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand and Canada, and many other world class competitions.

As a former Olympian, Dean was selected as one of five deaf athletes to carry the Olympic flame during the Sydney 2000 Torch Relay, racing it through Mount Dandenong, Victoria, in August.

When Pamela was invited by fellow Better Hearing Australia member Helen Clark to attend her Quota club's Shatter Silence Awards program last year, she says she was delighted. "I enjoyed the night immensely and was looking forward to the event this year. Seeing the interpreters at work and the professional setup of the night was quite enthralling," says Pamela.

So, after this year's Shatter Silence Awards, Pamela was invited to join the Cairns club. And to the club's delight, she was recently inducted as a member. Having experienced Quota caring as a recipient with her son, Pamela says she is looking forward to sharing it as a full-fledged Quotarian.

—Mary Margaret Yodzis, Senior Writer
© 2000