Signing up for new challenge

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Local News

May 30, 2019 - 11:29 AM

Chelsea Shrum, left, teaches American Sign Language with her friend and interpreter Sue Warren, center, and student Judy Branstetter at an advanced sign language class last week at Humanity House.

Iolan Chelsea Shrum, age 36, wanted to be a teacher, a task made challenging because she was born deaf and with cerebral palsy. 

After she graduated from the Kansas School for the Deaf, she wasn?t able to finish college. She studied at Allen Community College for a year but struggled without an interpreter. When her brother, Chance, died in 2007, Shrum sank into a four-year depression. 

?My life was a mess after Chance passed away,? she said.

It?s taken her a few years, but Shrum can now call herself a teacher. She teaches sign language at Humanity House, 110 East St., every Thursday night. She?s now offering two classes, a beginner?s class from 6 to 7 p.m. and an advanced class from 7 to 8 p.m.

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