The American Sign Language (ASL) club played “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” on their Christmas float as they rode down Reynolds Rd. for the Christmas parade Dec. 6.

Every year, the students try to create their float to match the theme of the parade.

“This year, it’s Rock Around the Christmas Tree,” club sponsor Deana Emerson said. “They wanted to incorporate the black light stuff that we had gotten last year. The tree will be sprayed with a black light appropriate green color, and then they’ll have all black light costuming.”

Junior Rachel Duckworth joined the ASL club her sophomore year after she learned about it from her sister. She feels that the ASL club is a welcoming community that promotes community activities, such as the parade.

“It’s very exciting, and the atmosphere is really joyful,” Duckworth said. “It makes me happy to be a part of more music and see everyone happy that performs in it and that comes and sees it.”

Freshman Tessa Haley struggles with social anxiety and uses prayer as a way to overcome her nerves for the parade.

“I’m looking forward to showing others what we can do with our hands, how we speak in different languages, not only by our mouths, and [sending] joy to other people if they can’t hear what we [sing],” Haley said.

Haley joined the ASL club in order to communicate with her friend who she struggled to speak with.

“There is a special-ed kid I met in the fourth grade, her name is Shelby,” Haley said. “I had always wanted to talk to her and understand what she was saying. Being able to talk to deaf people, or those who are mute, makes me feel warm inside, and makes me feel like I can do something special for the world.”

Emerson does not usually teach sign language to the students.

“It’s student-driven and lead,” Emerson said. “If there’s a need for it, I step in, and I teach the class, or I teach the song. I serve as a faculty advisor, so my job is more to make sure they stay within the guidelines of what school appropriate is. They come up with the designs for the float, the designs for the songs, I have a leadership team, and different ones are in charge of different activities.”

The ASL club is very involved with the deaf community. They do several events, such as See-A-Song at UALR or silent dinners.

“In years past when Enterprise bowling alley was open in Benton, we went the first Monday night of every month,” Emerson said. “They had a deaf Bowling League, and we went to bowl there and participated with the deaf community. In previous years, we did homecoming at the Arkansas School for the Deaf and helped with their homecoming games. It depends on what students are involved in that year.”

Since ASL is not an easy foreign language to learn, each student has their own obstacles.

“ASL has lots of different signs for the same word that we use, so remembering one for that word can be a bit of a struggle,” Duckworth said. “You can always forget [the] sign for that word.”

Haley’s obstacle is her signing speed.

“If I sign faster, I can understand what other people say when they sign faster,” Haley said. “[In] sign language, your actions speak more than your words.”