 Welcome to the dedication of the I Love You sculpture created by the renowned artist Bob Toaster with the help of students from the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind and citizens of South Carolina. My name is Sam Hook and I serve as executive director of the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind Foundation. We're so happy you joined us today for this installation we you honor us with your presence as we come from different parts of the state of South Carolina to its capital to install this beautiful and meaningful artwork. Hey good morning. I'm also I need to thank a couple of people first definitely a Mayor Benjamin in the city of Columbia for working with us on this project for saying yes to it. I'm the SESDB board thank you for support and our president Dr. McCraw who always says yes knowing you know when these ideas are presented to her and I explain them because you know this had to be explained to our president before it was created so my mind I kind of had an idea what the students told me what they wanted to do but to explain it well we have an artist named Bob Doster he's gonna come on campus and he's going to guide the students and they're gonna trace their hands and then they're gonna cut their hands out and she said well how are they gonna cut their hands I was like well not with scissors but with the torch but Bob's been doing this for a long long time it's completely safe and we were there the whole time and but you know the students had a wonderful learning experience with this project and the things like that Dr. McCraw supports arts education at SESDB so in all our areas so we really appreciate her. Also the people who actually helped make this happen was the foundation SESDB foundation along with the South Carolina Arts Commission and Arts and Basic Curriculum Project they are the ones who actually funded this project to bring Bob with us and that's actually how I got relationship with Bob is through the Arts and Basic Curriculum Project. Now the design this happened several years ago probably about two years ago maybe three years ago when we met with some students we kind of explained what we wanted to do an art project with a metal artist and so we come up with a couple of different designs this was what we finalized with because we wanted something that would bring community members in and unite with our students staff and just something that we could all do together and then also that represents SDSDB I think they did a wonderful job coming up with the final project so we really appreciate that. You know the South Carolina profile of the graduate kind of drives education in South Carolina and a couple words you'll see on this profile are innovation, creativity, collaboration and that's what students have to have to work in this time that we're in and so really when you focus on the sculpture you can really see that's the example because this is the result but the magic of the education was the process of creating it and how it connects one another so that's what the arts does it mainly engages the students and it connects people and what comes with it from a place of love as you can see here that symbolizes all over South Carolina I think some great things can happen so I just want to thank you all for coming thank you for your support. On behalf of the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind and the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind Foundation it is my pleasure to gift the sculpture to the city of Columbia we are so pleased to have the honor to place this piece of student artwork here in the middle of Columbia the home of our outreach office here for the Midlands it is truly a testament of your support for children with disabilities here in South Carolina for those with sensory disability so it is our pleasure to gift this to you thank you for allowing us to make a difference for children in South Carolina thank you. Good morning everyone and thank you so much for being here this morning for some of you who in the upstate the weather is like this in Columbia every day we just call ourselves famously hot it's it's a it's always beautiful I will say this is a very special day I think I'm trying to think about when I first heard about this incredible sculpture maybe my friend hope likely maybe calling to tell me that the idea has been floated about having one here in Columbia and we need to call together a meeting well I'll tell you once I've finally had a chance to visualize how incredibly special this piece of art is Mr. Doster I've been looking forward to this day very much so looking forward to this day many of you know the history of this this this great city formed at the the formation of the the Congrary River by the broad and Salute Rivers here when they were discussing what the name of the city would be the the landed gentry in Charleston and the growing businessmen in the upstate all had their ideas someone actually suggested we call it refuge because it was in the middle of nowhere in 1786 it was then that senator John Lewis Jervais of Abbeyville said that he hoped that the oppressed of all lands might find refuge under the wings of Columbia he hoped that the oppressed of all lands might find refuge under the wings of Columbia indeed at the birth of this great nation even with the challenges we face as a country then we're thinking about the spirit of inclusion the spirit of the fact that in this city everyone would be able to live up to the God-given potential we recognize that that ability that genius knows it was zip code or disability the only opportunity does and and the opportunities afforded by the Sargon school for the deaf and blind and the foundation that supports your work and all your wonderful individuals it's it's an honor for us to have this culture in the middle of our Vista area close enough that our incredible state legislators can can can see it from the state capital as they come down here and and it speaks as it stands as a testament to exactly not only who we are but who we aspire to to be in this great city and this great state indeed at the heart of the greatest democratic nation in the history of the world I do want to say Dr. McCraw thank you for your leadership and and all the work that you do as president I do also want to thank at least no growth and the folks at one Columbia for he's been leading our public art initiatives over the last several years and doing a fantastic job here in the Midlands I have to thank our city staff you know we politicians get we get ideas but we don't have to actually execute on any of them so I see Kelvin I'm not sure I see Lucinda I don't see you Christa but but some of the folks that we reached out to so we got to make this happen and they made sure that we were actually doing all the blocking and tackling that actually make it happen to deliver on this I really want to thank our staff who make like the city special again Mr. Doster thank you for for your gift and sharing your gifts my I have one child who's a who's a budding artist so I even love with art and envious of artists as well and to to not think at robbery to share your gifts with the rest of the world thank you thank you thank you so much well hello good morning I grew up in Charleston but Columbia will always be for me a memory of where I found my identity my parents came to Columbia for a workshop entitled how to raise deaf children they came for that workshop and learned some basic signs they came to me within the room with the other children and they told me that I was deaf they signed deaf and they signed that they were hearing they signed that my brother was also deaf and so I would name all the friends my cousins my aunts my uncles and I gave them all of the names and said are they deaf or hearing and what I found was that we were my brother and I were the only two who were deaf and so this is where I found my deaf identity when I got back to to Charleston I asked about all of those people as well to find out if they were deaf or hearing and none of them were deaf either so this is a wonderful place I believe to have this statue set here in Columbia where I found my deaf identity the symbol I love you is a symbol of total equal access at the school for the deaf you know that many people look at the deaf school as a special school or a special education school it is not that in the eyes of deaf children this is a school where they have equal access just like hearing children going to a public school have equal access it is a direct parallel there's language accessibility in each of those places communication access and access to different technology the children of the deaf school get that through sign language through the accessible technology just as hearing children would get it in a regular public school auditorily or through spoken English when you see this symbol you can look at this and realize that this means language of without barriers complete access educators at the deaf school teach students in American sign language ASL some students require more one-on-one direct attention but then you know you have that ability that the students have to communicate with one another in ASL as well when you talk about staff in the cafeteria they sign also to the students our dorm staff signs some of them also use spoken language as well with some of the students as need arises so as you see this symbol you'll know that this I love you handshake you'll remember that it means full language access even people that don't know any sign language at all they might be familiar with this symbol this I love you symbol you know hearing children will use it with their hearing parents the I love you symbol you've seen that before but now I'm gonna teach you a little something this I love you symbol the I this handshake is the letter I standing for I that's the letter L for love and meaning you I love you so now you'll know when you see that thank you so much hey there mayor Steve Benjamin here thanks for watching this video make sure you give it a like right below the video and don't forget to subscribe also while you're here be sure to check out one of our other videos or follow on our social media platforms thanks again and remember we are Columbia