 Hundreds of elementary students flooded the gym at Central Lakes College today in Brainerd to watch some of their favorite stories and movies brought to life. As Mal Meyer reports, the young students learned about more than just body language as the actors showed off their American sign language skills. The college invited area schools to bring their students to see Peter Pan, Hansel and Gretel, Frozen and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Before their spring semester showcase, the ASL2 students lended a hand while the ASL4 students lended them a voice. So their voices have to match the characters and if they're a boy or a girl and it's a whole lot of elements that have to combine together to make this whole thing successful for the children. Many times, those hard of hearing or deaf are left to find their own means to communicate with others. It's a great experience to have the sign and the voicing so that deaf and hearing people can enjoy it together. It's great. For some, this might be their first experience with the language. I really hope that they take away all the deaf culture pieces that we're teaching today. Culture pieces like shorthand for people's names, or how to get someone else's attention. Hopefully the young students can use this crash course in their everyday lives. We do have a lot of deaf people in our community and we can reach out and help them and communicate with them and include them in everything we do. Just to have that communication barrier between the hearing and deaf and hard of hearing taken away, it's mind blowing to see how your life can change just by taking one class. In Brainerd, I'm Mal Meyer, Lakeland News. The college students are able to pick out which plays they will perform so next year the elementary students will have a fresh round of stories in Science Cool Event. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.