Frederick-based Maryland Deaf Community Center searching for a new home

Feb. 7—After four months of being housed in the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association building on Aviation Way, the Maryland Deaf Community Center is back to serving the area's deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind residents without a physical location.

The nonprofit held a grand opening for the new center in October. In a release sent to The Frederick News-Post, the organization's board recalled a joyous — if rainy — celebration that represented the culmination of two years of planning and dreaming about what such a space would mean to the local community.

But the woman who served as the center's patron — Marie Alford of American Sign Language Interpreter Corps Inc. — had to close her business, so the organization had to move out of the Aviation Way building, the board said in the release. The center was the first of its kind in Maryland.

The group's furnishings are currently in storage, and the organization will continue serving the deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind community virtually and remotely until it locates a new center, the release read.

"We have received an outpouring of support from the community to help us find a new center," the board said in the release.

When the center was still open, it was "alive" with activities supporting the deaf and hard of hearing communities, the board said. Deaf seniors held meetings and card-playing events, there was an "overflow" of referral requests in-person, as well as by phone and email, and the Eastern Motorcycle Club for the Deaf hosted a holiday party.

The center also hosted sign language classes, monthly game nights, board meetings for the Free State Chapter of Gallaudet University Alumni Association and Frederick City Police safety workshops, among other events.

"We have received so much support from both the Deaf and Hearing communities and we look forward to many more collaborative connections," the release read.

To contact the center, email info@deafmdcc.org or call (240) 560-5028. Keep up to date by checking the organization's website — deafmdcc.org — Facebook page and Instagram.

"MDCC continues to stand strong and to provide support for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deafblind community of all ages," the release read.

Follow Angela Roberts on Twitter: @24_angier