National Treasures

At StreetLeverage, we subscribe to the belief that central to meaningful change is recognizing those trailblazers, pioneers, and independent thinkers who looked at the current practices of their time and found a way, not only to uncover art, but to identify gaps in both art and practice and worked to create change. These people created a model and a legacy for us to look to for guidance. Many would call these people national treasures. We would agree.

To formally acknowledge the contributions of these trailblazers, pioneers and independent thinkers, StreetLeverage announced the creation of a National Treasure Award during its StreetLeverage – Live 2015 event. The National Treasure Award will be awarded annually in an effort to recognize those who have enriched the fundamental assets of Deaf Culture, ASL, and/or the field of sign language interpreting.

StreetLeverage National Treasure Awardees will be granted life-time complementary access to StreetLeverage’s annual StreetLeverage – Live event.

Patrick Graybill

StreetLeverage was delighted to honor Patrick Aaron Graybill as the first recipient of the StreetLeverage National Treasure Award.

You can view the award presentation here.

Patrick’s Abbreviated Bio

Patrick Graybill was among the original members of the National Theatre of the Deaf troupe. After leaving NTD, he taught performing arts and literature at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and spent time working at Sign Media. Now retired, it has been his joy to be a consultant with sign language interpreters or a tutor for interpreting students and observe how English can be translated into American Sign Language.