Why We Ride

ROBIN HORWITZ:

Passionate about anything that goes fast and about the deaf community, Robin once raced cars and tried to find sponsors. Placing calls through TTY, he was often turned down. After several years, he's now working with sponsors and other partners through the means of Hawk Relay video relay services with ease.

Robin has since then worked for Momentum Cycling Team. He has also implemented American Velodrome Challenge, Solvang Power Training Camp, World Deaf Cycling Championships and ASL Bridge. He recognizes that the emergence of today's technology is the key component in allowing him to communicate with all people. Getting an opportunity to be thrown into the sponsorship industry to find money for racing was the best experience he has ever gone through. He feels he wants to be able to offer those opportunities to deaf children at a much earlier age than when he was afforded with those opportunities.

Currently, the schools' spending abilities have been restricted by the government cuts and Robin recognizes the dangers of losing education and resources that are available to the deaf children and he hopes to raise enough funds to offer programs allowing them to experience working or learning what is available out there while they're in the school.

THE FOUNDER OF HAWK RELAY:

Samuel Hawk's grandfather, a business owner, passed away when Samuel was 13. The executors of his estate decided that the best thing to do with the business would be to liquidate. Samuel recognized the dangers of this and pleaded with the group to find someone to run the business until he was of legal age and could assume the business.

The executors believed that Samuel would not be an ideal leader, given that he was Deaf and could not speak. This was during the days before relay services were available, and they felt that sales - particularly, telephone sales - were a crucial aspect of the day-to-day operations. Since Samuel was unable to handle telephone sales, the executors ignored his pleas and went forward with their plans.

Samuel remembers feeling sudden extraordinary emptiness when the shipping company came and took everything away. To this day, he is dismayed by the experience. It was one of the earliest times he ever realized how his disability was viewed as sufficient cause to end an enterprise.

Now, more than 20 years later, Samuel has founded Hawk Relay to ensure that opportunities for Deaf and hard of hearing are not marginalized by telecommunication issues.

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