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FDSH grad Hale weathers pandemic in New York

NEW YORK — New York City may seem chaotic to a lot of people, but for Kim Hale that’s what she loves most about the city.

Hale, a 1995 Fort Dodge Senior High graduate, lives in Brooklyn, specifically Williamsburg, and has called NYC home for the past 20 years.

The former Dodger is a freelance American Sign Language interpreter and a teaching artist, specializing in musical theater.

Life has changed for Hale and New Yorkers as the novel coronavirus has ran rampant through the city, but she is trying to keep things as normal possible.

“The biggest challenge for me is the fear of the unknown,” Hale said. “Our neighborhood has a higher number of positive cases and so that is worrisome. We are trying to be as careful as possible with everything we interact with. Everything that comes into our apartment goes through an intensive process of cleaning with bleach wipes, like groceries, packages and mail. We live on the sixth floor, so just going downstairs to take out the trash or pick up the mail or a delivery is an intensive and stressful process.

“Also, I miss being busy. I thrive on it. Being involved in so many different things and getting to work with such incredible people. Being out and about in the city is the best thing about New York. So that’s hard — I miss my life I guess.”

With COVID-19 starting sometime in March, by the middle of the month supplies were starting to dwindle. That’s when a friendly delivery started to brighten Hale’s day.

“Cleaning supplies disappeared here pretty quickly in mid-March, so we put out the call to family back in Iowa to help out early on,” Hale said. “My mom (Lynette Dalton, who lives in Fort Dodge), has been amazing and sent us like six care packages full of stuff — which has made a huge difference. She even sent Larita’s cookies for my birthday.

“You have to love that about Iowans — they show up when you need them.”

While being quarantined with her boyfriend, Hale has been able to keep an optimistic mindset while dealing with the devastating virus.

“I’m doing the best I can, and trying to stay positive is a daily challenge,” Hale said. “But we are healthy, our families are safe and healthy and we both have our jobs — we have so much to be grateful for. With everything going on you have to look for the little things.

“Sunny days are the best, the light comes through our windows and the sky is blue and you just feel so hopeful. I’m sad that we are going to miss all of spring in New York though — it’s my favorite time of year, when everything comes back to life and there always seems to be tulips planted all over the city. I can’t wait to go out and walk outside and be in the city.”

The spread of the coronavirus has shutdown schools around the nation and Hale has had to make some adjustments for her students.

“COVID-19 has affected my work as a freelance ASL interpreter in many different ways. My primary work as an interpreter is in an elementary school in South Brooklyn in a classroom for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in third through fifth grades,” Hale said. “All of the schools in New York have been closed since March 15. I am incredibly fortunate that I have been able to continue this work online via Google Classroom and Zoom, either interpreting live Zoom sessions with the teacher and students, or interpreting remotely creating video content from assignments.

“Seeing the kids online absolutely makes my day. Last week they all sang/signed me “Happy Birthday” on Zoom and it was adorable.”

Outside of school, Hale’s freelance interpreting has essentially stopped.

“I was scheduled to interpret several live theater events that were canceled or postponed,” Hale said. “Interpreting on video is not ideal for anyone involved, it can be very frustrating for the deaf consumers to track the speaker and follow larger group conversations, not to mention you can feel very helpless with video and sound quality and internet connections.”

Hale, who is the daughter of former Fort Dodge city Councilman John Hale, has been heavily involved in theater and music since high school and COVID-19 has put a damper on it.

“My programs in the city are focused on creating original musicals with different school and theater groups and companies, all of which are connected to the disability or neurodiverse community — and those have been canceled,” Hale said. “So that is incredibly hard, because for those students and actors it’s their main outlet for expression, creativity and social interaction with people like them who really “get” them. And they have worked so hard to create these incredibly personal theater pieces, and we don’t know if they will ever get to complete them, or even perform them.

“So that’s the most upsetting part of all of this for me. I am sad for my students. I miss seeing them and I worry about how they are doing. I miss my colleagues and I miss our teamwork and camaraderie. Theater is my life blood, and not being able to do that is just devastating.”

With no end in sight, Hale has just been very grateful for the time to reflect.

“With both of us working it actually feels like the time has gone by pretty quickly — which is crazy,” Hale said. “I can’t believe it’s April already. But we are fully prepared that we will be doing this at least through the end of April if not May.

“Accepting that has helped me a lot, to just face the reality of the situation. And I limit my access to the news daily — otherwise it makes you so depressed and anxious.”

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