The Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB) received a donation from the Alabama Power Foundation on June 26 to help construct the new Student Life and Conference Center for the organization’s Talladega campus.

The Student Life and Conference Center will be a 14,000-square-foot facility that will serve a variety of uses for AIDB, including academic competitions and shows. It will also host club meetings for students and will have enough space for dances and other social events.

“What this is, it’s a building that will allow all of our campuses to come together,” said Becky Watson, executive director of the Office of Institutional Advancement for AIDB. “The students will be able to participate in academic, social, cultural and recreational programs that will enhance their individual professional development opportunities.”

The preparation of the property for construction is slated to begin in August, with construction beginning in late fall/early winter. The site on the 275 Bypass is projected to open approximately 12 months after construction begins.

Founded in 1858, AIDB yearly serves more than 31,000 children, adults and seniors with hearing and vision loss. The organization consists of five campuses in Talladega and 10 regional centers across the state.

Alabama Power Eastern Division Vice President Terry Smiley and other representatives of the Alabama Power Foundation and AIDB chat before the check presentation. (Champ Creative)

According to Watson, the new building will fulfill a large need that AIDB has experienced for years now: limited capacity.

“We know from research that the students will improve their testing scores and their social competencies by working together,” Watson said. “We’ve seen that in the past, but we’ve never had the opportunity. We don’t have a space anywhere on any of our campuses that allows our children or our staff to work together. We have auditoriums, but they’re the old-fashioned locked-down, screwed-in seating and, at best, they’ll hold 250, but we have over 400 students and we have over 700 employees within Talladega alone and over 1,500 total.”

The new Student Life and Conference Center will do more than increase AIDB’s capacity. The new facility will create opportunities for students that they haven’t had before, chiefly in the areas of working together to collaborate and to face the challenges they live with daily.

“They can help each other overcome their own challenges through social opportunities,” Watson said. “They lift each other up and they encourage each other, but it’s the same thing with people who are not deaf and blind. If you are working together, then you lift each other up and you help each other, but if you don’t have that opportunity to collaborate with a mentor or a student that is also in that same field, then you don’t have that opportunity to lift each other up.

“This is just a way for our students to collaborate together and to mentor each other.”

While AIDB has had a profound impact on deaf and blind Alabamians for more than 160 years, the Student Life and Conference Center will help ensure that AIDB’s work will continue for many years to come.

“We are very, very appreciative of the support that we receive from the Alabama Power Company,” Watson said. “We appreciate their partnership. We appreciate the support. They have always been very supportive of AIDB.”

To learn more about AIDB or to make a donation, visit the website. To learn more about the Alabama Power Foundation and its efforts across the state, click here.