'Survivor' alum embraces new reality
By Ryan Graff
December 17, 2004

Basalt's Christy Smith is already famous.

She's been on CBS's "Survivor," and people recognize her in malls and airports around the country. She's got a stack of glossy pictures of herself in the Amazon - where the show was filmed - and a felt pen ready.

Smith seems to have gone the way of other ex-reality-TV stars who scrape and fight for every last morsel of attention after they fall from the spotlight forever after their shows end.

Smith, though, isn't a typical reality-TV star, and her self-promotion and publicity hunt after "Survivor 6: The Amazon" isn't typical, either. Smith, a Roaring Fork Valley native, was "the deaf contestant" on "Survivor."

She is still fighting for publicity, to a certain extent, two years after she was eliminated from the show after 33 days. But what Smith has really fought for is deaf awareness.

And she has been successful. She's made appearances, given motivational speeches and now will have a show of her own, "Christy's Kids: Challenge Yourself!"

Eight months ago, Smith went to see Chris Tribble at Versatile Productions near Carbondale in hopes of creating a show, and just about a week from now, the two will premier "Christy's Kids" on Denver's PBS station KBDI - Channel 12.

Smith's journey to making the show probably started years ago. She was born and raised in Aspen, a place with many things, but not a large deaf population, save for the folks at Aspen Camp School for the Deaf.

She went to Aspen's public schools, learned to talk, and to read lips and expressions.

"It's a very rural area, so my upbringing was all speaking," Smith said recently. She wears hearing aids and can hear certain sounds - airplanes and loud drums - but is otherwise completely deaf.

In an interview on Tuesday, Smith didn't miss a beat.

"It takes reading lips and expressions to know what is going on," she said.

Even with her high communication ability, though, Smith felt isolated in school and didn't have good friends, so she transferred to a high school program for the deaf at Gallaudet University in Washington D.C.

"It was awesome," she said. "The world changed. That was where my self-esteem just shot up. That experience got me to 'Survivor.'"

Now Smith is trying to keep other kids without strong deaf communities from feeling the way she did growing up - but not how you might think.

"Christy's Kids" isn't so much for deaf kids, though most of the show is signed and gives deaf kids a show of their own. It's more for hearing kids to learn American Sign Language, the third-most-spoken language in the United States.

In the show's first episode, "The Hat and the Honey," Smith takes four kids - two deaf, two hearing - on an adventure through the woods. Together, the kids and Smith have to work together to cross streams, rescue a hat and gather honey.

Along the way they have help from, Luna, a sort of fairy that appears when things get rough to help kids learn a new sign or make sure they stay safe.

"The show is about me taking kids on an adventure, and the challenges along the way and how you have to work together to get through the challenge," Smith said.

Not every show will feature Smith and kids romping through the woods. Some will take place in a city or other environments to make sure viewers learn more signs than just, say, "honey" or "tree."

For now, Smith and Tribble are committed to do a 13-part series for PBS, but are hoping to produce 26 segments and syndicate the show nationally.

The two may do just that, with a grassroots marketing campaign powered by mall appearances and Smith's marketability. Smith's outlook on life, of course won't hurt.

"Make a difference, live large," she signed a promotional photo.

"I became a role model, and I want to continue that," she said.

 'Survivor' star plans her own show
By Eben Harrell
December 13, 2004

Christy Smith, a local activist for the deaf and former contestant on the hit television show "Survivor," will launch her own TV show this Christmas.

Smith grew up in Aspen and currently lives in Basalt. She became a national celebrity two years ago after competing in CBS' "Survivor 6: The Amazon Series."

Her show is called "Christy's Kids: Challenge Yourself!" Under the direction of local Chris Tribble's Versatile Production company, one pilot episode has been shot. The episode, which will air on Denver's public broadcast channel on Dec. 26 and in Los Angeles at a date yet to be determined, was filmed at the Aspen Camp School for the Deaf.

Because she is deaf, Smith said she never watched television as a child, but the attention she received after her appearance on "Survivor" gave her the idea to use the medium to promote awareness of the challenges facing deaf children.

"The response I received was so overwhelming," Smith said. "I realized what a huge impact TV has. It's a great opportunity to bridge the gap between the hearing and the deaf."

The show will feature four children - two hearing children and two deaf children. Smith, who reads lips and also uses American Sign Language, will host the show. Set up as an adventure scavenger hunt, the hearing and deaf children work to overcome communication barriers in order to pass certain challenges.

"There's a diversity to deafness," Smith said. "There's people who can talk. People who use sign language, people who can read lips. This really helps to educate everyone about deafness."

Smith, who attended Aspen Elementary and Middle schools before enrolling at a special high school for the deaf, said there's a lack of understanding in mainstream society about deaf children.

"Deaf kids tend to get isolated from the hearing kids," Smith said. "It was often really hard for me growing up. This TV show will hopefully make it easier for future generations."

Smith is looking for sponsors to fund the first series of the show. Her goal is national syndication. To promote the show, she is holding a publicity day at Flatiron Crossing Mall in Broomfield on Dec. 22.

"[A first series] is going to happen," Smith said. "It's so hard to visualize deafness. But now we have a pilot to show to people, I'm really confident the show will take off."

A website about Christy's Kids, www.Christykids.tv, will soon be operational. Christy Smith's website is www.amazinchristy.com.

Tsunami survivor describes underwater horror
By Karen Kaufman

URL:   http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/519302.html

"Our boat was lucky. We saw a cruise liner stuck near the islands with three people dead," said Londoner Naomi Hayim from her boat off the coast of Phuket yesterday.
Hayim, who is deaf, and 13 other people (including another deaf person) were diving at Richelieu Rock, a collection of submerged pinnacles renowned for its visiting whale sharks north of the Surin Islands (about 60 kilometers off the west coast of Phang Nga province) when the tsunami hit.

"We realized that the wave went right over us as we were diving," she said yesterday via SMS messaging on her cell phone. She said the giant wave created a whirlpool with incredibly strong currents. The divers were swept under, completely losing each other and severely hampered by poor visibility. All 14 eventually surfaced and found each other, though an exhausted Hayim could not be certain yesterday how long they had actually been submerged. Luckily all 14 were unharmed.

 Hayim, 26, was brought up in London's Maida Vale and is a divemaster and marine biologist. She also studied clown fish and sea anemones at the Institute of Marine Biology in Eilat in 2000. A battle with meningitis when she was just a baby left her deaf. She has never, however, let this stop her from doing anything she put her mind to and graduated from Queen Mary, University of London with a degree in marine and freshwater biology.

Hayim is part of Worldwide Dive and Sail, a company that offers seven-day sailing and diving trips aboard a 21-meter yacht. Her ability to lip-read and sign enables her to teach deaf and hard-of-hearing people how to dive.

The yacht left Phuket on Friday for what was supposed to be a week-long underwater adventure for holiday-makers who joined from Britain, the Netherlands and Austria. There were no Israelis on board - as Naomi put it "I'm the only Jew here."

Yesterday afternoon, the boat and its passengers turned back toward Phuket, but by early evening they were instructed to stay out at sea for fear of aftershocks and because the port at Phuket had been ruined.

Hayim said that they are now waiting to hear from the Thai authorities when they will be able to go back to land. As the trip was due to last a week, the boat still has enough food and equipment for several more days.

Hayim's group was one of several diving excursions that were at sea when the tsunami struck. "We are very lucky that nothing terrible happened," she said last night.