HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Houston County man is looking to bring two communities together with a special dance.
"Really, deaf people can dance," Philip Sublett said.
Sublett has been deaf since he was 2-years-old.
"I became deaf at the age of 2 through meningitis," he said.
Through his interpreter, Laverne Lowe, he says he decided to organize a ball where both the deaf and hearing community can dance together.
"We go by the beat, feeling the vibration of the music. We feel the rhythm of the music and everything just works out beautiful doing that," Sublett said.
And 'Dance Beneath the Stars' was born.
"It's not about race, it's not about color, it's about coming together on a common bond," Sublett said. "It's about coming together and being together."
This sense of community is something Sublett has always wanted, especially now with a 4-year-old son Levi, who can hear.
"It's important that we teach him ASL, whether we're standing in the same room or in different situations, we can sign back and forth to each other," Sublett said.
And as the new President of the Middle Georgia Association of the Deaf, Sublett hopes to go beyond the ball and make a long term difference.
"I would love to make contact with the first responders, the weather alert systems, and the reason I'd like to do that is in case a tornado is in town or something, the sirens normally go off, but as a deaf community, we can't hear the sirens," Sublett said.
With the ball right around the corner, Sublett says he hopes this will be the first of many.
The ball will be held on Saturday, July 13 from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Warner Robins Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Corder Street. Tickets for the ball are $15 each, and they will be available for the same price at the door.