Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Rita Mae Calvaruso signs as she does an interview at DePaul School for Hearing and Speech in Shadyside. Click photo for larger image.

When Rita Mae Visco Calvaruso walks the halls of DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, she's stopped as often as a celebrity, exchanging hugs and greetings with her children's former teachers, other staff members and students who are her friends' grandchildren.

Tomorrow the school will honor Mrs. Calvaruso, who started as a student there in 1942, for her decades of advocacy for Pittsburgh's deaf community.

She will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award at the school's "Reach for the Stars" gala at the Westin Convention Center hotel.

"This is the first deaf award I have received," Mrs. Calvaruso, of Regent Square, said through the words of a sign language interpreter from the Center for Hearing and Deaf Services. "I was definitely shocked. I had never thought I'd get an award like this."

John Krysinsky, special events manager with DePaul, a nonprofit day school in Shadyside, said Mrs. Calvaruso was a consensus choice as award recipient among the alumni and staff.

"Mrs. Calvaruso represented DePaul over the years not only as a student but also as a parent," he said. "She inspired people and has overcome many obstacles in life. The school wanted to recognize her accomplishments."

Mrs. Calvaruso, 69, has fond memories of her time as a student at DePaul. "We had a lot of fun," she said, recalling that the education was quite different when she attended the school. One example is the change in student-teacher ratio.

"There used to be 30 or 40 kids in one class. Now, there are only a few."

After graduating in 1954, Mrs. Calvaruso went to Irwin Avenue Vocational High School on the North Side, where she graduated with honors in 1956. She was the first deaf recipient of the Jane Bryce Gold Medal Award for outstanding business acumen.

When she married DePaul graduate Francis A. Visco in 1958, Mrs. Calvaruso committed herself to family life and raised 12 children. Six of them are deaf; one has hearing loss. Those seven children attended DePaul from the late 1960s to the early 1990s.

She still has strong ties with the school. Over the years, Mrs. Calvaruso established herself as a proponent of auditory and oral education, which stresses language development as opposed to sign language as the primary means of communication. That was one reason she wanted her children to attend DePaul.

Some hearing people are apologetic about the process of communicating with a deaf person, she said. "I tell them that there is nothing to apologize for. Both sign language and oratory skills are important, because you can communicate with deaf and hearing people."

Mrs. Calvaruso believes that fact that she is receiving the award could inspire both deaf and hearing people.

"I like to show the hearing community that I can do anything."

DePaul, established in 1908 by the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, is the largest school in Western Pennsylvania serving deaf or hard-of-hearing children through oral education. It has about 60 students and charges no tuition.

DePaul School Trustee Emeritus and gala chairman Arthur J. Rooney Jr. will present Mrs. Calvaruso with the award. Justin Osmond, spokesman for The Starkey Hearing Foundation and a member of the Osmond entertainment family, is keynote speaker. The event starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $125. Contact Mr. Krysinsky at jkrysinsky@depaulinst.com or 412-924-1017.