The youngest member of the Angels Camp City Council, Amanda Folendorf, has become the first deaf female mayor in American history. INN brings factual information about the person of Amanda Folendorf…read on
Amanda Folendorf, 31, was born and grew up in the small California town of Angels Camp, about two hours southeast of Sacramento. The community, which sprung up during the Gold Rush, boasts nearly 4,000 residents. For Folendorf’s family, caring for those residents has been a legacy.
Folendorf was born with a hernia in her diaphragm, and medication she took to seal it caused her to lose most of her hearing. She can pick up some low-frequency noises but considers herself deaf,
Folendorf has a family history of involvement in Angels Camp with civil services. she grew up watching many of her family members appointed, elected and volunteering in my community. She believes she was born into it.
She began a one-year term atop the City Council last month. The Angels Camp native studied at Bret Harte Union High School and Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. – a school for the deaf – before earning a political science degree from Sacramento State, and was Miss Deaf California from 2007 to 2009.
Angels Camp City Council representatives elect their mayor every January. Folendorf has spent the last three years on the council, including the last year as vice mayor.
The youngest active council member by at least 20 years, Folendorf broke with traditionalist views when she advocated for Angels Camp to regulate recreational marijuana sales during a November council meeting, a local source reported.
After attendees heckled Folendorf and demanded she be recalled, the council voted to allow non-cash commercial marijuana deliveries from dispensaries outside Calaveras County but prohibit all other transactions. Calaveras County banned cannabis cultivation for sale in January.
Her vision is that the mayoral platform can be used as a catalyst to start a national conversation of removing stigmas and start a positive platform of supporting anyone that wants to run for office, especially young females and individuals with various abilities.
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