2020 Ear Community Microtia and Atresia Summer Family Picnics
Ear Community hosts picnics every year around the world helping bring Microtia and Atresia families together. This year’s picnics will take place in the United States in Richmond, Virginia/ Houston, Texas/ Mesa, Arizona/ Nashville, Tennessee/ Palo Alto, California/ Cranberry, Pennsylvania, Cleveland, Ohio and Hamilton, Ontario – Canada! It is very exciting for many families! Everyone enjoys attending our picnics and our Ear Community picnics always offer such a wonderful opportunity for Microtia and Atresia families to come together, share experiences with each other, and maybe even make a new friend. Medical professionals such as world renown Microtia and Atresia repair surgeons, anaplastologists, ENTs, audiologists, and therapists along with the world’s leading hearing device and medical device companies all come together to mingle with us at our picnics, helping educate us on all of our options including hearing loss.
*** We were hopeful that our events would take place outdoors this year just as they have in past years and we know how much Ear Community families enjoy coming together at our picnics. We tried pushing our summer events into the Fall months. Unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans for us this year. INSTEAD, we have decided to make all of our picnic events virtual via Zoom this year! Please join us during your lunch and enjoy some educational time together with our Microtia and Atresia community families. We will still have some fun entertainment provided during our virtual events. Our picnic host families will be joining us along with some of our Microtia and Atresia medical professionals. We are super excited and grateful to have the continued support of our Ear Community Sponsors who will be joining us too and educating us on the latest in hearing device technology.
This year’s Ear Community Zoom events were made possible thanks to our Sponsors! Without the continued support of our sponsors during COVID-19, this would have been the first year in a decade where Microtia and Atresia families would not have been able to come together with Ear Community. Ear Community is thankful and appreciates the continued support from our Sponsors during COVID-19! Your support means more than you know to our families and medical professionals! ***
We look forward to seeing you at our VIRTUAL Ear Community picnics this year!
Melissa Tumblin,
Founder and Executive Director of Ear Community
Founder of the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook
2020 Ear Community Picnics and Events
RDLA Webinar
Rare Disease Legislative Awareness presentation
Presentation on Ally’s Act, H.R. 5485
Presenter: Melissa Tumblin, Ear Community
Date: June 18th, 2020
Time: 12PM Easter Time
Attendance: 400 virtual attendees
Pennsylvania Ear Community Picnic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
* Dr. Noel Jabbour from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Microtia and Atresia clinic will be joining us along with our picnic host family – the Cook Family! We’ll have anaplastologist, Paul Tanner joining us and James Hermsen of Spokiz. Magician Ray Lucas will intrigue us! A special thank you to our hearing device representatives for joining us – Platinum Sponsors Cochlear Americas (Sharon Carroll) and Oticon Medical (Lisa Reedy) and our Silver Sponsor Med-EL USA (Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson).
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2020, virtually via Zoom Events
Time: 1PM Eastern Time
RSVP for Zoom invite to Heidi at: EarCommunityPennsylvaniaPicnic@gmail.com
Acoustic Neuroma Association
Presentation on Ally’s Act, H.R. 5485 and Tumblin journey with Microtia and Atresia
Guest speaker: Melissa Tumblin, Ear Community
Date: August 29th, 2020
Time: 10AM Mountain Time (virtual)
California Ear Community Picnic
Palo Alto, California
* Dr. Mai Thy Truong and Dr. Kay Chang of Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital’s Microtia and Atresia clinic will be joining us along with our picnic host family – the Van Dyke Family! We’ll have anaplastologist, Paul Tanner joining us and James Hermsen of Spokiz. A comedy show that will surely make us laugh! A special thank you to our hearing device representatives for joining us – Platinum Sponsors Cochlear Americas (Rachel Caloca) and Oticon Medical (Krista Bramlet & Shana Martinez) and our Silver Sponsor Med-EL USA (Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson).
Date: Saturday, September 5th, 2020, virtually via Zoom Events
Time: 11AM Pacific Time
RSVP for Zoom invite to Heidi at: EarCommunityCaliforniaPicnic@gmail.com
Tennessee Ear Community Picnic
Nashville, Tennessee
* Dr. Ron Eavey, Dr. Scott Stephan, Dr. Marc Bennett, Dr. Margaret McRedmond, Dr. Brandy Stephens and Scott Fiscus (our anaplastologist) of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Microtia and Atresia clinic will be joining us along with our picnic host family – the Greene Family! We are looking forward to listening to our special guest, Charlie Greene and his band Betcha perform, which is one of the hottest pop-quartet bands out of Nashville! A special thank you to our hearing device representatives joining us – Platinum Sponsors Cochlear Americas (Tina Castaneda) and Oticon Medical (Amanda Cooley) and our Silver Sponsor Med-EL USA (Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson) and James Hersen of Spokiz.
Date: Saturday, September 26th, 2020,virtually via Zoom Events
Time: 1PM Central Time
RSVP for Zoom invite to Melissa at:TennesseeEarCommunityPicnic@gmail.com
Arizona Ear Community Picnic
Mesa, Arizona
* Thank you to the Smith Family for being our picnic host family this year! Microtia repair specialist, Dr. Sheryl Lewin, along with anaplastologist, Paul Tanner joining us and James Hermsen of Spokiz. We’ll have a special guest appearance by Elise Lieberth Haagenson who just had one of her hit songs go viral on TikTok. A special thank you to our hearing device representatives for joining us – Platinum Sponsors Cochlear Americas (Javier Cosentino) and Oticon Medical (Dina Panopoulos) and our Silver Sponsor Med-EL USA (Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson).
Date: Saturday, October 3rd, 2020, virtually via Zoom Events
Time: 11AM Pacific Time
RSVP for Zoom invite to Heidi at: EarCommunityArizonaPicnic@gmail.com
Texas Ear Community Picnic
Houston, Texas
* Dr. Carol Liu, Dr. Rodrigo Silva, Dr. Jennifer Drob and Dr. Sabrina Marciante of the Texas Children’s Hospital’s Microtia and Atresia clinic will be joining us along with our picnic host family – The Mendoza Family! A special guest appearance by Elise Lieberth Haagenson who just had one of her hit songs go viral on TikTok. Anaplastologist Colette Shrader will be joining us and James Hermsen of Spokiz! A special thank you to our hearing device representatives for joining us – Platinum Sponsors Cochlear Americas (Claudia Pena) and Oticon Medical (Lauren Placke) and our Silver Sponsor Med-EL USA (Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson).
Date: Saturday, October 17th, 2020, virtually via Zoom Events
Time: 1PM Central Time
RSVP for Zoom invite to Heidi at: EarCommunityTexasPicnic@gmail.com
Virginia Ear Community Picnic
Richmond, Virginia
* Thank you to the Herzing and Logan Families for being our picnic host families this year! Microtia repair specialists Dr. Angelo Leto-Barone and Dr. Arturo Bonilla along with anaplastologist Colette Shrader will be joining us and James Hermsen of Spokiz! We’ll have an incredible comedy and juggling act by Jonathan the Juggler who is very popular and well known in the Virginia area. A special thank you to our hearing device representatives for joining us – Platinum Sponsors Cochlear Americas (Martha Schley Smith) and Oticon Medical (Nicole King) and our Silver Sponsor Med-EL USA (Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson).
Date: Saturday, October 24th, 2020, virtually via Zoom Events
Time: 1PM Eastern Time
RSVP for Zoom invite to Heidi at: EarCommunityVirginiaPicnic@gmail.com
Ohio Ear Community Picnic
Cleveland, Ohio
* Dr. Anand Kumar and Dr. Alejandro Rivas of University Hospital’s Microtia & Atresia clinic and facial plastics clinic will be joining us! We’ll have anaplastologist Megan Thomas joining us and James Hermsen of Spokiz. We look forward to a magic show that will surely make us laugh! A special thank you to our hearing device representatives for joining us – Platinum Sponsors Cochlear Americas (Bee Pena) and Oticon Medical (Lisa Reedy) and our Silver Sponsor Med-EL USA (Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson).
Date: Saturday, November 7th, 2020, virtually via Zoom Events
Time: 1PM Eastern Time
RSVP for Zoom invite to Heidi at: OhioEarCommunityPicnic@gmail.
Ear Community NMAD Event
A virtual event for all of our community members to join in and stop by and say “hi!”
Date: Sunday, November 8th, 2020
Time: 2PM East Coast Time
RSVP to Melissa at: ColoradoMicrotia@hotmail.com
Canada Ear Community Picnic
Hamilton, Ontario – Canada
* Thank you to the Stewart Family for being our picnic host family this year!
Date: Saturday – CANCELLED FOR 2020 DUE TO COVID-19.
Time: 11AM to 3PM
RSVP to Cindy at: CindyStewart2008@gmail.com
________________________________________________________________________________________
National Microtia Awareness Day
November 9th, 2020 is National Microtia Awareness Day! Raise awareness with us throughout the United States and across the world for all who wish to embrace our awareness day with us!
To hear all about our amazing first National Microtia Awareness Day, please click here…
Click here for an interview with AudiologyOnline about National Microtia Awareness Day…
Click here for our radio commercial for raising awareness about Microtia and Atresia…
Coming soon….click (here) anytime during the year to order official National Microtia Awareness t-shirts…
National Microtia Awareness Day is an amazing day of awareness and one that is special to so many of us!
Virtual Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Picnic (USA)
August 1st, 2020
Ear Community had its very first virtual picnic event on Saturday August 1 st , 2020. For the past decade, our organization has hosted many picnics all over the world and enjoys bringing Microtia and Atresia families together, giving them the opportunity to learn and make connections face-to-face. However, this year had other plans in store for us due to the health restrictions of Covid-19. So, Ear
Community decided to make all of our events virtual so that everyone involved could still come together and participate
safely.
During our first virtual event, we had families join us from Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Nebraska, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
New York, North Carolina including families from Canada, Ukraine, South Africa, and Abu Dhabi UAE – as well as a group of audiologists from Chile! About 70 people attended our virtual event. Shortly before our virtual event took place, Heidi, Ear Community’s events manager was contacted by a mother from the Ukraine who had recently had a baby born with Microtia and Atresia. She was going through all of the emotions so many of us have experienced when first learning about little and missing ears. Heidi informed her about our virtual Zoom event and she was elated! She said “I was wondering how I was going to save the money to travel to the USA so that we could attend an Ear Community picnic but now I will be able to from my own home, thank you!” – it is so heart warming for us to know that because we opted to go virtual for our events, so many other families could participate from all over the world! What a silver lining to come out of such a dim pandemic situation that has made 2020 so challenging for so many of us!
Ear Community would like to extend a special thank you to all of our guest speakers who helped make our virtual picnic special while educating about all options:
– Thank you to Dr. Noel Jabbour of the Congenital Ear Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for educating on outer ear reconstruction, atresiaplasty and bone anchored hearing device implants! www.MicrotiaCare.com – Thank you to Paul Tanner who helped educate us about prosthetic ears! https://healthcare.utah.edu/huntsmancancerinstitute/treatment/facial-prosthetics.php – Thank you to James Hermsen who helped educate us about eyeglasses for children who are missingears. www.facebook.com/Adaptive-Eyewear-Solutions-203235913044825/
We would also like to extend a very special thank you to our Ear Community sponsors for helping make our events possible and for educating us on the latest hearing devices for the Microtia and Atresia community:
Platinum Sponsors:
– Thank you to Sharon Carroll with Cochlear Americas for helping educate us about Baha 5, SoundArc and the newly launched Osia system.
– Thank you to Lisa Reedy with Oticon Medical for helping educate us about the Ponto 3 system and the newly launched Ponto 4!
Silver Sponsors:
Thank you Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson with MEDEL for helping educate us on
the ADHEAR system and also the BoneBridge system.
Our virtual event was full of amazing information discussing all options available for Microtia and Atresia. As well as updates on all the good that our Ear Community Organization continues to do for our community including the genetic research our organization is working on, the important piece of legislation our organization has in place known as Ally’s Act, H.R. 5485 that will help thousands of children and adults obtain bone anchored hearing aids and cochlear implants and information about our upcoming National Microtia Awareness Day. We had our wonderful board member, Rachel Songy, who also joined us on our virtual session too!
About halfway through our Zoom, we had the opportunity to enjoy a fun magic show from Ray Lucas, who was a gem to work with! Ray has been selected as Pittsburgh’s Magician of the Year four times! He did not disappoint, and his show was so much fun! Thank you to our wonderful host family, the Cook family! Kim, Joe, Morgan, Madison and Hunter took time out of their family camping trip to be a part of our virtual event and share about their journey with Microtia and Atresia and how they found Ear Community. Ear Community is happy to provide the Cook Family with National Microtia Awareness t-shirts as a thank you and give-a-way item for being our picnic host family! National Microtia Awareness Day is on November 9th!
Here is some helpful information on some of the bone conduction hearing solutions offered by our Platinum Sponsors:
Cochlear Americas
Baha 5 and Osia System Brochure
Oticon Medical
Ponto 4 Product Brochure
Thank you again to everyone who made our very first virtual event such a success! We look forward to the following seeing so many more on our next up coming virtual events this year!
– Ear Community
-
- Heidi Jeffs and a thankful parent from Abu Dhabi, UAE
-
- The Cook Family – our picnic host family
-
- Rachel Bernhard – Ear Community board member
-
- Heidi and Rosalee Jeffs co-hosting our Ear Community virtual event
-
- The Tumblin Family – founders of Ear Community
-
- Our magician Magic Ray!
-
- Dr. Noel Jabbour – UPMC
-
- James Hermsen
-
- Paul Tanner – anaplastologist
-
- The Ear Community Organization
-
- The Congenital Ear Center at UPMC
Virtual Palo Alto, California Picnic (USA)
September 5th, 2020
Ear Community hosted our second virtual picnic event on Saturday, September 5th 2020. For the past decade, our organization has hosted many picnics all over the world and enjoys bringing Microtia and Atresia families together, giving them the opportunity to learn and make connections face-to-face. However, this year had other plans in store for us due to the health restrictions of Covid-19. So, Ear
Community decided to make all of our events virtual so that everyone involved could still come together and participate
safely.
During our second virtual event, we had families join us from Colorado, Idaho, California, Utah, Nebraska, Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, North Carolina and Canada! We had a great turnout on our California Ear Community virtual Microtia and Atresia picnic today! About 100 people attended our virtual event.
Ear Community would like to extend a special thank you to all of our guest speakers who helped make our virtual picnic special while educating about all options:
– Thank you to Drs. Truong and Change, Charlie Lin, and Drs. Tribble and Rehagen from Stanford’s Microtia and Atresia clinic at Stanford Children’s Health – Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital for educating on outer ear reconstruction, atresiaplasty and bone anchored hearing device implants! https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/service/microtia
– Thank you to Paul Tanner who helped educate us about prosthetic ears! https://healthcare.utah.edu/huntsmancancerinstitute/treatment/facial-prosthetics.php
– Thank you to James Hermsen who helped educate us about eyeglasses for children who are missing ears. www.facebook.com/Adaptive-Eyewear-Solutions-203235913044825/
We would also like to extend a very special thank you to our Ear Community sponsors for helping make
our events possible and for educating us on the latest hearing devices for the Microtia and Atresia community:
Platinum Sponsors:
– Thank you to Rachel Caloca with Cochlear Americas for helping educate us about Baha 5, SoundArc and the newly launched Osia system.
– Thank you to Shana Martinez and Krista Bramlet with Oticon Medical for helping educate us about the Ponto 3 system and the newly launched Ponto 4!
Silver Sponsors:
Thank you Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson with MED-EL for helping educate us on
the ADHEAR system and also the BoneBridge system.
Here is some helpful information on some of the bone conduction hearing solutions offered by our Platinum Sponsors:
Cochlear Americas
Baha 5 and Osia System Brochure
Oticon Medical
Ponto 4 Product Brochure
We look forward to seeing so many more of you on our next up coming virtual events this year!
– Ear Community
Virtual Nashville, Tennessee Picnic (USA)
September 26th, 2020
Ear Community hosted our third virtual picnic event on Saturday, September 26th 2020. For the past decade, our organization has hosted many picnics all over the world and enjoys bringing Microtia and Atresia families together, giving them the opportunity to learn and make connections face-to-face. However, this year had other plans in store for us due to the health restrictions of Covid-19. So, Ear
Community decided to make all of our events virtual so that everyone involved could still come together and participate
safely.
During our third virtual event, we had families join us from Colorado, Idaho, Tennessee, Nebraska, North Carolina, New York and Ohio! We had a great turnout on our Tennessee Ear Community virtual Microtia and Atresia picnic today! About 100 people attended our virtual event.
Thank you to Christy and Scott Greene for joining us as our picnic host family! Their son, Charlie, also joined us (who was born with Microtia and Atresia). Thank you so much to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Microtia and Atresia Clinic for joining us! We were joined by Dr. Ron Eavey (Clinical Director at Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Bill Wilkerson Center), Dr. Scott Stephan (plastic surgeon), Dr. Marc Bennett (ENT/Otolaryngologist), Drs. Margaret McRedmond and Brandy Stephens (audiology) and Scott Fiscus (anaplastologist). Thank you to James Hermsen of Adaptive Eyewear Solutions (eyeglasses for Microtia and Atresia) for also joining us. Our amazing Ear Community sponsors not only helped make our event possible, but also helped by educating everyone about the latest hearing devices including the Cochlear Americas Baha 5 and Osia bone conduction systems, the Oticon Medical Ponto 3 Superpower and Ponto 4 and the MED-EL ADHEAR and BoneBridge systems!
Everyone enjoyed an amazing performance by Charlie Greene and the pop band, Betcha! Charlie Greene (vocals), Taylor Dubray (base guitar), Ben Booth (guitar) and Chase Wofford (drums) of Betcha is one of the hottest pop quartet bands to come out of Nashville and we were all honored to hear them perform. Betcha entertained us with three of their most popular songs, including one song that is newer that Charlie Greene dedicated to our Ear Community Organization as it reminds him of life and things that happen in it. Charlie also spoke to our families and helped share his journey and experience as someone growing up with Microtia and Atresia. The important point he made is that he never let his Microtia and Atresia hold him back. We are thankful to Charlie and Betcha for spending their day with us, virtuually, but also being a role model and showing us how you can have Microtia and Atresia and still be a rock star! We also included some great updates on all the good that our Ear Community Organization is doing for the Microtia and Atresia community from genetic research to hearing device legislation (Ally’s Act, H.R. 5485 and S. 4532) to our upcoming National Microtia Awareness Day that will be celebrated on November 9th!
Thank you to everyone who joined us on our Tennessee Ear Community Zoom event session today! We appreciate everyone’s time and questions and are so happy that we have our organization and community that can help provide answers and bring everyone together once again this year!
Ear Community would like to extend a special thank you to all of our guest speakers who helped make our virtual picnic special while educating about all options:
– Thank you to Drs. Eavey, Stephan, Bennett, McRedmond, Stephens and Scott Fiscus from Vanderbilt’s Microtia and Atresia clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for educating on outer ear reconstruction, atresiaplasty, hearing loss, bone anchored hearing device implants and prosthetic ears! www.MicrotiaandAtresiaCare.com
– Thank you to James Hermsen who helped educate us about eyeglasses for children who are missing ears. www.facebook.com/Adaptive-Eyewear-Solutions-203235913044825/
We would also like to extend a very special thank you to our Ear Community sponsors for helping make
our events possible and for educating us on the latest hearing devices for the Microtia and Atresia community:
Platinum Sponsors:
– Thank you to Tina Castaneda with Cochlear Americas for helping educate us about Baha 5, SoundArc and the newly launched Osia system.
– Thank you to Amanda Cooley with Oticon Medical for helping educate us about the Ponto 3 system and the newly launched Ponto 4!
Silver Sponsors:
Thank you Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson with MED-EL for helping educate us on
the ADHEAR system and also the BoneBridge system.
Here is some helpful information on some of the bone conduction hearing solutions offered by our Platinum Sponsors:
Cochlear Americas
Baha 5 and Osia System Brochure
Oticon Medical
Ponto 4 Product Brochure
We look forward to seeing so many more of you on our next up coming virtual events this year!
– Ear Community
October 3rd, 2020
Today, (October 3rd, 2020) Ear Community’s Arizona Microtia and Atresia event took place! We had a great turnout! Around 70 people attended (a mix of families and medical professionals) from CO, ID, NE, UT, NC, CA, AZ, WI and MN!
Elise also shared with us about how she and her family found our Ear Community Organization and her journey with her daughter’s hearing loss. Her daughter, Naomi, was born with bilateral Atresia. Elise’s husband drove in the middle of a blizzard to the Founder of Ear Community (Melissa Tumblin’s) house, in March, to pick up a donated bone conduction hearing aid when both of their daughter’s BAHAs broke. This was also right when COVID-19 arrived! So, where there is a will, there is a way!We would also like to extend a very special thank you to our Ear Community sponsors for helping make our events possible and for educating us on the latest hearing devices for the Microtia and Atresia community:
Platinum Sponsors:
– Thank you to Tina Castaneda with Cochlear Americas for helping educate us about Baha 5, SoundArc and the newly launched Osia system.
– Thank you to Amanda Cooley with Oticon Medical for helping educate us about the Ponto 3 system and the newly launched Ponto 4!
Silver Sponsors:
Thank you Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson with MED-EL for helping educate us on
the ADHEAR system and also the BoneBridge system.
Here is some helpful information on some of the bone conduction hearing solutions offered by our Platinum Sponsors:
Cochlear Americas
Baha 5 and Osia System Brochure
Oticon Medical
Ponto 4 Product Brochure
We look forward to seeing so many more of you on our next up coming virtual events this year!
– Ear Community
Virtual Houston, Texas Picnic (USA)
October 17th, 2020
Our virtual Texas Ear Community Microtia & Atresia picnic took place on October 17th! Thank you to Daniel Mendoza and his parents, Melanie and Nathaniel, for hosting our event yesterday! Daniel was born with Microtia & Atresia, has had outer ear reconstructive surgery and is aided with a Cochlear Americas Baha. He took the time to join us from his dorm room at Baylor! Daniel’s mom, Melanie, is a past Ear Community board member. This was the Mendoza Family’s second Ear Community picnic that they have hosted! In 2018, Daniel & his family traveled with Ear Community to the FDA to present during a listening session about what it is like to live with Microtia & Aural Atresia. We are proud of Daniel for beginning his college career at Baylor University in Texas last year!
We welcomed families on our Zoom session from: Colorado, Idaho, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Canada! We had around 65 people join us.
We had the pleasure of having Dr. Carol Liu (ENT/Otolaryngologist/plastic surgeon), Dr. Rodrigo Silva (ENT/Otolaryngologist/plastic surgeon) and Dr. Jennifer Drob (audiologist) join us from the Texas Children’s Hospital Microtia & Atresia clinic where we were educated on the “all options” program the clinic offers for Microtia & Atresia care from birth to 18. We also welcomed anaplastologist, Colette Shrader, of
Platinum Sponsors:
Thank you to Claudia Pena of Cochlear Americas (an Ear Community Platinum Sponsor) for educating us about Baha 5 & the newly launched Osia System.
Thank you to Lauren Placke of Oticon Medical (an Ear Community Platinum Sponsor) for educating us on the newly launched Ponto 4.Silver Sponsor:
Thank you to Lynn Stephenson of MED-EL USA (an Ear Community Silver Sponsor) for educating us both on the new ADHEAR and BONEBRIDGE Systems.Here is some helpful information on some of the bone conduction hearing solutions offered by our Platinum Sponsors:
Cochlear Americas
Baha 5 and Osia System Brochure Oticon Medical
Ponto 4 Product BrochureIt was great seeing so many familiar faces during our event yesterday! Thank you to all of the attendees who also wore their National Microtia Awareness Day shirts and Microtia Kids Rock t-shirts.
Virtual Richmond, Virginia Picnic (USA)
October 24th, 2020
Our virtual Virginia Ear Community Microtia & Atresia event took place this past Saturday and was amazing! We had families & medical professionals join us from CO, ID, VA, W.VA, NE, NC, MD, TX, NY, NJ, OH and Canada! We had close to 70 people join our event total.
Also joining us was Dr. Angelo Leto-Barone of Johns Hopkins plastic and reconstructive surgery Johns Hopkins Medicinewho shared with us his new technique that he developed for consistent rib cartliage carving through ReconstratAand AuryzoN! Dr. Arturo Bonilla of the
Platinum Sponsors:
Thank you to Lauren Nicole King of Oticon Medical (an Ear Community Platinum Sponsor) for educating us on the newly launched Ponto 3 and 4.
Thank you to Martha Schley Smith of Cochlear Americas (an Ear Community Platinum Sponsor) for educating us about Baha 5 & the newly launched Osia System.
Our Silver Sponsor:
Thank you to Lynn Stephenson of MED-EL USA (an Ear Community Silver Sponsor) for educating us both on the new ADHEAR and BONEBRIDGE Systems.Here is some helpful information on some of the bone conduction hearing solutions offered by our Platinum Sponsors:
Cochlear Americas
Baha 5 and Osia System Brochure
Oticon Medical
Ponto 4 Product BrochureThank you to all of the attendees who also wore their National Microtia Awareness Day shirts and Microtia Kids Rock t-shirts too!
It was great to see so many familiar faces and lots of new ones too! Thank you to our Ear Community board member, Cynthia Stewart, who joined us from Canada! Don’t forget! National Microtia Awareness Day is on November 9th! -
- The Ear Community Organization
Cleveland, Ohio Picnic (USA)
November 7th, 2020
Our Ohio Ear Community Microtia & Atresia virtual event took place on Saturday, November 7th! Thank you to everyone who wore their Microtia Awareness Day t-shirts during our virtual event embracing National Microtia Awareness Day! We had around 70 people attend our event from CO, ID, NE, OH, WI, NY, KY, MD and Canada.
We welcomed Drs. Anand Kumar (plastic surgery) and Alejandro Rivas (Otolaryngology) of University Hospitals to speak with us about outer ear reconstruction & cleft repair, atresiaplasty, CAM & bone anchored hearing device options. Irene Baus, a Pediatric Social Worker for the Cleft and Craniofacial Center at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, also joined us to share about the reconstructive program there. Megan Thomas of Medical Art Resources, Inc., helped educate us on the prosthetic ear option along with James Hermsen of
We would also like to extend a very special thank you to our Ear Community sponsors for helping make
our events possible and for educating us on the latest hearing devices for the Microtia and Atresia community:
Platinum Sponsors:
– Thank you to Bee Pena with Cochlear Americas for helping educate us about Baha 5, SoundArc and the newly launched Osia system.
– Thank you to Lisa Reedy with Oticon Medical for helping educate us about the Ponto 3 system and the newly launched Ponto 4!
Silver Sponsors:
Thank you Amanda O’Donnell and Lynn Stephenson with MED-EL for helping educate us on
the ADHEAR system and also the BONEBRIDGE system.
Here is some helpful information on some of the bone conduction hearing solutions offered by our Platinum Sponsors:
Cochlear Americas
Baha 5 and Osia System Brochure
Oticon Medical
Ponto 4 Product Brochure
We look forward to seeing so many more of you on our next up coming virtual events this year!
– Ear Community
Thank you to everyone who joined us on Saturday’s virtual event!
Melissa Tumblin
Ear Community
www.EarCommunity.org
