2022 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 Folsom, California/ Broomfield, Colorado/ Frederick, Maryland/ Houston, Texas/ Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania/ and Nashville, Tennessee! 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 companies all come together to mingle with us at our picnics, helping educate us on all of our options including hearing loss.
Our events are held outdoors helping make it safer during the COVID-19 pandemic. * In the event that any of our outdoor events should have to be re-scheduled, those events will become virtual and will still be available to our community to attend. *
A special thank you to our amazing Ear Community Sponsors!
Platinum Sponsors – Cochlear Americas and Oticon Medical
Silver Sponsor – MED-EL USA
*** This years Ear Community vents were made possible thanks to our Sponsors! Without the continued support of our sponsors, we would not have been able to bring our Microtia and Atresia families together as we have for the past decade. Ear Community is thankful and appreciates the continued support from our Sponsors, especially during COVID-19! Your support means the world to our community, our families and our medical professionals! ***
We look forward to seeing everyone at our in-person Ear Community picnics this year!
Melissa Tumblin,
Founder and Executive Director of Ear Community
Founder of the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook
2022 Ear Community Picnics and Events
Case Western Reserve University
Ear Community presents Ally’s Act to Federal Family Policy class
Date: February 8th, 2022
Time: 6:30PM Eastern Time
Rare Disease Week on Capitol Hill
Ear Community represents the Microtia and Atresia community
End of February thru March 2nd, 2022
Presentations in legislative meetings on Ally’s Act, H.R. 477/S. 41
Oticon Medical Ponto 5 Superpower Launch
Ear Community presents
Las Vegas, Nevada
May 5th – 6th, 2022
Oticon Medical Ponto 5 Superpower Launch
Ear Community presents
Nashville, Tennessee
May 12th – 13th, 2022
California Ear Community Picnic
Folsom, California
Date: Saturday, June 11th, 2022
Time: 11AM to 3PM
RSVP to Melissa at: EarCommunity@gmail.com
Colorado Ear Community Picnic
Broomfield, Colorado
Date: Saturday, June 25th, 2022
Time: 11AM to 3PM
RSVP to Melissa at: EarCommunity@gmail.com
Maryland Ear Community Picnic
Frederick, Maryland
Date: Saturday, July 16th, 2022
Time: 11AM to 3PM
RSVP to Melissa at: EarCommunity@gmail.com
Texas Ear Community Picnic
Houston, Texas
Date: Saturday, July 23rd, 2022
Time: 11AM to 3PM
RSVP to Melissa at: EarCommunity@gmail.com
Tennessee Ear Community Picnic
Nashville, Tennessee
Date: Saturday, July 30th, 2022
Time: 8:30AM to 12:30PM (conference) and 1PM to 5PM (picnic)
RSVP to Melissa at: EarCommunity@gmail.com
* This Ear Community picnic will be in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Microtia & Atresia conference that will take place at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (in the Children’s Hospital). This conference is a wonderful opportunity to learn about all of your options for Microtia & Atresia. A special thank you to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt for helping host our Microtia and Atresia event.
Pennsylvania Ear Community Picnic
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
Date: Saturday, August 20th, 2022
Time: 11AM to 3PM
RSVP to Melissa at: EarCommunity@gmail.com
Case Western Reserve University
Ear Community presents Ally’s Act to Federal Family Policy class
Date: October 27th, 2022
Time: 6:30PM Eastern Time
Ear Community Zoom Presentation
“Let’s Talk About Microtia & Atresia”
Date: November 9th, 2022
Time: 12PM Noon to 1PM (Mountain Time) (USA)
RSVP to Melissa at: EarCommunity@gmail.com
National Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day
Every November 9th!
* Raise awareness with us throughout the United States and across
the world!
* See our home page links on when to order t-shirts and accessories
for our special day!
Folsom, California (USA)
June 11th, 2022
It was a beautiful 100 degree sunny day in Folsom, California where our Microtia and Atresia families came together at our Ear Community picnic. Everyone enjoyed spending the day together, sharing their journeys and finding answers to their questions with a nice lunch! We had around 80 people attend! Families were able to mingle and share stories while meeting others in the same situation. The kids enjoyed playing together, getting their faces painted, balloon art and a magic show! We had some families who traveled six hours or more to attend our special Ear Community day in California, coming from all over surrounding cities! We had some families wearing their National Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day t-shirts and awareness day wristbands! Many kids and adults also had our blue awareness day ribbon painted on them by the face painter too! Our youngest picnic goer was sweet little Nova who was only 4 months old, born with bilateral Microtia and Atresia.
Our beautiful picnic host, Angela Van Dyke, made our picnic possible! She found a beautiful park location for our families and brought all of our food to the park. Angela also helped find some funds to help give back to our Ear Community Organization too! Ear Community means a lot to Angela and her family because her son, Collin, was born with Microtia and Atresia, now 17 years old. Angela shared her family’s journey with all of us and explained that even though Collin may have struggled here and there over the years with his Microtia and Atresia, that there was a very good reason why he couldn’t join us at our event and it was because he has excelled at baseball so much that he was playing in a national baseball tournament in Louisiana! Collin prepared the following words for everyone because he wanted everyone to know that things will be okay with Microtia and Atresia. Collin wrote the following to help give us some hope and inspiration and to remind everyone that Microtia and Atresia does not define us:
“Having Microtia is a challenge. You have to deal with having trouble understanding others and asking for others to repeat themselves. And sometimes people get tired of being asked to repeat themselves, that can affect friendships, relationships, and sometimes how people think of you. But even with all of these challenges you can still find things to do that make you happy. For me it was baseball no matter what
challenges come at me I was able to adapt and overcome and the same can be done by anyone, no matter what the obstacles are. My dream is to go to college, play baseball, and become an engineer. That is a hard goal to reach but I believe I can reach it. Now, Microtia has been something I’ve had to deal with and overcome all my life. I believe that from my experiences, I can help the younger generation with overcoming these obstacles and become the outgoing, ambitious person they can be.”
A HUGE thank you to our picnic host, Angela! Angela works for Intel Corporation. She shared with Intel’s charity division, IDAN – Intel Disability and Accessibility Network, about all of the good that Ear Community does for the Microtia and Atresia community. IDAN was delighted to hear of our organization’s work and as a way of helping give back to the community, IDAN sponsored our entire Ear Community event in Folsom! The amazing contribution covered our event food, the park location permit fee and our entertainment for our picnic attendees (including balloon twisting, face painting and a magic show)! Thank you to Angela and IDAN at Intel, for everything you did to make our day even more special and for helping give back to our Ear Community Organization. It means more to our organization than you know!
A very special thank you to our amazing Ear Community Sponsors! Our organization’s Sponsors helped educate our families on the latest bone conduction hearing device systems including the latest hearing devices that help give our loved ones the opportunity to hear so they can thrive in so many ways! Our Ear Community events would not be possible without the support of our Sponsors! Thank you for also making it fun for our attendees, especially the kids, by providing such awesome give-aways and swag! The kid just love the super capes from all three companies!
Platinum Sponsor – Cochlear Americas‘ Baha 6, SoundArc band and the Osia System.
Platinum Sponsor – Oticon Medical‘s Ponto 5 and the Ponto 5 Superpower.
Silver Sponsor – MED-EL USA‘s ADHEAR and BONEBRIDGE system.
We are also thankful for the surgeons and audiologists who joined us on our special day! Thank you to Drs. Tellofson, Funamara and McKinney for joining us from UC Davis! Families were able to ask questions about plastic surgery, bone anchored implant surgery and audiology! Dr. Truong also joined us, along with her family, from Stanford’s Microtia and Atresia clinic! Dr. Truong was able to answer the questions families had about rib graft surgery! Thank you to All Party Art for making our day special for the kids with our magician Howdy Do Dat? and Pony Tails and Friends!
It was such a wonderful day spent with everyone! I always enjoy meeting our Microtia and Atresia families including many of the medical professionals who help improve our children’s lives with the options they offer! Meeting my picnic host families is always the best! It was also great to see so many familiar faces like some of my past board member, Kristen Hale and her family, and also Priscila Soares who created the beautiful art piece called “Ally is looking out for Microtia” that honors all of the beautiful Microtia children on National Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day! This beautiful art piece was on display in Oticon Medical’s lobby of their US Headquarters for the past four years. Priscila also creates our graphics for our t-shirt for National Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day that takes place every November 9th!
Melissa Tumblin
Ear Community
Below are some fun memories from our special day!
Broomfield, Colorado (USA)
June 25th, 2022
Our Colorado Headquarter Ear Community Microtia and Atresia picnic took place on a beautiful cool 75 degree day! We had over 100 people come together who travelled from all our state including coming from Broomfield, Boulder, Lafayette, Louisville, Denver, Loveland, Fort Collins, Parker, Littleton and Colorado Springs! The kids enjoyed coming together to play and we enjoyed amazing face painting and balloon art by Fantastic Face Painting! Magic Rob made the kids smile with is amazing magic and took the time to let the kids pet Presto the magic bunny! Magic Rob also wears hearing aids and just loves being a part of our Ear Community picnics!
We had a special guest attend our picnic this year! Congressman Joe Neguse took the time to spend part of his day with our families at our picnic. He talked about why he chose to introduce Ally’s Act, H.R. 477 (previously 5485) and how touched he was when Ally wrote to him asking for his help to help her advocate to hear better during Better Hearing and Speech Month in 2019! Congressman Neguse provided an update on our bill and how he will continue helping fight to get our bill passed for our community! The Tumblin Family honored Congressman Neguse with an award from the Ear Community Organization on behalf of our community and all of the children and adults who have Microtia and Aural Atresia just like Ally. Melissa Tumblin thanked and recognized Congressman Neguse for giving our community members a voice to advocate with for better hearing through Ally’s Act and for listening to our concern about the lack of private insurance covearge for bone anchored hearing aids and for wanting to help us do something about this pernicious issue. It was also quite the honor for the Tumblin Family, especially Ally, to finally meet Congressman Neguse in person! Thank you for being a part of our special day, Congressman Neguse! Thank you for making our day extra special!
Getting a little extra help sometimes can mean the world to someone who does not have resources or a staff. With Ear Community being a small grassroots nonprofit, that means being busy all of the time. Melissa Tumblin often says, “We may be tiny, but we are mighty in the things we do!” It can be difficult trying to wear a million different hats and trying to get everything done on your own. However, getting that help when you can is a God send and absolutely matters when needing an extra hand or even a break! Melissa Tumblin honored her oldest daughter, Hailey, with an award at this year’s picnic as a thank you for all of the help she has received from her daughter over the years at Ear Community’s events. Hailey is Ear Community’s Vice President and always helps Melissa set up at Ear Community’s events, she organizes the EC table, helps attendees find information they are looking for and most importantly – she makes sure Melissa gets some food and rest in between. Melissa explained how grateful she is to her daughter and how proud she is of her for all of her help and support in so many ways!
Elise and Naomi Haagenson and their beautiful family helped host our special day along with the Tumblin Family! Elise’s daughter, Naomi, was born without ear canals, known as bilateral aural atresia. Elise found Ear Community when both of Naomi’s bone anchored hearing devices stopped working leaving Naomi unable to hear! Elise’s family was relieved when Ear Community donated a bone anchored hearing device to Naomi so she could hear again! Naomi’s dad, Stephan, drove in a blizzard from South Denver to North Denver to pick up the hearing device from the Tumblin Family just before the pandemic shut the world down in March of 2020. Since then, Elise and Naomi have helped give back to Ear Community by advocating for Ally’s Act, H.R. 477 with lawmakers here in Colorado and as amazing donors to our organization. In addition to these two ladies being amazing advocates, Elise also happens to be an amazing singer/songwriter as well, known as Ellie Strong. In fact, Elise had a cover song that went viral on TikTok with millions of views in 2020! Naomi currently wears two Ponto 4’s on a soft band headband by Oticon Medical. Without her hearing devices, Naomi would be deaf.
Audra and Illiana Molina and their beautiful family are our other picnic hosts who helped us host this 
year’s Colorado picnic! Illi was born with bilateral Microtia and Atresia and was the first Cochlear Americas Baha Attract recipient in Colorado! Illi was one of the the first children that Melissa Tumblin met with Microtia and Atresia when looking for a preschool for her daughter, Ally. Melissa spoke about how it was so nice to see a little girl a little older than Ally with little/missing ears in the preschool program at Mountain View Elementary school! It meant the world to the Tumblin Family to see another child just a little older than their Ally, realizing that their little girl was going to be okay too! The Molina Family is thankful for helping host past Colorado picnics because this is where they found Dr. Sheryl Lewin who eventually reconstructed both of Illi’s ears in California! Illi currently is implanted w/the Baha 6 by Cochlear Americas.
Melissa & Ally Tumblin are our other picnic hosts as well as the founders of Ear Community, along with their beautiful family (husband, Brent and oldest daughter, Hailey). Melissa and Ally hosted their first Microtia & Atresia picnic here in Colorado in June of 2011! Since then, the Tumblin family has hosted nearly 100 picnics as the Ear Community Organization in the US & around the world! Ear Community has also donated nearly 150 bone anchored hearing devices to those in need and who have been denied by their private insurers since 2012. Ally was born w/unilateral Microtia & Atresia, has not yet had surgery & currently wears the Ponto 5 Superpower by Oticon Medical on the soft band headband.
Ear Community collaborates with many partners in the hearing loss industry and appreciates the help and support that is received toward our organization. This year at the Colorado picnic, Keesha Pfieffer of Cochlear Americas, was honored with an award from Ear Community for the help and support she has provided for Ally’s Act, H.R. 477. Keesha has her masters in health policy and chose to write her paper on Ally’s Act! Thank you for your amazing support, Keesha!
A very special thank you to our Ear Community Sponsors for helping us learn about the latest in bone conduction hearing devices!
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- Ally Tumblin with Congressman Joe Neguse talking about the letter she wrote to him asking for help to hear better.
Frederick, Maryland (USA)
July 16th, 2022
Thank you to everyone who joined us at our Maryland Ear Community Microtia & Atresia picnic on Saturday! It was great seeing so many of our Microtia and Atresia families in person & it was a beautiful day – even though it rained three times, but thank goodness we book our events under covered shelters! We had about 60 people attend coming from Maryland, DC, Virginia, W. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Colorado and Washington!
Everyone enjoyed learning about their options & sharing journeys. The kids enjoyed playing together, getting their faces painted, balloons & an amazing magic act w/lunch! We also had some adults finally meet someone just like them who had never met another person w/Microtia & Atresia.
Thank you so much to our beautiful picnic host family – The Scholz Family, for hosting our special day! Zere & Tom, along with their beautiful children Connor, Alina & Anna, welcomed everyone on Saturday. Tom and Zere found our Ear Community Organization when Anna was born. They have since then become amazing advocates for Anna & are informed about all options for Microtia & Atresia. Zere & Tom have also helped advocate for Ally’s Act, H.R. 477/S. 41! Zere has become a wonderful friend of mine over the past couple of years even inviting my family to join them for dinner at their home before our picnic event. Tom and Zere, thank you for all of the amazing support you have given our Ear Community Organization in so many ways! Thank you for also sponsoring our park location for our event!
We were honored to have a special guest join us during our picnic! We welcomed prosthetic expert, Robert Barron, on our special day! Robert is master of disguises who was a CIA agent years ago. Once leaving the CIA, Robert wanted to put his amazing skill to work at helping make people feel whole again by helping give people their lives back with arms, legs, eyes, ears & more that he could recreate for them if they were born without them or lost them from cancer. I have known about Robert’s story and his work since founding Ear Community over 12 years ago & it was amazing to finally meet him & have him join all of us on our special day! Thank you to Ramona for bringing Robert! Here is a link to an article that was published on him from July 12th.
A very special thank you to our Ear Community Sponsors for helping us learn about the latest in bone conduction hearing devices & helping make our special events possible!
Thank you to our Platinum Sponsors!
Cochlear Americas – learn about Baha 6, SoundArc & the Osia System
Oticon Medical – learn about Ponto 5 & the Ponto 5 Superpower System
Thank you to our Silver Sponsor!
MED-EL USA – learn about ADHEAR and the BONEBRIDGE System
Thank you to our wonderful magician and balloon artist, Jonathan Austin for making us laugh and be in awe of his magic tricks and thank you to Sandra Fox of Pixie Dust Creations for painting some beautiful faces, arms and legs! Thank you to both of you for putting some pretty big smiles on our kid’s (and adult) faces on Saturday!
Here are some amazing memories from our special day!
Houston, Texas (USA)
July 23rd, 2022
Thank you to everyone who came together at our Houston, TX Ear Community Microtia & Atresia picnic! We had around 70 people join us on our special day! Families travelled from all over Texas (6 to 8 hours) in addition to coming from Colorado, New Jersey, Washington & Florida! We had a beautiful day in Houston, while it was 100+ degrees & rained 4 times, everyone had an amazing time spent together!
Thank you to my picnic host family, The Mendoza Family, for hosting our event! I have known Melanie White Mendoza & Daniel & their beautiful family for nearly 10 years! Daniel was born w/Microtia & Atresia & has become an amazing advocate & role model in our community & will be graduating from Baylor University w/plans of going into the law program in 2023! Daniel even accompanied me along w/ our group to the FDA in 2018 when Ear Community was invited to present about Microtia & Atresia during a listening session. Melanie has become an amazing friend to me & is a past board member for Ear Community. It was great seeing this family again & being able to catch up, seeing how much our kids have grown!
While in Houston, I was also able to meet w/Dr. Carol Liu & Dr. Rodrigo Silva of the Microtia & Atresia clinic at Texas Children’s Hospital! It was wonderful getting to see so many of the families who are a part of our Ear Community Organization & support groups! We welcomed Angela Mills from the Seattle Children’s Hospital CARE Team who was able to help families participate in genetic research for craniofacial microsomia! Ear Community is proud to sit on the Advocacy Committee for this research team!
Cochlear Americas – Baha 6, SoundArc & the Osia System
MED-EL – ADHEAR & the BONEBRIDGE System
I have known the Torrico Family (Joy and Al) for a decade as part of our Microtia & Atresia family! Al’s work is AMAZING!!! * If anyone would like to order photos from our event through Al, please visit: https://www.torricophotography.com/earcommunity, password is microtia 
Here are some fun memories from our special day in Houston!
Nashville, Tennessee (USA)
July 30th, 2022
Our 7th Annual Vanderbilt/Ear Community Microtia & Atresia conference & picnic was amazing in Nashville! It was a special day for many families as we were finally able to come together after having to postpone this event for the past couple of years. We had families join us on our special day from all over Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, New Jersey, Colorado & Japan!
Thank you to Vanderbilt University Medical Center & the entire team from the Microtia & Atresia clinic for hosting an amazing conference once again for our families! Thank you to Dr. Scott Stephan who educated everyone on porous polyethelyne outer ear reconstruction & plastic surgery options, Dr. Marc Bennett educating on atresiaplasty, Dr. Brandy Stephens educating on audiology & insurance, Dr. Shi Yang & Dr. Jason Park on rib cartilage outer ear reconstruction including bone anchored hearing device implantation (BAI) w/Dr. Priyesh Patel! Attending families also learned about prosthetic ears from Scott Fiscus & the history of genetics from Dr. Ron Eavey (past Chair & Clinical Director of VUMC)! A HUGE shout out to all of the parents, kids & adults who also participated on our parent panel! A special thank you to Dr. Eben Rosenthal, the new Professor & Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery at VUMC. Thank you to Meghan Franklin for helping plan another successful event! Thank you for helping educate families on all options for Microtia & Atresia & for hosting such a wonderful day in collaboration w/our Ear Community Organization!
A special thank you to our picnic host, Christy Greene ! Thank you Christy for driving from Kentucky to be w/us to share your family’s journey about your son, Charlie, who was born w/Microtia & Atresia. In our community, we never let missing ears/hearing loss define us & Charlie is living proof of this! Charlie is literally a ROCK STAR – lead singer of the band Betcha in Nashville! Charile & Christy are both amazing advocates & I am honored to have had Christy host our Ear Community picnic this year! Christy has also become an amazing friend to me over the years & I have appreciated learning from her too since Charlie is older than my daughter, Ally. Christy & Charlie, I am one of your biggest fans!
Thank you to James Hermsen for being w/us & helping Microtia & Atresia families know about your amazing eyewear! James at Adaptive Eyewear Solutions has been a part of Ear Community picnics for the past 7 years & has helped so many children be able to wear their eyeglasses & hearing devices easier! James has helped families with is wonderful eyewear all over the world!
A dear friend of mine, Melissa Elder McClellan, was also recognized at our Ear Community picnic for being an outstanding Board Member for Ear Community over the past years! Melissa & James are amazing parents, advocates & supporters to our community! Their son, Jamison, has been pals w/Ally since they were little! Melissa and Jamie, your family is amazing & my family loves you guys! Thank you for all of your support personally & through UPS! Your help & friendship means the world to me & I am so proud of your kids!
Thank you for your sponsorship, support to our rare cause & for believing in Ear Community’s mission for more than a decade! Ear Community is grateful to be able to educate Microtia & Atresia families on the latest in bone conduction hearing aids w/you! Thank you to Oticon Medical & Cochlear Americas & MED-EL USA for being proud Sponsors to our organization! MED-EL USA – ADHEAR and BONEBRIDGE System
Thank you so much to our amazing photographer, Jamie Wallace, for helping capture our beautiful moments throughout Saturday’s event & to our magician & face painter for putting smiles on our kids’ faces during our special day too!
Melissa Tumblin of the Ear Community Organization also updated families on all of the good our organization continues to do for the Microtia & Atresia community including promoting education & awareness about our cause, updates on our work in genetics research, how to help advocate for Ally’s Act, H.R. 477 & more! Thank you to everyone who wore their Microtia awareness shirts! 
Here are some great memories form our amazing day!
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (USA)
August 20th, 2022
And that’s a wrap! On Saturday, our last Ear Community picnic of the summer took place in Canonsburg, PA! It was a beautiful day that brought together Microtia & Atresia families, surgeons, audiologists, hearing device specialists & entertainers for our special day! We welcomed families from the Pennsylvania & Ohio states!
A very special thank you to Kim & Morgan Cook & their beautiful family for hosting our event! This was Kim & Morgan’s 2nd time hosting our picnic in PA. Morgan is a beautiful twin who was born w/Microtia & Atresia & is aided with the Cochlear Baha! Kim & Joe have been amazing supporters to our organization for years & have become wonderful friends of mine too! I will always remember at our last Pennsylvania picnic when Morgan wore her hair up in a pony tail for the first time because she saw other children with sweet little ears just like her! This is what it is about! At this year’s picnic, Morgan took a little girl, named Emma, under her wing at the picnic – introducing her to her friends & helping her realize that she is not alone w/Microtia & Atresia. This was the first time Emma had met someone else just like her. This is why Ear Community picnics are priceless for so many children & adults. Thank you Kim, Joe, Morgan & Family for making our special day possible for our community members in the PA area! Thank you for also providing Rita’s Ice at our event as a way of helping give back to make the day extra fun! You guys are truly amazing!
Thank you to my friend, Dr. Noel Jabbour of UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), & also Morgan’s pediatric ENT for being with us on our special day! Dr. Jabbour has always been a part of our PA Ear Community picnic. He is an amazing person & an amazing Microtia & Atresia expert who runs his own clinic at UPMC!
Thank you to our amazing Ear Community Sponsors (Oticon Medical, Cochlear Americas & MED-EL USA) for helping make our events possible! Without your support, Ear Community would not be able to bring our community members together. Thank you for being proud sponsors to Ear Community since 2011 – our organization is forever grateful for your support!
Oticon Medical – Ponto 5 & Ponto 5SP
Cochlear Americas – Baha 6 & Osia
MED-EL USA – ADHEAR & BONEBRIDGE
Here are some beautiful memories from our special day in Canonsburg!
