Archives for September 2026

Microtia and Atresia T-Shirts for Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day – November 9th

September 11, 2026 by · Leave a Comment

Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day is coming up on November 9th! 👂💙
Deadline to order is September 30th, 2026
This year, the Ear Community Organization reached out to Averie Warford (age 12), asking her to design our awareness day shirt for our community! ❤ Averie is incredibly talented and has been designing awareness day shirts for the past three years for our community since her brother, Gage (age 3), was born with microtia and aural atresia! This year, Averie has done it again with her “Pig-ture Perfect Just The Way You Are” design! She designed this beautiful shirt for our community and rare cause and she did an excellent job! 💙

Averie is an incredible advocate! She has been advocating for Gage since he was born and she also advocates for her youngest brother, Wesson, who was born with Down Syndrome last year. Averie and her family are amazing advocates in our community who enjoy embracing our rare cause and helping give back to the community!

Averie’s design, along with our other Ear Community shirts, can be purchased at the following link for microtia and atresia awareness day:
(Deadline to order is September 30th)

Thank you to Alise and Joel Warford for raising such a beautiful daughter who is so loving, kind, creative and accepting! You are beautiful inside and out, Averie! ❤

 

$5 to $8 goes directly to the Ear Community Organization when ordering Averie’s t-shirt, and our other Ear Community designs, through the above link for the Ear Community t-shirt store. Thank you to Tiny Little Monster for being our official awareness t-shirt store for nearly a decade now!

Thank you to everyone for supporting our cause for microtia and aural atresia and for embracing our awareness day on November 9th! The deadline to order is September 30th so shirts can be printed and shipped, arriving one week before November 9th. Thank you for everyone’s support! Thank you Averie for your creativity and love for Gage and our community! ❤
Melissa w/ Ear Community

Filed Under: Events, History ·

Ear Community Congratulates It’s Scholarship Recipients for 2026

September 11, 2026 by · Leave a Comment

Congratulations to our Ear Community College Scholarship Recipients for 2026!

Congratulations to Samantha Grivno! – Samantha was born with microtia and aural atresia of her right ear with a left stenoic ear canal and is aided with a BAHS. Samantha has been accepted to the audiology program at Washington University at St. Louis and is excited to take her lived experience and help children and adults in the future when it comes to hearing loss and microtia!

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to Ellia Schultz! – Ellia was born with bilateral microtia and aural atresia and also Treacher Collins Syndrome. She has had nearly 30 surgeries to date! Ellia has been accepted into the BSN program for nursing at Ohio State University and is excited to take her lived experience and help children and adults in the future as she cares for all patients hoping to make a connection with them as she serves in health care.

 

 

 

Congratulations to Zachary Talamantes! – Zachary was born with microtia and aural atresia of his right ear. He has played hockey since he was eight years old! Zachary has been accepted to Washington State University where he will begin working on his undergraduate degree in marketing. Zachary plans to obtain a Master’s degree someday in teaching!

 

 

Congratulations to Natalia Nguyen! – Natalia was born with microtia and aural atresia of her right ear and is aided with a BAHS. Natalia is in her second year at the University of Texas at Austin working toward an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. She plans to earn a law degree as a patent attorney working with renewable energy technology!

 

Our organization is so incredibly proud of Samantha, Ellia, Zachary and Natalia! We are excited to see the good they do in the fields they plan to go into! Congratulations from everyone at Ear Community and do great things!
Melissa Tumblin
Founder – Executive Director
Ear Community

Filed Under: Events, History ·