2020 Ear Community Microtia and Atresia Virtual Events

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 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!

Our events are proudly sponsored by Cochlear Americas, Oticon Medical and Med-EL USA!

2020 Ear Community Picnics and Events

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

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 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 Hermsen 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. Shery Lewin along with anaplastologist, Colette Shrader joining us and James Hermsen of Spokiz. A magic show that will intrigue us! 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 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! We’ll have a magician who will intrigue us! 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 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 from Johns Hopkins and Dr. Arturo Binilla along with naplastologist Colette Shrader will be joining us and James Hermsen of Spokiz! 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 (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

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

Melissa Tumblin,
Founder and Executive Director of Ear Community
Founder of the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook