About Melissa Tumblin

Celebrating the 10th Colorado Ear Community microtia and atresia picnic with Congressman Neguse

July 30, 2026 By Leave a Comment

The Parcher Family, The Tumblin Family (Ear Community) and Congressman Joe Neguse (Saturday, July 25, 2026)

Thank you to everyone who attended our special community day last Saturday at our Colorado Ear Community picnic! Even an incredibly hot day of 101 degrees couldn’t keep our community from coming together! We had close to 175 people attend with families coming from all over Colorado, including Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Nebraska, Texas, Kansas, the Philippines and Japan! This was our 10th picnic we have hosted here in Colorado as home to our Ear Community Organization and it was an amazing day!

We were overjoyed to see so many familiar faces and also meeting so many new families on Saturday! A special thank you to our beautiful picnic host family – The Parcher Family (Tiffany, Daniel, Lucy, Courtney and Jenna)! Tiffany and Lucy hosted a beautiful day with their family for all of us! Tiffany shared her family’s journey with Lucy, who was born with bilateral microtia and atresia – from adoption to Lucy excelling in school today and her love of music. Tiffany’s reminder to all of us was that our children can do anything! Tiffany made a beautiful speech that included tips for Deaf and Hard of Hearing services, finding a great support system in school for our kids along with how to navigate your way with helpful services! A special thank you to Lucy for shopping for and putting together all of the goody bags for everyone too! Tiffany and Lucy have become incredible advocates in our community over the years! In fact, Tiffany has become one of Ear Community’s biggest advocates as our organization’s attorney! ❤️ I am grateful for all of the help that Tiffany and Lucy and their family is providing for our community and to our Ear Community! Tiffany and Lucy, your family is like family to me and I am grateful for YOU! Love you guys! ❤️👂

What an incredible honor it was to have Congressman Joe Neguse and Max Cocker join us on our special day! Congressman Neguse took the time to be with us and share about when he met Ally Tumblin seven years ago, and after hearing her story, how he wanted to help her advocate to help our community hear better when it comes to hearing devices being denied by insurance. Rep Neguse explained how he wanted to honor Ally and all of the children just like her with Ally’s Act – a Federal piece of legislation that would help close the loophole for private insurers to deny coverage for bone anchored hearing devices and cochlear implants. It was amazing to have Congressman Neguse with us! Thank you so much for speaking with our families! We appreciate you sharing an update on Ally’s Act, H.R. 4606/S. 3400 and sharing why this bill matters! I know so many at our picnic enjoyed getting the chance to meet you, Congressman Neguse! Thank you so much for making our day extra special! As the family behind Ally’s Act (The Tumblin Family), Melissa also shared with everyone on how to best advocate for Ally’s Act, by asking everyone to call and write to their Congressmen and Senators, asking them to pass Ally’s Act, H.R. 4606 and S. 3400!  For more information on how to advocate for Ally’s Act, please visit the following link on Ear Community’s website here.

We also had the honor of having Dr. Sheryl Lewin join us at our picnic! Dr. Lewin took the time to mingle with families during our picnic, after coming from the Earicles Conference she hosted here in Colorado! What an amazing opportunity for everyone have the chance to ask her questions and find the answers they are looking for when it comes to surgery! Many of the families who attended the Earicles conference also shared their experience with surgery with everyone at our picnic. Thank you, Dr. Lewin, for being with our microtia and atresia families! I know it meant the world to so many of us to have you with us! This was such an incredible chance for families! Sheryl, you are incredible and we are grateful for your beautiful ears! Thank you for coming to our Ear Community picnics since 2012 and for stopping in whenever you could to be a part of our special community days! *** Thank you, Sheryl, for sponsoring our face painter and balloon artist for our special day and for helping give back to our Ear Community! ❤️👂

Thank you to our amazing Sponsors!

Platinum Sponsors
– MED-EL USA (ADHEAR and BONEBRIDGE System)
– Oticon Medical (Ponto and Sentio)
I hope everyone enjoyed learning all about the benefits of being aided with a bone anchored hearing system!
_____________________________________________
– Su-Por ear frameworks for outer ear reconstruction

We had Robert Gulock, the President of Oticon Medical, join us along with Dina Panopoulos (who has been to lots of Ear Community picnics over the years)! We also had Brian Dedeian join from MED-EL (who is a repeat Ear Community attendee and BONEBRIDGE user) and Virgi Mills (who is an amazing Teacher of the D/HH)! We also had Josie Cross join us from Poriferous, educating on Su-Por ear frameworks for outer ear reconstruction! We had James Hermsen of Suh Hermsen Adaptive Eyewear Solutions, along with his sister, Michelle, educating us on microtia eyewear for kids (and adults). Thanks to Pax’s Eyewear Fund and the Gross Family, James was able to give away these glasses for FREE at our picnic! We also had Sara Moslehi of Art in Soul Prosthetics educate us on prosthetic ears!

Thank you to Jeremy Martin of Eldorado Springs Water for donating water for our event to make sure we stayed hydrated on such a hot day! Having Eldorado Springs water at our Ear Community picnics in Colorado have been a blessing over the past 10 years! Thank you so much for your donation to our organization, Jeremy and Eldorado Springs Water!!! Thank you also to Kona Ice for helping keep us cool during our event!

📷 Thank you to our photographers Kamen Guentchev & Charlie Spudinsky for capturing our memories! ❤️

Thank you so much to Olivia and Isaiah MacLean of Fantastic-Facepainting – for making our day extra special with beautiful face art and fun balloon art! *** Thank you to Dr. Sheryl Lewin for sponsoring Fantastic-Facepainting for our picnic as a way to help give back during our Ear Community picnic! Thank you so much to Magic Rob, our incredible magician, for making us laugh with your amazing and funny magic! Both the MacLean Family behind Fantastic-Facepainting and Magic Rob have been a part of our Ear Community picnics for 10 years! Ear Community loves you guys! Thank you for always making our special day extra special!

* An extra special THANK YOU to the Gross Family Foundation, Blue Chip Foundation and the Omnium Foundation! Your support to the Ear Community Organization and the good work we do to help give back to the microtia and atresia community means the world to Ear Community! Thank you so much to our donors and contributors to our Ear Community – your support is appreciated and needed more than you know!

Thank you again for such a memorable and wonderful day spent together with our community!

If you like what Ear Community does and enjoy supporting the work of nonprofit organizations, please think of Ear Community if you like to help give back by making a donation to our organization at:  www.EarCommunity.org/donate

Melissa Tumblin
Founder – Executive Director
Ear Community
www.EarCommunity.org

Filed Under: Events, History

The Ear Community Organization to present at the Colorado Rare Disease Fair – October 13th

July 20, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Colorado Rare Disease Fair is coming to Colorado in October! Research Day will take place on October 12th and the Research Fair will take place on October 13th. This event will take place at Children’s Hospital Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO.

Melissa is the Founder and Executive Director of The Ear Community Organization, serving the Microtia and Aural Atresia community. She is an advocate for the D/HH community and a hearing health activist. Melissa sits on many boards and councils including the FNIDCR (National Institutes for Dental and Craniofacial Research), the Friends CHHC (Congressional Hearing Health Caucus) and the advisory board for Auregen Biotherapeutics working on 3D printed regenerated ears.

She brings years of experience in advocacy and a wealth of knowledge to our discussion on federal policy!

Click here to register. There will be an online option this year!

Filed Under: Events, History

Hearing Loss Association of America Honors Ear Community’s Melissa Tumblin with the Advocacy Impact Award

June 23, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Melissa Tumblin, Ear Community Executive Director – recipient of the HLAA’s Advocacy Impact Award (2026)

On June 10th, Ear Community’s Founder and Executive Director, Melissa Tumblin, was awarded the Advocacy Impact Award at the Hearing Loss Association of America Convention in Louisville, Kentucky!

Thank you so much to Neil Snyder, Director of Public Policy, HLAA, and to the HLAA, for nominating Melissa! The Advocacy Impact Award is very special to Melissa and Ear Community because of our organization’s work on advocating for Ally’s Act to pass and also because of the children and adults our organization serves, everyday, who have hearing loss due to Microtia and Aural Atresia!

Melissa shared that this trip to Louisville was very special for her as she got to travel with Terri Shirley, who is not only a dear friend of hers, but a fierce advocate and past recipient of this award! Melissa was also honored to have been given the Advocacy Impact Award by Cheri Perazzoli, another fierce advocate in the state of Washington, for the hearing loss community!
Melissa is grateful to the HLAA for recognizing her efforts advocating for those with hearing loss and is honored to be a recipient of the Advocacy Impact Award this year!
Thank you!

Ear Community

Filed Under: Events, History

Amaia Receives the Gift of Sound thanks to Pax’s Ear Fund and Cochlear Americas

June 23, 2026 By Leave a Comment

On June 21st, 2026, our Ear Community Organization proudly helped Amaia receive the gift of hearing! Amaia is ten years old and was born with microtia and atresia of her left ear. She lives in Arizona and enjoys school very much! Amaia is a very kind, polite and respectful child, having earned the affection of all of her school staff and everyone recognizes her for her constant kindness and respect. Amaia’s Special Education teacher, Brittany Powelson, began noticing how much she wasn’t engaging in the school classroom recently. Amaia’s mother, Karen, took her to the audiologist and ENT, learning that she now has complete hearing loss in her left ear. Thankfully, Amaia’s parents found our Ear Community Organization, after struggling to find coverage for a bone anchored hearing device for their daughter to benefit from.

Yesterday, June 21st, Amaia received a NEW Baha 7 Max which was fitted and programmed by her ENT, Dr. Michael Fucci and her audiologist, Dr. Lindsay Shroyer, at Arizona Hearing and Balance! Our children do not always tell us when they are struggling. In Amaia’s situation, thanks to her team at school and her doctors, Amaia’s family was able to find the help she needed in order to hear better. It absolutely takes a village and with the help of Mrs. Powelson and Drs. Fucci and Shroyer, Amaia’s parents were able to find a way to still help Amaia hear better! This is what a advocating looks like when there is a great team in place for our children!

Amaia is also a recipient of receiving help through Ear Community’s Pax’s Ear Fund, helping cover the cost to program and fit her new Baha 7 Max!

Thank you to Drs. Shroyer and Fucci for helping make sure Amaia can hear her best now! A special thank you to Keesha Pfeiffer and Cochlear Americas helping Amaia hear with her NEW Baha 7 Max! We are also grateful for Pax’s Ear Fund and the support of the Gross Family Foundation and the Blue Chip Foundation for making this fund possible to help reimburse audiologists for the fitting/programming service fee when families cannot afford to pay or when insurance denies this service. Pax’s Ear Fund helps audiologists still give the gift of hearing through our organization! Thank you to Pax, a sweet little boy who’s helping kids & adults hear! Together, we can make wonderful things happen for our community!

Thank you to everyone involved with helping Amaia hear better! We are so happy for her and excited for her to do so much better in school! #HearNowAndAlways

Thank you!
Ear Community

Filed Under: Events, History

The Ear Community Organization Welcomes Newest Advisory Board Member – Dr. Ron Eavey

May 27, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Dr. Eavey holding his Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day coffee mug.

Introducing, Dr. Ron Eavey!
– Ear Community’s newest Advisory Board Member!

The Ear Community Organization is incredibly proud and absolutely honored to introduce and welcome our newest Advisory Board Member – Dr. Roland “Ron” Eavey!

First, I just have to say a little bit about Dr. Ron Eavey “The Legend”, before sharing his bio and welcoming him as our newest Advisory Board Member. Ron is an incredible person who has dedicated decades of his work and care to the microtia and atresia community! He is my friend that I hold near and dear to my heart and someone that I am proud to call my mentor. Our organization is lucky to have him join our Board!

Ron has attended lots of Ear Community picnics over the years, seeing the joy microtia and atresia families find coming together at our events! Our picnics mean so much to Ron that he has brought his beautiful wife, Dr. Sheila Desmond, and his father, with him to our events. Getting to know Ron has been wonderful over the years! He is someone who takes you under his wing and is willing to offer support wherever he can! In 2016, Ron gave me an opportunity to work for him at Vanderbilt, helping launch the first all options microtia and atresia clinic at VUMC, which was an absolute honor! In 2018, Ron was right by my side when our organization presented before the FDA during a listening session about microtia and atresia.

For years, Ron has dedicated much of his work to helping our community. In fact, many of you may recall the research where an ear was grown on the back of a mouse. Well, Dr. Eavey was one of the researchers collaborating with Vacanti Labs on this work, which proved that complex tissues could be engineered in labs, laying the groundwork for modern organ regeneration and reconstructive medicine. AMAZING! Ron has also researched hearing loss and microtia for years with Drs. Jon and Christine Seidman at Harvard! Knowing all of the incredible things that Ron has worked on for our community, imagine my excitement when he asked me what else would I like to work on! Of course, I said I wanted to know why microtia happens! The next day, Ron had a call scheduled for us with Dr. Jon Seidman, which began our collaborative research that has since yielded new findings on microtia genetics due to damaging variants on FOXI3.

Ron Eavey’s bio:
“The pediatric ear has been the major career focus of Dr Roland (Ron) Eavey.

He is trained and double-boarded in both Pediatrics and Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose,Throat). He founded the Pediatric Otolaryngology Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and served in that capacity for three decades where he was also a Full Professor at Harvard Meical School. He also has a degree in healthcare management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr Eavey was appointed the position at Vanderbilt University as the Director of the Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences as well as the Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery where he held the Guy M. Maness endowed Professorship. The Bill Wilkerson Center consistently has achieved the #1 national rankings for educational and training for Otolaryngology, Audiology, and Speech-Language Pathology, as well as #1 ranking in research funding from the NIH.

Most of Dr Eavey’s research collaborations have been oriented to the pediatric ear such as tissue engineering, – ‘the mouse with the ear on its back’ – in the Vacanti Lab, genes for sensorineural hearing loss and microtia in the Seidman Lab, epidemiology of hearing loss with the Curhan lab, and surveys for perception of hearing loss with MTV courtesy of Ms. Shari Redstone and Viacom. These publications have appeared in medical publications such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association of the as well as in media contributions such as Rolling Stone Magazine, CBS News, The BBC, Oprah, and the New York Times.

Internationally, for many years Dr. Eavey served as the US representative to the World Health Organization in Geneva concerning Ear disorders. He has traveled dozens of times globally, educating physicians about ear conditions.

He is a proud father and grandfather.”

Melissa Tumblin and Dr. Ron Eavey at the FDA presenting on microtia and aural atresia during a listening session in 2018.

Thank you for all that you have done for the microtia and atresia community, Ron, and thank you for liking what the Ear Community Organization does to help give back the microtia and atresia community! It is an absolute honor to have you join our organization’s Advisory Board!
Melissa Tumblin
Founder – Executive Director
Ear Community

Filed Under: Events, History

Zuria Receives the Gift of Sound thanks to Pax’s Ear Fund and Cochlear Americas

May 21, 2026 By Leave a Comment
Zuria in North Carolina receives the gift of hearing through Ear Community, thanks to Cochlear Americas and Pax's Ear Fund made possible by the Gross Family Foundation.
Today, May 21st, 2026, our Ear Community Organization proudly helped Zuria receive the gift of hearing!Zuria is six years old and was born with microtia and atresia of her right ear. She lives in North Carolina and enjoys school and dancing! Zuria’s hearing loss recently began changing and has impacted her academic progress along with her speech. She has had to repeat a school grade. Also, at Zuria’s last audiology visit, her parents discovered her hearing was changing, realizing she was struggling to hear. Her family noticed she was not responding to instructions on the first attempt lately and they have found themselves explaining things to her multiple times. Zuria’s parents could not afford the cost of a BAHS, but her family found our organization where we could help!

Today, May 21st, Zuria received a NEW Baha 7 Max with a sweet pink headband and was fitted and programmed by her audiologist, Dr. Madeleine Nevin, at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill! Thank you also to Ear Community Board Member, Dr. Shannon Culbertson, for helping with this request! Shannon was born with bilateral microtia and atresia and is an incredible audiologist at Chapel Hill!❤️👂

Zuria is also a recipient of receiving help through Ear Community’s Pax’s Ear Fund, helping cover the cost to program and fit her new Baha 7 Max!

Thank you to Dr. Nevin for finding the help Zuria needed and for helping make sure she can hear her best now! A special thank you to Keesha Pfeiffer and Cochlear Americas helping Zuria hear with her NEW Baha 7 Max! We are also grateful for Pax’s Ear Fund and the support of the Gross Family Foundation for making this fund possible to help reimburse audiologists for the fitting/programming service fee when families cannot afford to pay or when insurance denies this service. Pax’s Ear Fund helps audiologists still give the gift of hearing through our organization! Thank you to Pax, a sweet little boy who’s helping kids & adults hear! Together, we can make wonderful things happen for our community!

Thank you to everyone involved with helping Zuria hear better! We are so happy for her and excited for her to do so much better in school and dance! #HearNowAndAlways
Thank you!
Ear Community
Filed Under: Events, History

Ear Community Turns 16 Years Old Today!

May 20, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Today, May 20th, is Ear Community’s 16th Birthday!
It’s hard to believe that today marks 16 years of service to the Microtia and Atresia community through the Ear Community Organization! Our daughter, Ally, was only 6 months old when we decided to do something about the lack of information that was out there about this rare cause.

For the past 16 years, the Ear Community Organization has paved the way for microtia and atresia families! Ear Community, along with our online support groups, created a community that was needed, being there for our microtia and atresia families since 2010! Ear Community is proud to promote education and awareness and to give back to our beautiful community in many ways! Most importantly, our organization will always make sure no one ever feels alone with microtia and atresia!

Our family felt lost and alone and struggled to find the answers we were looking for when our daughter, Ally, was born with microtia and atresia. As a result, we wanted to help give back and make things easier for the next family that has a child born with microtia and atresia. Our family wishes we had an Ear Community when our Ally was born! Thankfully, we now have an entire beautiful community, that is like family, to be belong to through Ear Community!

If you enjoy supporting nonprofits and the work they do, consider making a donation to support the Ear Community Organization!
EarCommunity.org/donate
We look forward to seeing everyone this summer at our organization’s events!
– The Tumblin Family
Filed Under: Events, History

Ear Community visits Seidman Labs at Harvard for Microtia genetics research

April 1, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Jon Seidman and Barbara McDonough with Melissa Tumblin of the Ear Community Organization

Last week on March 25th, 2026, I had the opportunity to meet with our microtia genetics team at Siedman Labs at Harvard Medical School when traveling to Boston! I met with Dr. Jon Seidman and Barbara McDonough, to catch up and discuss our new findings about the increased risk of FOXI3 causing microtia and craniofacial microsomia.

I have known Jon and Barbara for the past 10 years and am incredibly grateful for their passion behind wanting to help find the answers our community is looking for when it comes to what causes Microtia and Craniofacial Microsomia. Visiting them is like visiting with family! Dr. Seidman and Barbara have brilliant minds and are known for their research at Harvard and around the world with Seidman Labs and I am so proud of their passionate work that is at the forefront of genetics research for our microtia community! This is an incredible team we have and I am forever grateful to Dr. Ron Eavey (Vanderbilt) for introducing me to Dr. Seidman! I am also incredibly grateful to Dr. Dan Quiat (Harvard) for his work during our last grant project for microtia and atresia research, including the many researchers who all worked very hard on finding the answers the microtia and atresia community is looking for. While we still have a lot to understand and figure out, the increased risk on FOXI3 is new information and is discussed in our published papers and in the presentation by Dr. Jon Seidman on our website.
Contributing Authors in collaboration with our work include:
Daniel Quiat, Andrew T. Timberlake, Justin J. Curran, Michael L. Cunningham, Barbara McDonough, Maria A. Artunduaga, Steven R. DePalma, Milagros M. Duenas-Roque, Joshua M. Gorham, Jonas A. Gustafson, Usama Hamdan, Anne V. Hing, Paula Hurtado-Villa, Yamileth Nicolau, Gabriel Osorno, Harry Pachajoa, Gloria L. Porras-Hurtado, Lourdes Quintanilla-Dieck, Luis Serrano, Melissa Tumblin, Ignacio Zarante, Daniela V. Luquetti, Roland D. Eavey, Carrie L. Heike, Jonathan G. Seidman and Christine E. Seidman.Genetics research is important to our rare community for so many reasons! As a mother, I can’t tell you how important it is to know about genetic information for our rare cause. This information helps give mothers some peace of mind that they did not do anything during their pregnancy to cause their child’s ear(s) to be missing as well as helping provide some of the missing puzzle pieces when it comes to microtia for our community!

Barbara McDonough – thank you for always taking the time to meet with me and catch up and for always being so welcoming and excited to discuss all things microtia! Thank you for helping change people’s lives with your work and with Drs. Jon and Christine Seidman, everyday!❤👂

More information on genetics research for microtia, along with our published papers, can be found on our Ear Community Organization’s website at:  https://earcommunity.org/genetic-research-on-microtia-and-aural-atresia/

Thank you,
Melissa Tumblin
Ear Community 

 

Filed Under: Events, History

Ear Community presents at the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Annual Meeting in Boston

April 1, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Advocates Melissa Tumblin, Amy Schefer, Dina Zuckerberg, Marly Eugenio and Melissa McGowan present at the Annual ACPA Meeting in Boston during March 2026.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have attended and participated in the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association (ACPA) Meeting that was held in Boston last week! Each time I attend this annual meeting, I feel as though it is a second home for me, coming together with existing friends in the craniofacial field and making new friends each time.

While at the ACPA meeting, I had the opportunity to present along side four incredible advocates, sharing about our journey, what we have learned, struggled with and overcome, including the work we are doing to help give back to the community. What an honor it was to present along side these following incredible women advocates: Amy Schefer, Dina Zuckerberg, Marly Eugenio and Melissa McGowen! Each one of us is dedicated to creating change in our communities that will help make things easier for the next family that has a child born with a rare cause. A special thank you to Amy Schefer for submitting our abstract for our panel presenation so each one of our voices could be heard for the communities we serve! Thank you to the ACPA for spotlighting our panel in the captured moments of this year’s meeting and for creating a platform for medical professionals and advocates to share their voices, together! Thank you for everyone’s advocacy!

At ACPA, I embraced connecting with the Vanderbilt team I have worked with over the years with microtia and atresia. I am always happy to see members of our CARE Research team who have worked very hard on collaborative research for our microtia and atresia community over the past five years together. It is always wonderful to see Ear Community friends from Nemours Children’s, Seattle Children’s, Nationwide Kids, and Old Dominion U and of course everyone at the ACPA! THANK YOU to the ACPA for creating a much needed platform and a place for collaboration where medical professionals and advocates can come together to share our voices and work! Thank you for everyone’s advocacy!

It is always wonderful to be brought together throughout the craniofacial world as an advocate! Advocates come in all shapes and sizes and what we offer is often priceless!

I always look forward to seeing the incredible advocates in our community that include patients themselves as well as some pretty incredible organizations that help those in need, creating a home for so many! Whether it is a mother’s love for her child or a child who has overcome struggles along their journey, but is now advocating for others just like them – we all have a common goal of providing help, support, community and compassion that will ultimately lead to helping make someone else’s life easier or sharing the journey of hope and learning from each other.

Here’s to the advocates at ACPA and in the combined communities who make incredible change and provide the hope and help when in need! Advocates also include medical professionals and representatives who help market medical technology that can help make our lives better and along side researchers, writers and volunteers. Thank you for everyone’s advocacy – always! Thank you to the ACPA for always creating such a professional meeting for the craniofacial field and community! Executive Director Adam Levy always does such a great job for the ACPA!

The following are just some of the many friends and faces that I always appreciate seeing at meetings like ACPA! Choose kind! ❤👂

Thank you,
Melissa Tumblin
Founder – Executive Director
Ear Community

Filed Under: Events, History

Microtia and Atresia picnics offered through the Ear Community Organization for summer of 2026

April 1, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Ear Community’s picnics are coming up this summer and we look forward to seeing so many of our beautiful microtia and atresia families come together on one of our special days!

Our Ear Community picnics are priceless and FREE! For the past 16 years, our Ear Community Organization has been bringing our microtia and atresia families together so the kids can play and maybe make a new friend, parents can share their journeys and so no one ever feels alone with microtia and atresia!

* Please RSVP to Lauren at LaurenEarCommunity@gmail.com

Summer of 2026 Picnic Line up:
Brookline, MA – Saturday, June 6th
San Diego, CA – Saturday, June 13th
Jeffersonville, IN – Saturday, June 27th
San Antonio, TX – Saturday, July 11th
Broomfield, CO – Saturday, July 25th

Join us for lunch and a day of fun with face painters, balloon artists and magicians! We’ll learn about the latest in bone anchored hearing devices thanks to Cochlear Americas, MED-EL USA and Oticon Medical! We’ll also have our microtia glasses at our picnics thanks to Ear Community’s Pax’s Eyewear Fund and our friend, James Hermsen of SuhHermsen Adaptive Eyewear Solutions who designs these glasses for microtia kids along side Dr. Donny Suh! We’ll have medical professionals joining us so everyone can find the answers they are looking for including Su-Por educating on the porous polyethylene implant used in auricular reconstruction ! We’ll also have some anaplastologists joining us as well to help educate us about prosthetic ears! It will be a wonderful day to come together and learn about your options when it comes to microtia and atresia!

* Our Colorado Ear Community picnic this year is in collaboration with Dr. Sheryl Lewin! Please click on the following link for conference registration details with the Earicle’s Conference!

A HUGE THANK YOU to our Ear Community picnic hosts for bringing their community and our families together at this year’s events!
The Furze Family
The Smyth Family
The McClellan Family
The Quesada Family

The Parcher Family

A special thank you to all of our Ear Community Sponsors for helping make our special days possible for our community and for helping support the good work our Ear Community Organization does for our community!
See everyone soon!
Ear Community 👂❤️
Filed Under: Events, History
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