Sophia Shemanski promoting public awareness about Microtia and Atresia for Better Hearing and Speech month this May.

On Wednesday, May 11th, 2016, Melissa and Sophia Shemanski, members of the Microtia and Atresia Support Group (an online support group run by the Ear Community Organization…a charitable organization that helps individuals born with Microtia and Atresia all over the world), helped promote public awareness and education about Microtia and Atresia and hearing loss.  Sophia and her mom, Melissa, wanted to do something special in recognition for Better Hearing and Speech month this May. So, they decided to help educate the state of Indiana about Microtia and Atresia and how a hearing device known as the Baha (bone anchored hearing device) can help someone hear better who has a conductive hearing loss just like Sophia has.  Melissa talks about how her family was able to obtain helpful information through the Ear Community Organization which helped inform them about their options for surgery and for hearing loss.  Melissa also explains how fortunate her family is to have found the Ear Community Organization because she has been able to connect with others in the same situation as her daughter, Sophia, and learn from other’s experiences.

In the news clip that aired Sophia and Melissa’s story, the mother/daughter advocate team gives thanks to the Ear Community Organization for helping them learn what they know today about Microtia and Atresia and Sophia’s hearing loss.  Sophia and Melissa have been members of the Ear Community’s Organizational support group, the “Microtia and Atresia Support Group” for nearly six years now.  Melissa and Sophia belong to the Ear Community Organization’s pen pal group and they also enjoy participating in Ear Community’s secret Santa exchange every year where Sophia and her family are given the opportunity to exchange gifts with another family who has a loved one with Microtia and Atresia.  Sophia also talks about her lucky Microtia ear, just like Nemo has a lucky fin.  Thank you Sophia for showing off your beautiful little ear and for helping so many in the community learn more about Microtia and Atresia!

Here is the link where you can watch Melissa and Sophia’s news story:  http://www.fox28.com/story/31953110/2016/05/11/sophias-story-learning-more-about-hearing-loss-prevention-month
and
http://www.myfox47.com/story/31953110/2016/05/11/sophias-story-learning-more-about-hearing-loss-prevention-month

Thank you to Sophia and Melissa Shemanski for helping promote public awareness about Microtia and Atresia and for being thankful for the help they have received through the Ear Community Organization. From this wonderful story about little lucky Microia ears to how a Cochlear Baha can help Sophia hear her best despite being born without an ear canal, thank you Sophia and Melissa for advocating for so many other individuals in the same situation and for promoting awareness during this month!

Thank you!
Melissa Tumblin (Founder and Executive Director of Ear Community)
and
Ear Community board members
www.EarCommunity.org

Ida Telecare

Whether you are just beginning your hearing loss journey or are an experienced traveler on the road to
better hearing, Ida Telecare, a new suite of online tools, makes it easier for you to successfully manage
everyday communication and important decisions related to your hearing.

Developed by the non-profit Ida Institute, Ida Telecare is a free, easy-accessed combination of quick and
easy-to-use interactive tools and engaging video “stories” that help you identify communication needs
and concerns that are important to you. Telecare tools can help you prepare for appointments so you
are ready to get the most from time spent with your hearing care professional. They can also provide
the ongoing support you need to live well with your hearing loss post appointment.

“Research consistently shows that people who self-manage their hearing loss experience greater
satisfaction with hearing care and hearing technologies,” says Ida Institute Managing Director Lise Lotte
Bundesen. “Ida Telecare helps you do just that by empowering you to make decisions that are right for
you as you learn to live well with your hearing loss.”

Telecare tools give you the personal support you need to successfully navigate each phase of your
unique hearing journey:

Living Well prepares you for first and follow-up appointments by encouraging you to think about your
needs and concerns before you arrive for your appointment. A series of open-ended questions help you
identify where and when it is most important for you to communicate well.

My Turn to Talk allows you prioritize the most important people with whom you communicate and
helps you prepare your thoughts, concerns and questions before you meet with your hearing care
professional. Web-based drag-and-drop technology lets you drop your communication partners into
rings to indicate those who are “most important” and “very important” as well as those who are less
important but present on a regular basis. You then complete a series of prompts — “I’m happy about…”,
“I hope…”, “I want to talk about…” and “I’m concerned about…”– that help you organize your thoughts
and ensure your concerns are addressed during your appointment.

Ida Telecare

Everyday Life with Hearing Loss provides five tips to help you manage conversation well in daily life.
You’ll find simple strategies to alert others to your hearing loss, to improve your opportunities for better
communication and to work together with your communication partners to enhance day-to-day
interactions.

Storytelling Videos let you gain insight and inspiration from the personal experiences of other people
with hearing loss. Discover what others do to improve their ability to communicate well in family, social
and work situations.

You can save notes and completed sessions to your home computer and email to your audiologist or
print out to bring to your appointment. With this information, you can work together with your hearing
care professional to map out communication strategies and shared goals that work best for your needs
and lifestyle.

“How you choose to work with and learn from Ida Telecare is up to you,” adds Bundesen. “The tools are
flexible enough to accommodate a range of individual needs and interests. Ida Telecare offers a wealth
of practical guidance and inspiration whether you are visiting it for the first time or returning for
continued support throughout your hearing journey.”

For more information about Ida Telecare and the Ida Institute, visit:  http://idainstitute.com/toolbox/telecare

No surgery, seamless fit with existing abutments for unprecedented 
freedom of choice in bone anchored hearing solutions

New-Abutment-Extension

SOMERSET, NJ February 8 — Oticon Medical announced today that it has obtained 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the Ponto Abutment Extension. The new abutment extension seamlessly connects to existing abutments so users can upgrade their bone anchored hearing solutions without changing abutments or undergoing further surgery. The abutment extension provides freedom of choice to all BAHS users. The Ponto Abutment Extension completes the Ponto abutment family, making it the most flexible and versatile implant solution available.

“Freedom to choose is central to Oticon Medical’s People First philosophy,” says Oticon Medical President Jes Olsen. “We believe that hearing care professionals and users should have the freedom to choose whichever solution best suits their needs regardless of the brand. The unprecedented interface compatibility made possible with the new Ponto Abutment Extension means that even more people will be able to access the best sound technology available.”

Oticon Medical provides the most extensive family of abutments for variation in skin thicknesses. The Ponto abutment concept offers important features designed to improve some of the most critical aspects of the skin penetration for bone anchored hearing. Oticon Medical’s proprietary OptiFit™ and OptiGrip™ implant design concepts have been cleared by the FDA for use in tissue- preserving surgery. Like all Ponto abutments, the new Ponto Abutment Extension has a medical grade titanium surface.

For more information on the Oticon Medical Ponto System, the new Ponto Abutment Extension and the entire family of Ponto abutments, visit www.oticonmedical.com/us.

About Oticon Medical
Because Sound Matters . . .

Oticon Medical is a global company in implantable hearing solutions, dedicated to bringing the magical world of sound to people at every stage of life. As a member of one of the world’s largest groups of hearing care companies, we share a close link with Oticon and direct access to the latest advancements in hearing research and technologies. Our competencies span more than a century of innovations in sound processing and decades of pioneering experience in hearing implant technology.

By working collaboratively with patients, physicians and hearing care professionals, we ensure that every solution we create is designed with user needs in mind. We share an unwavering commitment to provide innovative solutions and support that enhance quality of life for people wherever life may take them. Because we know how much sound matters.

Joel Orozco, born with Microtia of his left ear, is the 4th recipient to receive a college scholarship from the Ear Community Organization. January 2016.

Meet Joel Orozco, a freshman attending California State University, Fullerton.  Joel was born with Microtia and Atresia of his left ear.  Joel always had a positive outlook on life and always fit in with his classmates when he was younger and enjoyed playing on the playground with his peers.  However, during middle school he struggled with his confidence as he began noticing people staring at his left ear and he believed people would treat him differently.  Joel became shy and felt insecure around girls his age and people in general.  Joel felt a little lost.  Joel says “I would try and sit on the left side of the classroom so my Microtia ear faced the wall, and when I had to talk to people I would have my head tilted.”  “It was not until my junior year of high school where I was surrounded by friends who genuinely accepted me, cared, and loved me did I fit in,” Joel says.   It was during Joel’s junior year of high school that he became social and more confident again.

One of Joel’s personal achievements was being on a show called Mr. Wilson where there was a fashion show and Joel was a part of the group selected for the runway.  Joel says, “To be in front of such a big crowd with glaring lights beaming down on you and not caring whether or not people saw my ear was a huge achievement for me.” After participating in three rounds of fashion, talent/dance, and question, I felt proud and had rediscovered himself again.  While Joel did not win, he says that “it was the largest milestone in confidence, charisma, happiness, and acceptance he had ever reached.”  Joel went from being that scared lost kid who was afraid to order his own food at restaurants to realizing that he just did something in front of a thousand people, knowing that the majority of people would not do what he just did on their own due to confidence issues.  He said “I finally felt like myself again, my distant feelings I had as an elementary student on the playground rushed back to me where I felt the same as everyone else.”

In addition to Joel excelling at academics during his later years high school earning a 3.6 grade point average, he also joined soccer where he played the starter position, …his new found confidence did not stop there.  Now that Joel is a student at Cal State, he is excited about majoring in kinesiology, eventually planning to earn his masters degree in physical therapy.  Joel intends to work with individuals who have disabilities.  Joel says “not only would I plan to improve their conditions physically, but I would like to talk to them and treat them the way I would like to be treated in order to feel normal.”  Joel says “I was first inspired by being a physical therapist when I saw a kid who needed a cane to walk because he limped.  There was a person next to me who stared at him and wasn’t very nice…and I felt this kid’s pain.”  Ever since Joel witnessed this, he decided that he would like to work with children and adults with disabilities because everyone should always be treated the same and never differently just because of the way they look or walk.

Ear Community is proud to award Joel with a college scholarship for $750.00 to help him pursue his achievements toward becoming a physical therapist at Cal State.  “It sounds like Joel has a good head on his shoulders and is sensitive to others feelings and believes in being respectful to others and because of this, all of us here at Ear Community believe you will go very far in life Joel,” says Melissa Tumblin, Founder of Ear Community.  Life isn’t always easy and people are not always nice, but seeing that Joel has gotten his confidence back, it looks like there is nothing that can bring him down now.  Congratulations on also accepting yourself for who you are Joel!  A special thank you to the Resort2Kindness Organization in Colorado for helping make this opportunity possible for Joel!  We hope you do great things in life with your positive attitude!  Good luck to you in school Joel and we wish you the best success in getting your degrees and for your future.  Congratulations on being a recipient of our college scholarship through Ear Community!

Thank you,
Melissa Tumblin
Founder and Executive Director
Ear Community
www.EarCommunity.org

December 22, 2015. YuXi Sun Todd, born with bilateral Microtia and Atresia, wearing her newly donated Oticon Medical Ponto Plus hearing devices.

Meet YuXi Sun Todd.  YuXi is a beautiful seven year old girl who was born in Beijing, China, but is now a citizen living in the United States.  YuXi was born with bilateral Microtia and Atresia and has lived in an orphanage in China since three months of age.

On May 22nd, 2015, YuXi was adopted by her new parents, Lynn and Barbara Todd of Winter Haven, Florida.  Lynn and Barbara Todd were on an adoption list for nearly 10 years and finally got the call for little YuXi, but by now they had retired and didn’t have the income they once had 10 years ago when originally wanting to adopt.  So, they pulled together the funds they had, took out a loan, and dipped into their savings and retirement to adopt YuXi.  The first thing they wanted to focus on with YuXi was to help her hear.  YuXi was only speaking a few words of English and when they would repeat words back to her they noticed she was really struggling to hear them and wasn’t pronouncing the words back clearly.  After taking YuXi to an ENT who had suggested the use of a bone conduction hearing device, they contacted their insurance about hearing device coverage.  Unfortunately, the Todd family did not have coverage for a hearing device for YuXi and were turned away.  After spending a couple of thousand dollars on a dental bill for YuXi’s teeth to fix cavities and after the adoption fees there was not a lot of funds available to them for two hearing devices for YuXi.  The Todd family was concerned for YuXi’s communication and wanted YuXi to feel comfortable in her new home with her new family.

YuXi’s parents were told about the Ear Community Organization and applied for a hearing device for YuXi.  On December 22nd, 2015, YuXi was fitted with two newly donated Oticon Medical Ponto Plus hearing devices through the Ear Community Organization just in time for Christmas.  Since YuXi has been aided with her two Ponto Plus hearing devices YuXi’s mother, Barbara said ” I will tell you the difference in her hearing is AMAZING!!  She is better able to enunciate words, sounds and putting together sentences.  I would honestly say  she has picked up more English in the past week than in the last 3-4 months.  She is singing Christmas carols and along with radio.  She was talking to her sister on Facetime and really was answering appropriately.”  Thank you to Dr. Chelsea McNee of Tampa Children’s ENT for getting YuXi into your office just before the holiday so YuXi could receive the gift of hearing for Christmas.

A very special thank you to Alan Raffauf, Vice President of Marketing for Oticon MedicalUS, for choosing to donate the new Oticon Medical Ponto Plus hearing devices w/streamer to Ear Community so that they could be donated to YuXi to help her hear better outside of the school classroom. Thank you for everyone’s support and for helping Ear Community continue with its mission of helping individuals with Microtia and Atresia.Oticon Medical believes in helping individuals with hearing loss so that they can live a better quality of life. Oticon Medical is a well respected international hearing device manufacturer that is a part of the “William Demant Group [which has] 100-plus years of experience in audiology and sound processing and established manufacturing and logistics infrastructure.”

Congratulations to hearing so much better now YuXi!  All of us here at Ear Community are so happy that you can not only hear better with your new Pontos, but that you are able to hear clearly so you can learn English easier.

Congratulations again YuXi!
All of us at Ear Community
www.EarCommunity.org

December, 18th 2015. Julia Patrick of Resort2Kindness presenting Melissa Tumblin with a grant for $10,000 to the Ear Community Organization. Pictured with her two children, Hailey and Ally (whom Ear Community was founded after).

On December, 18th, 2015, Melissa Tumblin, Founder of the Ear Community Organization, was presented with a $10,000 grant by Julia Patrick, a representative of the Resort2Kindness Organization, a nonprofit organization that spreads kindness and generosity in Colorado.  Originally, Melissa thought she was attending a lunch interview for being one of the three finalists for this grant.  To Melissa’s surprise, during the lunch, she was presented with flowers and then was asked to open a box.  In the box were some thank you cards and a booklet that Melissa was asked to read.  As Melissa read through each page, reading about kindness and sharing and generosity and thanks, she then began reading about her own organization and the thanks to her for helping so many others realizing that she had been awarded the grant!  Beneath this booklet was a check for $10,000 for the Ear Community Organization!

Originally, Julia Patrick, of the Resort2Kindess Organization, had contacted Melissa earlier in the year (April) asking how Ear Community could partner with Resort2Kindness in the community to help others in need.  After giving suggestions, Julia wanted to learn a bit more about Ear Community and so Melissa explained more to her about her small organization. A few months later, Julia told Melissa about the opportunity for a grant and told her that she would apply on her behalf because she really loved what the Ear Community Organization does.  Melissa thought this was very thoughtful and how kind of someone to want to help her organization and apply for the grant for her!  During December, the lunch interview was scheduled where Melissa would be surprised to have learned that she won the grant for 2015.

Melissa asked Julia how the Resort2Kindess Organization was founded.  Julia explained to Melissa that she works with some pretty amazing women, one of them being Elva Pellouchoud, who is the Founder of Epiphany, Inc., a Denver based marketing and branding agency that specializes in the development and implementation of creative branding and marketing programs for clients in luxury and philanthropy.  Julia explained to me that the Resort2Kindess Organization is Elva’s vision of a nonprofit charity that helps give back to the community by promoting kindness and generosity by helping others in need.  Elva’s vision was to provide an organization that would be able to give back to the community by helping promote individual acts of kindness with the help of donations from charity sponsors.  So, thank you Elva and Epiphany, Inc. and to all of the sponsors who came together to not only select Ear Community as the charity organization to give back to for 2015, but for also making these funds possible.  This grant will help Ear Community with some operational expenses, go toward some of our picnic expenses when we bring families together at our events, fund the organization’s application to the IRS for becoming their own entity, and go toward some expenses for the Ear Community Organization to attend a professional industry conference where we promote education and awareness about Microtia and Atresia.

Melissa did ask how Julia found out about the Ear Community Organization.  Julia said that one of the employees for Epiphany, Inc. was standing in line at a local Costco in Superior/Louisville, Colorado one day speaking to a man (Coty) who trains service dogs for people who have Alzheimer’s Disease.  Apparently, this man told the person in line all about what Ear Community does and how much we help children (and their families) who were born with missing ears, hearing loss, and who have facial challenges.  He must have shown some wonderful excitement for what Ear Community does, because he inspired the Resort2Kindness Organization.  It is amazing what the power of community can do.  Thank you Coty for liking what Ear Community does.  I am trying to find you to thank you for what you did because I do not think you realize what you did by just telling someone about our organization!

Thank you again for the wonderful opportunity to be granted these funds for the Ear Community Organization and for supporting a small Colorado head quartered nonprofit organization.  Thank you to Elva and the entire Epiphany, Inc. team!  Thank you especially to Julia Patrick, who is amazing too!  I am so thankful for your kindness and in getting to know you over this past year!  You have the best job on earth.  Go spread some more kindness and generosity my friend!  Thank you for making that day an incredibly amazing day that I will always remember!

Thank you again!
Melissa Tumblin
Founder and Executive Director
Ear Community
www.EarCommunity.org

December 1st, 2015 is Giving Tuesday Day, a global day to help give back to charity organizations and the community.

Today is Giving Tuesday! While the Ear Community Organization may be headquartered in Colorado, we help children and adults with Microtia and Atresia all over the United States and in many countries across the world! Ear Community brought together over 1,000 people this year at our events held in Australia, Denmark, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington, and South Africa! Ear Community was able to help nine children and one adult hear better this year by helping obtain new hearing devices for them. Our hearing device recipients this year came from various states across the United States and from China, the Philippines, and South Africa! We also awarded one college scholarship too!

2015 was a special year for the Ear Community Organization as we exhibited for the very first time at two conferences (EDHI and EAA) helping promote education and awareness about Microtia and Atresia to parents, audiologists, state council members, teachers of the deaf, therapists, and various medical professionals. Ear Community offers even more help through sponsored educational webinars, help through its six online support groups, and the opportunity to learn about Microtia and Atresia through our amazing website that is translatable in 47 different languages.

Ear Community is the leading parent driven nonprofit organization for the Microtia and Atresia community. Ear Community is also a grass roots organization. We might be tiny, but we are mighty in what we do! If you like what Ear Community is doing, please show us your support on Giving Tuesday and consider Ear Community as a charity organization to make a donation to so we can help even more individuals with Microtia and Atresia.

Thank you to our dedicated sponsors who have believed in Ear Community over the years: Cochlear Americas, Oticon Medical, and Stryker CMF and all of the wonderful individuals who have already shown your support for Ear Community! Thank you to all of the families who have come together at our events helping make Ear Community the special charity organization that it is. We appreciate all of you and we are so happy that we have come to know each other so we are no longer alone with Microtia and Atresia (and hemifacial challenges).

Please click here if you would like to support the Ear Community Organization during this season of giving.