On Saturday, July 21st in Calgary, Alberta Canada, we had our 1st Microtia and Atresia summer family picnic (including families of Goldenhar Syndrome, Treacher Collins, and Hemifacial Microsomia loved ones).  The day was beautiful and so was our park location.  Cochlear and Oticon Medical proudly sponsored our picnic along with Handy Latino & Associates Carpet Cleaning, ph:  403 383 6132 and e-mail:  jlemus3000@gmail.com.  Cochlear, www.cochlear.com,  was happy to sponsor our food for our picnic and our fun clown who provided amazing face painting for the kids.  Oticon Medical, www.oticonmedical.com, proudly sponsored our location for our picnic.  Handy Latino & Associates also donated 12 large bags of ice so that every drink at our picnic was cold.  Handy Latino & Associates also donated items in the goody bags for all of the children along with stuffed teddy bears for each child.  We had so many wonderful people come together and help at our Calgary picnic it was amazing!  I would like to thank Xamara and Diego Van Der Pennen Lemus and her family for all of the hard work that was put into this picnic. Xamara also drove around to a number of grocery stores asking for money donations toward food items for this picnic.  I would like to thank Georgina Metzler, georgina@georgemetzler.com,  for donating her time and services as a professional photographer for our picnic and who took wonderful pictures of our amazing day. Thank you to Citlali Loza for donating Avon chapsticks to the kids in the goody bags. Thank you again to Handy Latino & Associates for also covering the cost of the additional chapsticks for Avon. Build-A-Bear in the United States proudly donated one stuffed and dressed teddy bear to this picnic for one lucky kid during the raffle. Safeway grocery store donated $25 toward food items for this picnic and Costco stores donated $70 toward food items for this picnic. Thank you to Alberta Health Services Reconstructive Medicine for donating two movie passes that were raffled off at this picnic. Thank you also to everyone who helped during the picnic such as Dave Gordey of Oticon Medical for not only taking pictures and grilling the hotdogs, but he also helped with set up and clean up after coming straight from the airport. Dave grilled with lots of delicious hot dogs along with Brad Burton. Thank you Brad for bringing your grill!  Thank you to Mayte and Brad Burton for helping find the best deals for the food, cooking our food on the day of the picnic and helping with set up and clean up for the picnic. Xamara tells me that the Burtons were absolute life savers.  Thank you to Yolani, Jasmin, Daniel, and Sebastian Benavides for helping make the fruit trays, arrange everything, loading up the cars with the food, helping all over during the picnic, making it happen, and for helping with the the raffles, and giving the goodie bags away.  Xamara appreciated your help greatly and so do I in helping with this picnic and in helping promote awareness about Microtia and Atresia through a fun picnic for everyone!  Karen Cavanah also brought a little gas stove and cooked some hotdogs, made cookies for the picnic, helped set up, take down, among other things. Alicia & Joaquin Benitez, thank you, for making the veggie trays, and cemita bread. Gladys and Makayla Lemus helped clean up the picnic area before and after, along all the above mentioned people. And…Amber from Edmonton reconstruction helped during the raffle, thank you so much! Again, the purpose of these picnics is to come together and have a nice time. Xamara’s picnic showed lots of hospitality from so many who helped come together and make this picnic happen. I hope everyone had an absolute wonderful time in Calgary last Saturday and were able to share their experiences and have a nice picnic at the park, together. Thank you Xamara for being the host for our first Calgary picnic through Ear Community!

Thank you!
Melissa Tumblin
Founder of Ear Community and the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook

On Saturday, July 21, 2012, I hosted our 2nd Annual Summer Picnic for Microtia and Atresia families (including Goldenhar Syndrome, Treacher Collins, and Hemifacial Microsomia families).  Our Colorado Picnic was a huge success! Even though it was 100 degrees, we had close to 200 people attend (almost double the amount of people from last year’s picnic). It was a wonderful day! Thank you so much to Cochlear, Oticon Medical, and Sophono for proudly sponsoring our picnic again this year.  Without our sponsors, our picnics would not be the wonderful picnics they have become.  I would not be able to put smiles on our little kids faces without your help and by giving back to the Microtia and Atresia community through Ear Community and making it fun for everyone.  Cochlear (www.cochlear.com) and the Hands & Voices Organization (www.handsandvoices.org) sponsored our magician for the kids.  “Magic Rob” made the kids laugh and did a wonderful job entertaining them.  Magic Rob was a perfect fit for our picnic as he also happens to wear a hearing aid.  Oticon Medical (www.oticonmedical.com)  proudly sponsored our delicious lunch and drinks for all, including sponsoring our beautiful park location in the lovely city of Broomfield, and the super fun jumpy castle for the kids.  Everyone enjoyed having a nice lunch while meeting one another and the kids had a blast in the jumpy castle with each other.  Sophono (www.sophono.com) proudly sponsored our face painter and balloon maker for the kids in which both lines never ran short with these two fun activities.  Families mingled with both Dr. Sheryl Lewin (www.microtiaearsurgery.com) and her family and Dr. Russell Griffiths (www.earreconstructionspecialist.com).  Families learned more about hearing loss and about Cochlear, Oticon, and Sophono options for sound processors. In fact, we had one little boy hear through a sound processor for the very first time and my daughter’s speech pathologist happened to be standing by him and she asked him “well, how does it sound?” and he whipped his head around with a big smile and said he liked it.  I enjoy hearing that someone at our picnic discovered a new option…this is what education is all about for us and knowing what our options are.  We had early intervention therapists on site with us including my daughter, Ally’s, speech therapist, Linda. I was unable to get an anaplastologist (prosthetic expert) at our picnic this time, but next year I’ll hope for one to make it.  Police officers Hiatt and Abram spoke to the kids about safety and gave the kids a tour of the police car with badges, stickers, and tattoos. The Build-A-Bear mascot visited us and posed for pictures with the kids.  Thank you Build-A-Bear for also donating a teddy bear which was raffled off to a very lucky boy at our picnic.  A special thank you to Jordan Fink and Carrie Jones of Jordan Fink Photography (www.jordanfinkphotography.com) for donating their time to be our professional photographers at our picnic so we can always remember our 2nd Annual Colorado Microtia and Atresia Picnic! Over 300 photos were taken of our amazing picnic on Saturday.  I could not have managed to take the quality of photos you took and manage the picnic at the same time. I met Jordan and Carrie at a Chamber of Commerce Small Business Event just two weeks before our picnic.  They are new in town and were looking to give back to someone in the community and I happened to meet them at this chamber event.  I guess you could say that it was meant to be!  Thank you to Costco too for donating our two sheet cakes, juice boxes, and bottled water.  Thank you to my best friend, John Connor, who donated a case of fruit twists for the kids. We also shared a moment of silence to think about the hundreds of families who have been displaced from their homes because of the fires our state has experienced and especially the families who were involved in the tragic shooting at the theater in Aurora, CO just two days ago. I am continually amazed at the support I have received in making these picnics possible and for all of the families and individuals who support me as well by coming together at our picnics, showing me that we all want to meet one another and share experiences. Even though I feel that I never have enough time to meet each and everyone of you at our picnics or have to cut our conversations short to make sure everything is running smoothly, I always have a wonderful time and I enjoy meeting so many of you. It is so nice to meet everyone from our support group and to meet the families that I have been able to speak with over the phone. I am especially happy to always see both kids and adults with Microtia and Atresia attend our picnic, no matter whether surgery was a decision or the decision was to keep those beautiful little ears.  It is about coming together and learning from each other and having some role models for both the kids and the parents.  I love you all and look forward to seeing you at all of our picnics every year!

Thank you for making our picnic the success that it was once again!
Melissa Tumblin
Founder of Ear Community and the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook

Hi Everyone,

Today, my latest article was published by AudiologyOnline about Ear Community and Microtia and Atresia.  I am thankful for the opportunity to have been interviewed by AudiologyOnline and I am honored to have been featured in an article by such a wonderful global organization.   I founded Ear Community in 2012 and launched the www.EarCommunity.org website on February 8, 2012.  I founded the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook on May 20, 2012.  I will continue to promote both educational and public awareness  about Microtia and Atresia so that the world may know more about it.

The link to the AudiologyOnline interview follows:

http://www.audiologyonline.com/interview/interview_detail.asp?interview_id=637

Thank you,
Melissa Tumblin
Founder of Ear Community and the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook

___________________________________________________

Hi Melissa,

We wanted to remind you that your interview is featured on the homepage of the website AudiologyOnline this week.   If you visit http://www.AudiologyOnline.com you can view the homepage of AudiologyOnline.

Joanne

AudiologyOnline

Joanne Slater, Au.D., CCC-A CEU Administrator / Associate Editor jslater@audiologyonline.com T:800.753.2160, ext. 218 F:210-579-6686 www.audiologyonline.com

Our Texas Microtia and Atresia Summer Family Picnic was a huge success. Even though it poured rain with thunder and lightening the entire time, close to 90 people had a wonderful time and still found a way to have fun and share experiences with one another. There were little girls hula hooping in the rain and kiddos playing with each other having a blast. Parents had the opportunity to speak with one another and to see their kids play with other kids who have little ears too! Some kids and adults had surgery and some have not or have chosen not to and everyone was still able to share experiences. This was the first time for some families in meeting other families in the same situation. I would like to say a BIG thank you to Cochlear Americas, Oticon Medical, and Sophono for proudly sponsoring our Texas picnic! Our picnics would not be the picnics I envisioned them to be without your help and thank you for wanting to be a part of the Microtia/Atresia community! You have helped make our picnics fun for everyone with the activities provided and for our food and for our park location. Thank you also for bringing demo sound processors for everyone to try on.  At least two people were able to hear through a sound processor for the very first time at our Webster picnic. Thank you to Alex Goncarovs (West Coast Regional Sales Manager of Sophono), Kimberlee Griffey (Territory Sales Rep for Oticon), and Kirk (Territory Sales Rep for Cochlear) for being at our Texas picnic helping educate everyone about sound processors and on hearing loss!  I would also like to thank Oticon Medical for bringing a $10 iTunes card and an In-The-Ear Hearing Aid Dehumidifier that was raffled off to one lucky little girl. I would like to thank Dr. Arturo Bonilla and Dr. Russell Griffiths for attending our picnic as well and for speaking and mingling with families and individuals about Microtia and Atresia. I would like to thank Allison Vest and Colette Shrader (both anaplastologists) who not only helped educate families about prosthetic ears and brought lots of ear samples for everyone to see, but they also brought some help (Hannah and Sky) who face painted the kids and made balloon animals and the kids just loved that! Allison and Colette also had drawn diagrams on the cement explaining how a prosthetic ears fit and provided some side walk chalk for the kids. I would like to thank Build-A-Bear who donated a fully dressed/stuffed bear that was raffled off to one very lucky little boy. Thank you to Home Depot for donating 2 cases of bottled water and thank you to Sams for donating cupcakes for the kids and a cookie tray. Thank you to the SnoBall Hut for providing snowballs for the kids and to Texas Lite and Pyro who donated the bubble machine for the kids to have fun in. Thank you to Kelly Cardenas for taking pictures of our picnic so we could have the memories of this picnic forever.

I would also like to say a very special thank you to Melanie, Daniel and Nathaniel Mendoza and family and Laura, Jack and John Barzizza for hosting our First Microtia and Atresia picnic in Texas through Ear Community.  This was a chance for Melanie and Laura and their families to be able to give back to the Webster/Houston community and to be able to reach out and bring Microtia/Atresia families together. I am thankful for their help and for their friendships. I was told that Daniel (Melanie’s son) was so excited to show off his newly reconstructed ear (by Dr. Bonilla) to everyone and to help answer questions. He also enjoyed trying on the Cochlear processors in all of the different colors that are offered.  Daniel also enjoyed handing out pop corn to all of the kids and adults too!  Thank you to Nathaniel for running around to Sams and Home Depot and more asking for donations for our picnic. Again, I am so happy to know that more Microtia and Atresia families and individuals were able to come together at one of our picnics and learn about their options from the medical professionals who attended in a relaxed and stress free environment. Thank you for everyone for recognizing Ear Community as a helpful resource and as a place that brings families together to learn about all of their options regarding Microtia and Atresia.

Thank you so much!
Melissa Tumblin
Founder of Ear Community and the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook

With great pleasure I would like to thank Cochlear Americas, Oticon Medical and Sophono for sponsoring our summer picnic that was just held in Yonkers, New York for Microtia and Atresia families (including Hemifacial Microsomia, Treacher Collins and Goldenhar Syndrome families).  Our event would not have been possible if it were not for our sponsors.  Thanks to you for sponsoring our picnic, our kids had a wonderful time playing with each other, were able to enjoy some fun entertainment and activities and enjoy a delicious catered lunch.  Thank you also for helping educate our families more about hearing loss and the technology available that can help make hearing loss manageable.  I would also like to thank Oticon Medical for making it possible for me to be at the NY picnic so that I could meet so many of the families whom I have been speaking with since founding our support group.  Thank you!  A little over 100 people attended our picnic this Saturday!  We had families travel from Ohio, New Jersey and from all over the state of New York including a family from Columbia.  In addition to our families and individuals who attended our picnic, Dr. Thomas Romo and Dr. Russell Griffiths were also among our families.  Dr. Thomas Romo is one of NYC’s finest plastic surgeons, is the Founder of the Little Baby Face Foundation and the Director of facial and reconstructive plastic surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital.   Dr. Russell Griffiths has his private practice in Boise, Idaho and specializes in a variety of facial plastic surgery including ear reconstruction.  Thank you to Alan Raffauf (VP of Mktg. for Oticon Medical), Kerry Roesch (North American District Sales Manager for Sophono), and Alison Mendez (NY Territory Sales Rep for Cochlear) for being at our picnic.  I would like to thank Daisy Alcivar Garrison for being our NY picnic host and for organizing our event.  Daisy would like to carry on the torch and host a picnic in New York for Microtia families every year.  Thank you to Pee Wee the clown who was our awesome magician, snow cone maker, DJ, face painter/balloon maker and popcorn maker.  Yep, Pee Wee did it all!  The kids had a wonderful time listening to him and dancing and playing games.  Pee Wee gave us an amazing discount on everything he did for us which is very much appreciated. I would also like to say a very special thank you to Marcos of Valentina’s Pizzaria who catered our delicious Italian lunch (rigatoni, chicken parm, garlic balls, salad, french fries, and drinks). Marcos not only catered our event at his cost (helping give Oticon Medical a 50% discount for covering the food), but Marcos snuk in some very delicious cannolis as a special treat for all of the parents to eat and asked a friend to cater some delicious cupcakes for the kids. Marcos applauds what we are doing for the Microtia/Atresia community and he has offered to cater next year’s NY picnic for FREE and he also would like to do this for many years to come to support Ear Community and the Yonkers, NY community. Marcos and PeeWee, thank you for helping make our Microtia/Atresia picnic in New York so special for these families and especially for our kids. Thank you for giving back to the community!  I would also like to thank Build-A-Bear for donating a fully stuffed and dressed bear that one lucky little girl won during our raffle.  I have a feeling this little girl just got a new best friend! I would also like to thank the Ear to Ear Foundation for asking the Oriental Trading Company for some fun goodies for the kids. Thank you to the Oriental Trading Company for those goodies provided and the kids loved them.  Thank you! I will always remember the experiences these picnics provide.  I can’t tell you all how very nice it was to finally meet everyone, watch the kids play together and have fun, see families mingling with medical professionals in a relaxed setting and learning about hearing technology in an unbiased manner. Thank you to everyone involved for helping me find a way to bring Microtia/Atresia families together.

Melissa Tumblin

Founder of Ear Community and the Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook

Hello Everyone,

Today marks the 2 Year Anniversary for our global support group on Facebook, the Microtia and Atresia Support Group.  Our support group has helped thousands of families and individuals around the world learn how to become better advocates and learn about all of their options.  Our support group has become internationally recognized and embraced by medical professionals and organizations around the world.  I look forward to our support group family continuing to grow as we grow.  Thank you to all of the families and individuals who are a part of our support group because without you we would not be where we are today.

Sincerely,
Melissa Tumblin
Founder of Ear Community and the Microtia and Atresia Support Group

Hello Everyone,

This morning, Sunday March 18th, 2012, a very nice story went out in the Sunday Morning Broomfield Enterprise news paper for our home community.  Joe Rubino (Broomfield Enterprise Reporter) did a wonderful job relaying my feelings and points regarding helping promote public awareness about Microtia and Atresia and how the Ear Community website can help many families and individuals across the world learn more about Microtia/Atresia and hearing loss.

http://www.broomfieldenterprise.com/ci_20191221/broomfield-moms-ear-community-comes-from-heart?IADID=Search-www.broomfieldenterprise.com-www.broomfieldenterprise.com

Thank you!

Melissa

Hello Everyone!

On Thursday, March 8th at 4:30pm Mountain Standard Time (6:30pm Eastern Standard Time) for American and Canadian time zones, I will be hosting a global conference call to discuss Microtia and Atresia through the AboutFace Organization in Canada.  Anyone around the world is welcome to join in on this call if you can dial into a 1-866 number.  This call is FREE to everyone and is sponsored by the wonderful AboutFace Organization.  We will touch on Microtia and Atresia in general, including discussing dealing with public stares and comments about our children, raising our children with self confidence, etc…  Families who have children with additional syndromes/conditions are of course welcome on the call as we all share in similar experiences, so please join us even if your child does not have Microtia and Atresia.  The call will be approximately 1 hour long.

Directions for joining the conference call are below:

Conference Call Dial In Numbers: 1-866-613-5223 or 1-416-204-9354 (direct in Canada)

Conference Access Code: 1263325

How Participants Join the Conference Call:

1. Dial the “conference dial in number”
2. When prompted, enter the “conference access code”, followed by the “#”

By pressing *6 you will be able to MUTE your line to cut out any extra background noise, by pressing *6 again will allow you to speak and unMUTE your line.

By pressing *0 will put you in touch with the conference call operator for help

I wish to thank the AboutFace Organization for inviting me to host this conference call and for allowing this call to be a global call for everyone.

Thank you and looking forward to speaking with everyone this Thursday!

Melissa Tumblin