Archives for July 21, 2012

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