Archives for April 5, 2024

Ear Community exhibits at the 2024 EHDI Meeting in Denver, CO

April 5, 2024 By Leave a Comment

Caitlin Hurst, Melissa Tumblin and Melissa McClellan of Ear Community at the 2024 EHDI Meeting in Denver.

Our Ear Community Organization was proud to exhibit at the 2024 EHDI (Early Hearing Detection and Intervention) Meeting held in Denver, CO this week! Our booth was busy with audiologists, therapists, educators, doctors, researchers and parents coming to our booth for information on microtia and atresia! This was Ear Community’s 6th time being a part of the EHDI Meeting over the years.

We always have attendees who search for our booth looking to find out the latest information and options for microtia and atresia. We had parents attend, some even wore their Ear Community Microtia and Atresia Kids Rock t-shirts, which was awesome to see! Thank you to the organizations at EHDI who also endorse Ally’s Act, H.R. 2439/S. 1135! It was great seeing our organization’s Sponsors too (Cochlear Americas and MED-EL USA)! It was wonderful seeing so many friends and familiar faces and also new friends too!

Thank you to Caitlin Hurst, Melissa McClellan, Natasha Irwin Rich, Elizabeth M Desloge and Keesha Pfeiffer for all joining us in our booth as parents of microtia and atresia kids! Elizabeth hosts our National Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day event each year in California and Natasha will be our Florida picnic host this June in collaboration with Nemours Children’s Health. Melissa McClellan is an amazing past board member of Ear Community who has enjoyed attending EHDI over the years with us and Caitlin and Melissa educated their hearts out about microtia and atresia! We had a special surprise – Caitlin and I discovered both of our kids had the same amazing teachers for speech during school over the years even though they are 6 years apart (Carm and Jeannine stopped by to see us)! We had audiologists and early intervention specialists who came to EHDI just to see us, especially audiologists who were born with microtia and atresia! We had a family attend coming all the way from Hawaii who visited with Caitlin as they both have had outer ear reconstruction with their kids and Dr. Tahiri Plastic Surgery! We shared about our picnic schedule with attendees to our booth along with the programs and work our organization offers as well! Ear Community is also proud to always include our children by honoring them in the booth with their pictures too! The last time Ear Community exhibited with EHDI in Denver in 2018, our organization’s Founder, Melissa Tumblin, was the recipient of the EHDI Family Leadership in Excellence Award!

Here are some fun memories from this week at EHDI while joining many of our friends and industry partners helping educate on all things Deaf and Hard of Hearing, especially on microtia and atresia! It was wonderful to see everyone this year at EHDI! 👂❤️
Thank you!
Ear Community

Filed Under: Events, History

Ear Community launches Pax’s Eyewear Fund offering eyeglasses & sunglasses for children with microtia & atresia

April 5, 2024 By Leave a Comment

Pax’s Eyewear Fund is made possible by a sweet little boy named Pax who was born with microtia and atresia. Pax and his family know how important it is to help children have the eyeglasses and sunglasses they need, but glasses that can stay up when they are missing ears. Ear Community is grateful for Pax’s Eyewear Fund! Pax’s Eyewear fund gives Ear Community the opportunity to help give back to our community when helping members of the microtia and atresia community see.

James Hermsen of Adaptive Eyewear Solutions is a friend of our organization who has helped provide microtia glasses for our community since 2017 at our picnics. James is the passionate soul behind making these eyeglass and sunglasses with straps and adapter, including fittings to keep bone anchored hearing devices on as well. James can be reached directly at: getunhinged@gmail.com  if you are in need of glasses for a child who has microtia and atresia. James can also fit existing sun or eyeglasses with his adapters and straps as part of our Ear Community Pax’s Eyewear fund if your child should already have a favorite pair of eye or sunglasses. To learn more about this eyewear for children with microtia, please click here.  * Please tell James you learned of his eyeglasses and sunglasses for microtia kids through Ear Community when reaching out to him.

It is Ear Community’s goal to help as many children with microtia as much as possible in. We are grateful to Pax and his family for making this fund possible through our Ear Community Organization!
Thank you,
EarCommunity.org

Filed Under: Events, History
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