Quota International Supports Hearing Need

Speech and hearing-related service is a primary concern of Quota International clubs everywhere, including the United States. Enjoy this glimpse at the many ways U.S. Quotarians serve the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals and those with speech impairments.

• Morro Bay Quota Club Helps Toddler to Hear
  
  
• Lorain Quota Club Purchases Testing Equipment
  
  
• Banquet for Speech-Hearing Notables in Massillon
  
  
• Mountain View-Los Altos Supports Infant Hearing Screening

Morro Bay Quota Club Helps Toddler to Hear

When a local baby was diagnosed with bilateral profound hearing loss, the Morro Bay Quota club in California rallied to help the family with the enormous expense associated with diagnosing and treating deafness. Medical bills are significant, but, for a family on the Central California Coast who must trek frequently some 277 miles south for care at Children's Hospital in San Diego, travel expenses mount quickly.

The Morro Bay Quota club supported Katy and her family throughout months of testing and appointments as well as cochlear implant surgery. The club has been able to defray some of the family's costs and has committed to helping into the future. As past club president and past District 33 governor DeLynn Guttry reported, "We look forward to fulfilling our mission as we share Katy's journey into learning to listen."

Lorain Quota Club Purchases Testing Equipment

The non-profit Children's Developmental Center in Lorain County, Ohio, helps families address various learning needs of growing children, regardless of their ability to pay for those services. When the center's executive director, Thomas Miller, wanted to improve audiological services, he knew where to turn—he contacted the local Quota club!

Miller said the center wanted to install an oto-acoustic emissions testing machine (OEM) that checks the function of tiny hairs in the cochlea. The faint sound made by the hairs in response to sound is called the oto-acoustic emission. Audiologists can get a better idea of hearing health in very young children with an OEM because results do not depend on a child's cooperation during the test.

So, Miller asked the Quota club of Lorain to provide half of the funds needed to buy the device. "But I had no idea where we would get the rest of the money!" Miller laughed. "Then the Quota club surprised us—they paid for the whole thing in honor of our 50th anniversary here at the center. We never could have gotten this machine in place so quickly if Quota hadn't stepped up to the plate."

Mackenzie Siters has her hearing tested with equipment purchased by QI of Lorain at the Lorain, Ohio, Children's Development Center.

The Lorain club provided nearly U.S.$4,500 for the OEM from their annual Singing Angels fundraiser, a holiday concert held in the restored Lorain Palace each December. The renowned youth chorus from Cleveland draws a large family crowd in what has become a local tradition, thanks to Quota.

Banquet for Speech-Hearing Notables in Massillon

In celebration of National Better Hearing and Speech Month in May, the Quota club of Massillon, Ohio, hosts an annual banquet to celebrate community and club members who have raised awareness of speech and hearing needs. Below, those included among the honorees this year were, from left, Community Champion Joy Porter, age 15; Sound Beginnings program chair Carrie Spangler; two-year-old Rachel, who received hearing aids through Sound Beginnings; and Anna Hampton, club scholarship winner.

Sound Beginnings is an ongoing effort to provide an initial set of hearing aids to any child to age six in Stark County who is diagnosed with permanent hearing loss. The club aims to provide the missing link between diagnosis and early intervention. So far, the club has received more than U.S.$116,000 in grants and matching funds for the program and has fitted 23 children with hearing aids, including Rachel, pictured below with her mother.

The club's new project, Listening to Learn, provides sound field amplification systems in every kindergarten through third grade classroom in the Massillon City Schools and provides system installation and training for teachers and administrators. When the club received a U.S.$40,000 matching grant from the Paul and Carol David Foundation for this program, they worked aggressively to earn the needed matching funds to secure the award. Judicious changes were made in the annual dinner-auction program to increase profits, and publicity and word-of-mouth encouragement were increased. The result: a 65 percent boost in attendance and 68 percent rise in profits, from the typical U.S.$12,000 for the event to over U.S.$20,200!

Mountain View-Los Altos Supports Infant Hearing Screening

In the early 1990s, the Mountain View-Los Altos Quota club provided infant hearing screening equipment to the local El Camino Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Since then, the club has maintained an ongoing partnership with the hospital, paying for the machine's upkeep and other NICU needs for early detection of hearing problems in newborns.

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