NFL Stars Aid Hearing-Impaired Kids
David Moye
Contributor
Nearly 100 NFL players will compete for Super Bowl rings in Dallas on
Sunday, but on Thursday 200 people received something even more significant:
free hearing aids.
As part of the Starkey Hearing Foundation’s Super Bowl Hearing Mission this
week, hearing-impaired kids and adults in Dallas were fitted for hearing
aids, giving them a chance to fully engage with the world, in some cases,
for the first time in their lives.
The Starkey Hearing Foundation, the charitable arm of Starkey Laboratories,
the largest hearing aid manufacturer in the United States, sponsored the
event, which is one of many domestic and international missions the
foundation conducts each year.
The goal, according to Bill Austin, Starkey’s founder and CEO, is to reach 1
million hearing-impaired adults and children this decade, providing each of
them with their own hearing devices.
“We will definitely meet that goal,” he told AOL News. “We are averaging
more than 100,000 hearing aids a year.”
Because the event is in Dallas and it is Super Bowl week, Austin was joined
by celebrities such as “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks and top NFL
stars such as Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, Arizona
Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and Cincinnati Bengals defensive
back Roy Williams.
For Williams, events like these are truly awe-inspiring.
“It’s amazing to be part of a child hearing for the first time, and Starkey
is doing an incredible thing by allowing myself and other athletes to be
part of the children receiving their very own custom-made hearing devices,”
Williams said.
He also thinks having the event in Dallas during the biggest sporting event
of the year is excellent timing.
“It’s so important that hearing loss receive the attention it deserves,” he
said. “The lack of access to a hearing aid is keeping many of the
hearing-impaired, including children, from reaching their potential in life.
“The Super Bowl already receives so much attention from the media and the
public that it’s the perfect time to leverage news like this in a positive
way,” Williams said.
Although it’s common to have NFL players appear at charity events during
Super Bowl week, Williams and Fitzgerald are committed to the Super Bowl
Hearing Mission beyond this week.
“I am proud of how the football community has come together to lend support
to this great cause,” Williams said. “In fact, next month there will be a
special Starkey Hearing Foundation mission to Africa with myself and more
than two dozen NFL players. We are all so excited about these
opportunities.”
To be fair, no one may be more excited than Austin, who has been doing the
Hearing Mission for nearly 30 years and has been intent on helping
hearing-impaired people since he first considered becoming a doctor back in
college.
“You know, 85 percent of what children learn comes through their ears,” he
said. “It’s the main conduit for how we interact with the world. Ten percent
of people have problems with their hearing, but people don’t admit it.
“It doesn’t get the attention of other problems because it’s not
death-causing, but when we give someone their first hearing aid, we give
them their life,” he said. “There is nothing like a child who can hear for
the first time because of your hearing aid and then you teach them to use
their voice to say ‘Mama.'”
Source:
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/03/nfl-stars-aid-hearing-impaired-kids/