Eleven months ago, we came up
with the crazy idea of starting a program that would help low income Islanders
to get the hearing aids that they needed but couldn’t afford to buy. The
concept of a hearing aid recycling program seemed so simple, but it would
require the support of many Islanders to make it happen. Knowing the level of
support that we would need, we were scared to launch the Hear, Hear PEI Program
in case people thought it was a silly idea
that they couldn’t get behind. Nobody wants to fail, especially when they know
how many people could benefit if they succeed. At the end of the day, we
figured that when your heart is in the right place, you can’t go wrong so we
launched the program. Well, we needn’t have worried for one second about the level of support we'd receive.
The program took off right away
with a steady flow of people coming to our door with hearing aids to donate,
Steve Wong with PEI Hearing Consultants coming on board to volunteer his time
to work with our clients, Murphy’s Pharmacies putting our hearing aid donation
boxes in all of their locations, fair and compassionate folks agreeing to sit
on our selection committee, and our fabulous local media helping us to spread
the word. In just over a month, we fitted our first applicant with hearing aids
and have fit more Islanders since then.
Right from the beginning, our
goal (in addition to helping low income Islanders to hear again) was to get the
program up and running successfully and then find a really great non-profit
organization to adopt it. This would ensure its continued success and growth
into the future. We have now met that final goal!
The PEI Senior Citizens’
Federation has officially adopted the Hear, Hear PEI program. We are so pleased
to have Hear, Hear PEI under the umbrella of such a great organization. While
they are a senior’s organization, they plan to keep the program open to Islanders
of all ages, which is great.
Thank you to all who have
supported us in our quest to help low-income
Islanders to access hearing aids, including our family, friends, community
members, and our local media. Extra special thanks goes out to PEI Hearing Consultants and Murphy's
Pharmacies for being the community-minded companies that they
are; always willing to help out and that includes with the Hear, Hear PEI
Program. It meant a lot to know that our family, friends and community were
solidly behind us when we started this new program back in January.
We wish you much love, peace and
joy this holiday season.
Sincerely,
Rose and Mike Barbour
Contact information for PEI
Senior Citizens’ Federation: https://www.peiscf.com/, 902-368-9008,
peiscf@pei.aibn.com
