How you can help a child hear for $10

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Close your eyes for a moment and listen to the world around you.

What do you hear? Music playing your computer? The TV? The hustle and bustle from the cafe you’re in, maybe. If your room is really quiet, you might even be able to hear the sound from the lights or the ticking of a clock. If you’re in class, you probably hear your teachers and fellow students. Maybe there are birds outside your window, and you’re able to hear them singing.

Now imagine if that has been taken away. Quite a different experience, for sure.

Our daughter, Keisha Johnson, was born with hearing loss in both of her ears. She describes this loss as experiencing life in black and white: no color, drab, and dismal.

With hearing aids, however, she says her life is in every color. The change in her personality and demeanor is completely different. She’s able to enjoy music, watch TV, listen to her classmates and teachers in school. To hear her Mom and Dad’s voices.

We recently learned that the hearing aids Keisha has worn over the past five years are no longer able to help her. The new aids she needs will cost about $4000, and we are looking at many ways of coming up with the money.

On January 23, 2010, we are having a Premiere Premier Designs Jewelry Party, at the Panera Bread Company on Winton Road in Finneytown (map). A portion of the money from that event will go toward Keisha’s new hearing aids.

We’re holding this event in the Cincinnati area, but even if you cannot come to the event, we would still appreciate your support. You can donate (not tax deductible) via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=11116185

$4000 is a lot for one person to come up with. Or even two. Imagine, however, if 400 people were able to come up with $10 each. Or 200 people with $20. It seems more manageable and not as overwhelming, doesn’t it? What we are asking for is not just money. We are asking for you to help a child, our child, to hear again.

Would you?

: Image by danieljohnsonjr via Flickr

UPDATE: Since we first launched this effort a few weeks ago, we have already raised $300.

1/26 UPDATE: Thanks to the generous support from people offline, money from other sources, and amount already donated online, I have updated the ChipIn widget to show that we only need to raise $800. Thank you so much!!!

02/09 UPDATE: Wow! Through resources made available offline, and the support you have given online, we are excited to share that Keisha is getting her new hearing aids today!

We cannot thank you enough for your generosity.

If Hearing Loss is Not Treated, Brain Can “Forget” How to Hear and Understand Speech (prweb.com)
What are the causes of hearing loss? (informationonhealth.blogspot.com)

Tags: Business, cincinnati, fundraiser, Health, Healthcare, Hearing, Hearing aid, Hearing impairment, Products and Services

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 5:04 pm and is filed under announcements, cincinnati. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

leadershipequip

Daniel – Am willing to help with this. Will talk w/ my wife and get back to you. Thanks! Brent
http://danieljohnsonjr.com danieljohnsonjr

Thanks, Brent!
JG

I really feel for your daughter. I can't imagine what that must be like for her. If you have the ability to take advantage of a Flex Spending Account, jump on that offer. That will cover at least a grand or two — typically available immediately as your contributions are made over the course of the year.
One of my initial questions was “Why isn't insurance covering this?”, so I decided to do some research on the matter. I was sickened to find out only a handful of states require insurance companies to cover hearing aids FOR CHILDREN. (http://www.asha.org/advocacy/state/issues/ha_re…) That is completely deplorable. But that doesn't mean you insurance won't. Did you contact them about covering it? If they deny it, rally up the support to contact local elected officials for this.
Second, I'd like to advocate personal responsibility. If my kids needed something that impacted their quality of life, I'd get a second job if I needed to. Heck, I'd get a third job. I don't care if those jobs were stocking shelves, flipping burgers, or pouring coffee; I'd go to the ends of the earth and back for my kids. We're not talking about “Sally needs a new laptop”. This is something that could affect her speech, her learning, her self-esteem, how she socializes… Telling people that for the price of two lattes they can help while you post updates asking for lunch meetings just seems sketchy. I *know* it's ridiculous to think that all so-called extra-curricular activities should come to a complete halt, because we as social creatures need those activities, but think how every $10-20 bucks spent on a meal could go into that fund, every gallon of gas spent getting on the other side of the city could be saved (and thus less $ for gas spent), even the pocket change spent on bus fare helps. I'm all for following one's dreams, but there are certain times in our lives that more important things come up (i.e., our children's needs). I'm not saying completely abandon your goals and personal projects, I'm suggesting maybe it's time to put them on hold, put down the social networking, and get whatever jobs you can to raise money for her hearing aids. If a potential employer looks down on “I worked at Taco Bell for a few months because my daughter needed hearing aids” in this economy, it's probably not a employer you'd want to work at anyway.
Finally, what have YOU saved for this cost? — not an unreasonable question when asking others for funds. People need to be wary anytime they are asked to donate money, and I think it would make people feel more at ease about donating if they could see some numbers. Check out ChipIn. They make an awesome widget to show amount raised.
I wish you and your family the best of luck. This is really an unreasonable situation for any family to be in, especially if insurance is refusing to pay.
http://danieljohnsonjr.com danieljohnsonjr

The amount is AFTER the insurance discount. As I mentioned in the post, we
are looking at several ways to come up with the money. The ones included
here are the ones other people can help out with.
http://twitter.com/churnd Chris Hearn

Dan -

Best luck with this expenditure. I know it's not cheap.

Some advice… did you try Ohio Vocational Rehabilitation services? Most, if not all, states have these services, and they have always paid for my hearing aids. The reason is, their goal is to help a person with disabilities succeed in becoming educated and eventually starting a career. Give these guys a call if you haven't: http://www.hearingspeechdeaf.com/. Good resource to have for this.

Also, have you guys considered cochlear implants? http://www.cochlear.com. These are 1000 times better than hearing aids, and most insurance companies pay the full cost. My wife has them and loves them. I will be getting them too one day. If you're interested, I know the top surgeon here in Cincinnati. His name is Dr. Ravi Samy. He did my wife's, he'll do mine eventually, and he's an awesome doctor.

If you want to talk more, you know where to find me.
http://danieljohnsonjr.com danieljohnsonjr

Hi Chris! Great to hear from you (no pun intended). It's been too long, and
we should meet for coffee again soon.

Since she's 12 years old, do you think the BVR would help? It's not like
she's going into the workforce real soon. I'm just wondering.

The team feels that Keisha's hearing loss can still be managed with hearing
aids. We're not yet ready to destroy what residual hearing she still has for
them to get the cochlear implants. Although, we are keeping it in mind for
some time down the road. We've been thinking about it for at least the past
6 years.
http://twitter.com/churnd Chris Hearn

Hey Dan, we definitely need to meet up again soon. Yes, I think OVR would help. I strongly suggest you get in touch with the Hearing Speech and Deaf Center in my link above. They are a great group funded by the United Way. They'll be able to point you in the right direction.
Jennifer

I've come back to this blog several times to check the totals. I've debated about replying to this post every time.

If you're not comfortable donating based on the very personal information given, then don't. It's as simple as that.

I'm going to make some assumptions here, so please forgive me if I'm wrong. You didn't lose your job in the past 2 years. I did, so maybe it gives me more empathy for Daniel's position. Did you know that you cannot earn money while on unemployment? In Ohio you can make $67 a week, then they start deducting the amount you made, dollar for dollar, from your unemployment benefit. Again, I'm making assumptions, maybe Daniel isn't receiving unemployment benefits. I did for several months last year, so I know how the system works.

Let's pretend that's not an issue here. If Daniel went to work for Taco Bell and got the fabulous sum of $8/ hr for 20 hrs a week, it would take 7 months for them to pull together the money they needed. That's assuming every cent were able to put aside for this. If Keisha were my child, I would look for more immediate options, too.

I trust Daniel, he's a good man in a hard situation and I'm proud that I was able to give something to this cause. I don't need a financial statement on his family's personal finances.
Patrick Cox-Mahoney

Jennifer, what about JG's post made you debate on replying or not? He (or she) offered some great advice and tips. When a person appeals to the public asking them to give their hard-earned money to a personal cause, it should be treated like any other donation – with facts and pertinent information to back it up. I'm happy that YOU trust Daniel and you know him on a personal enough level to say so. And I'm glad that you, for whatever reason, felt there was something to defend there and decided to speak up on his behalf. But this was a message that was broadcast to 5,000+ people, all of whom cannot say they know Daniel personally enough to say he's a good trustworthy man, but who may be the humanitarian types all the same. When I'm being charitable, it's not always to someone I know personally, but you can bet that I'm doing my research beforehand! Try to see it from that point of view, and take it less personally. It's called being smart and avoiding scams.

Daniel, best of luck with Keish's aids. Hopefully she'll be back to “hearing in color” soon!
Jennifer

Patrick, I hesitated about responding because I didn't want to start a big debate about how one should or should not ask for help from others. I chose to respond because I felt that JG was being a little harsh, implying that the family is not doing enough on their own to pay for this expense. I don't feel it was intended that way, and it could be that I was taking it too personally, but I felt JG might not have a full understanding of the obstacles faced.

I've seen plenty of collections for a sick child or a family who's lost their breadwinner at an early age. This was the first time I've seen someone expect the family to get specific about the family's “personal responsibility”.

I completely understand that for those who don't know Daniel well, they might be wary. They can choose not to donate based on the information the family wished to share. Again, you could be right that I was taking to too personally (I can be overly sympathetic), but I was surprised at some of the criticism and the at the personal questions being asked in a public forum.
http://danieljohnsonjr.com danieljohnsonjr

I've updated the blog post, but I thought I'd share here as well. Thanks to resources we've been able to get offline as well as the support online, we're about to go get Keisha's new hearing aids!!! Thank you for your support – in all its forms!

Daniel Johnson, Jr.