An awesome resource for anyone and a great tool for our HIKE state/jurisdictional coordinators!

Hello and Good morning!

I wanted to give you an update that Amelia received her brand new hearing aids and is absolutely loving them! We had no idea what a difference the newer technology would make- Amelia has said that she can hear so much more now and we have noticed her talking so much more and being so much more clear in her speech. It’s crazy because the change was almost overnight since having her new aids! We were able to get two FM type systems with them, the Roger Partner Mic and Roger Select (both pictured in attached image) and holy cow!! Amelia loves them! We can wear either of them around the house, outside, at the park, in the car and she absolutely loves that she can hear us more. Christine forgot to put on the partner mic the other day when going out to run an errand with Amelia and had to return home because 2 minutes into the car drive Amelia mentioned that she could not hear Mama well and asked why? Christine realized she forgot to put on the partner mic and returned home to grab it. 

There are so many other little moments as well, such as when we played a family game the other night laying on the carpet. Amelia loved being able to put the Roger Select on the floor in the middle of all of us so that she could hear us better. One of the biggest things for her is TV time. We don’t let her have much TV time at her age, but the little she does have, or when we watch a family movie has been amazing and I’m sure life changing in her little world. I was able to connect the Roger Select to the TV ( a cool function it comes with!) and it plays the TV sound directly into Amelia’s hearing aids through the bluetooth capability! I wish you could have seen this little girls face when she experienced some  of her favorite Disney songs (Let It Go, from Frozen) for the first time with her new Hearing Aids. She was literally welling up with tears of joy. As schools are beginning to reopen in our area and we hope to get Amelia in preschool in the very near future I know that these new Hearing Aids are going to serve her so well.

Amelia picked out the colors and ear mold style herself, she wanted them to look like “Elsa hearing aids” (From Frozen). As you can see in the picture I think that Amelia got it spot on and as I have told her, “I think those are exactly what Elsa would wear!”.

I’m attaching some pictures of her getting her new HAs at UCSF and being the silly Amelia she is when they turned on for the first time. Thank you again so much and we hope to be able to pay your kind generosity forward for years to come and look forward to introducing Amelia to Job’s Daughters and other service oriented opportunities as she grows into a young women.

Sincerely,

Neil, Christine and Amelia Altimari

When The HIKE Fund Board of Directors realized that the “big time” spring fundraising events were going to be canceled due to COVID19, we sprang into action to offer everyone a small way to contribute. Launched on April 1, 2020, the virtual 5K run/walk for The HIKE Fund held registration through May 24, 2020, with participants finishing their runs and walks by May 31, 2020.

From literal coast to coast, we are so excited to announce that 276 participants and 101 individual donors raised $13,219.14! Virginia (51) edged out California (49) in having the most registrations, followed by Ohio (41), Nebraska (24), Michigan (20), Missouri (18), Illinois (17), and Indiana (16). A huge thank you to all of the represented states—PA, WA, NC, FL, ID, MD, SD, KS, MN, TX, UT, WI, and WY!!

We received photos and photos and photos and photos!! See if you can spot you and your friends and puppies in this video (12 minutes of fun)!! Steps and miles were done with love for The HIKE Fund – thank you, thank you, thank you! Together we can accomplish great things and your support means the #giftofhearing for so many children.

Due to a very generous donation, we are on track to meet our 2019-2020 goals. You can always see our year-to-date fundraising contributions by state at our DONATE link. We are gearing up to close out the year on June 30th so get your donations into John Hauser, Executive Secretary, as soon as possible! His address is: 530 Elliott Street Council Bluffs, IA 51503. (Don’t forget to include a donation form with your checks.)

Gracie in Tennessee received her new hearing aids this spring. Her mom wrote to us and said, “Gina Piscopo Angley, Au.D., CCC-A, Associate Director of the Adult Amplification Program at Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, presented Gracie and me, Mary Anne, with a HIKE award for new hearing aids. Gracie has known Dr. Angley for several years and this was such an exciting award as the technology had advanced so much since her last hearing aids that a deluge of happy tears soon followed as new sounds and possibilities were discovered! Thank you so much to the philanthropy of the Job’s Daughters International that enabled this to happen.”

This is your impact. You are waymakers and life-givers. The HIKE Fund is incredibly grateful for your partnership in improving lives like Gracie’s.

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