Glastonbury Family Raises Awareness about Hearing Loss

Glastonbury parents, Terry and Jim Bedard are lacing up their sneakers again this year to raise awareness about hearing loss. The will be walking in the fifth annual Hartford Walk4Hearing on June 13th. Their son Matthew, was born with a profound hearing loss. “This prompted us to start the Hartford Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America to empower preteens, teens, and young adults to overcome the everyday life challenges of hearing loss, says Terry Bedard. “We brought the Walk to Hartford in 2011 and successfully led it for three years in a row. We are now focused on leading the sponsorship and alliance outreach.” says Bedard.

The Bedard’s will be walking to benefit HLAA Hear Here Hartford Chapter. You will find them along with thousands of other Connecticut residents at the annual Hartford Walk4Hearing will step off and “step up for people with hearing loss” on June 13, 2015. The Walk will begin at 10:00 am (registration 9:00 am) from Mortensen River Front Plaza, 300 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford, CT.

The Walk4Hearing is a 5K Walk to raise awareness of hearing loss and create a greater understanding of hearing loss, and eliminate the stigma of hearing loss. The Walk4Hearing also provides a vehicle for local charitable and educational organizations to raise funds that further the causes of education, information, support, and advocacy for people with hearing loss. In its first four years, the Hartford Walk4Hearing has raised over $315,000, and has attracted hundreds of Walkers each year.

Hearing loss is the third most common public health issue in the U.S., behind arthritis and heart disease. There are approximately 48 million people in the U.S. that have some degree of hearing loss. Hearing loss is not limited to our senior citizens. It is estimated that 30 school children per every 1,000, have a hearing loss. Hearing loss is becoming the most common “war wound” among our troops returning from the wars in the Middle East.

In Connecticut there are three local HLAA chapters. The Connecticut chapters are Hear Here Hartford HLAA Chapter (Wethersfield, CT), HLAA Eastern CT Chapter (Storrs, CT), and HLAA SW Connecticut Chapter (Bridgeport, CT).

While the local HLAA chapters are the nucleus for the Walk4Hearing, HLAA does enlist the help and support of other local educational and charitable organizations as “alliance partners”. In the Hartford area there is a strong community base of people with hearing loss. Alliance partners include the American School for the Deaf, CREC Soundbridge School, CT Chapter Hands & Voices, Connecticut Association of the Deaf, Yale Hearing & Balance Center, Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, and CT Children’s Medical Center.

Local corporate sponsors for the Hartford Walk4Hearing include United HealthCare, Sprint Connecticut Relay, Hartford Hospital Hearing & Balance Center, Relay Connecticut, Connecticare, Travelers Insurance Company, New England Center for Hearing, Hearing, Balance & Speech Center, Miracle Ear, Quick Captions, The Law Office of Terry Bedard. On a national level, sponsors include CapTel, Med-El, hi Health Innovations, IntriCon, Advanced Bionics, Cochlear Americas, and Hamilton CapTel, Regal Entertainment Group.

The Walk4Hearing website is at www.walk4hearing .org You can register as a Walker, form a team, and make a donation on the website. Information concerning the Hartford Walk4Hearing as well as for other Walk events across the country is available on the website.