For a 'Best Kept Secret Finalist', I sure do have a large mouth! 

Rochester, Illinois – Twenty-four-year-old Jacob Landis, who is planning to cycle to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums in five months to raise money for those impacted by hearing loss, has received $10,000 worth of upgraded cochlear implant equipment from the Cochlear Implant Awareness Foundation (CIAF).

*This article was originally published in The State Journal-Register, written by Tamara Browning.

The Cochlear Implant Awareness Foundation seeks to connect people with information and resources they need to make an educated decision about cochlear implant surgery, offering guidance and support to recipients. However, the foundation doesn’t provide financial assistance for cochlear implant surgery.

Before the sock fundraiser, the foundation had $374 in its account, Tjelmeland said.

Then donations began snowballing: The foundation received a check for more than $61,000 from the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association Auxiliary, and the socks fundraiser has gained in popularity.

“(The auxiliary) raised funds for us for a year, but we just got the check. That was a great holiday surprise, and then shortly, right before that, my girlfriend came to me with this sock idea,” said Tjelmeland, whose daughter, Ellie, a freshman at Rochester High School, is deaf and is a bilateral cochlear implant user.

“It took that big push to get us going.”

Team process

Adults and teens have worked to reach a goal of 250 handmade socks. Many people were instrumental in turning things around, including Tjelmeland’s friend Laura Gehrs, her father, Max Klemm and her aunt, Ginny Klemm. Others helping include Cheryl Neff plus Brandy Lozosky’s mother-in-law, Pat Lozosky.

“All these people are showing up all over. I don’t even know most of them. They’re coming to these garages that are set up. People are donating burlap, and they’re donating the paint,” said Tjelmeland, who added that the Rochester Post Office has been a big help.

Brandy Lozosky said it takes at least three nights a week to make the socks.

“I have gals that cut out the stockings out of burlap. Then we have a day when we just paint (with acrylics). That dries. Then the next day we sew them all together. Each work night we have a step that we do,” she said.

Lozosky estimated 275 yards of burlap has been used so far. The socks are stuffed with recyclable plastic bags — from 10 to 12 bags for the small socks and about 100 bags for the large socks.

Snowball effect

Many people have hung the socks — which come in traditional with red and green paint and funky with turquoise and hot pink paint — on doors with bows or ornaments. Each sock comes with a tag that tells the foundation’s story and directs people to the website to learn more.

Since marketing on Facebook and word-of-mouth, the fundraiser has taken off. Socks have been shipped to at least a dozen states.

Tjelmeland said she believes God put everyone together for the fundraiser “to do more and better for others.”

Because this was a “last-minute” project, plans are to start the process in February for the next in a series of Christmas-related burlap socks with a new design. The goal is to have the socks finished before Christmas.

Lozosky said the goal next year is to make 500 socks. But Max Klemm is thinking bigger.
“I think we can sell 1,000 next year. I think that once we get this thing going viral and then we just start telling people ... people will want to have the next in the series,” Klemm said.

Tamara Browning can be reached at 788-1534.

 

*The following article was posted in Gallaudet University's Clerc Center Daily on December 13, 2012

The Cochlear Implant Awareness Foundation recently donated a cochlear implant coil and cable to MSSD student Gabriela Cevallos to make her CI functional again. Venita Dzime-Assison, Cevallos's audiologist at the Clerc Center, arranged for the donation through CIAF's recycling program which accepts gently used implant equipment or batteries, and passes them on to recipients who could use them.

"The CIAF founder, Michelle Tjemeland, also a cochlear implant user, personally understood the importance of this part to Gabriella," said Debra Nussbuam, coordinator of the Cochlear Implant Education Center at the Clerc Center and a board member of the CIAF. "She went out of her way in her busy schedule and travel around Thanksgiving to see that Gabriella received the part she needed."

Gabriela wrote a letter of thanks to the foundation, "I am happy that I can use it [cochlear implant] again…The coil and cable are working perfectly. Thanks to the Cochlear Implant Awareness Foundation for the donation."

For more information on the Cochlear Implant Awareness Foundation visit their website.

 Inspiring story about two deaf brothers who are competing in the World Deaf Swimming Championships! http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/24/1822153/lexington-brothers-make-us-team.html

 1)      Cochlear Implants bringing hearing to People of India.  http://www.electronicsnews.com.au/news/australias-bionic-ear-technology-aiding-bringing

If you have gently used cochlear implant equipment or batteries that you are no longer able to use, CIAF will gladly pass them on to Cochlear Implant recipients who can use them.

Click here to complete the form.