What it would mean for me to win Oticon's Advocate of the Year 2014

When Sarah Wegley, Speak Up Librarian a former Oticon Advocate of the Year winner 2011 learned that the hearing aids I was given would not work for me, she nominated me for the category of Advocate of the Year Award with Oticon. Oticon selects 3 people from each category, student, adult and advocate to recognize their positive contribution to the deaf and hearing loss community to help remove the stigma that used to surround people with hearing loss. There is also a special award for Hearing Care Practitioners. Each finalist in each category is outstanding, and I wish we could all win. What an honor it is to be a finalist among this group.

I am extremely grateful to Sarah for this nomination, and I am equally grateful to Oticon for choosing me as one of the finalists in the category of "Advocate".

Let me share with you what it would mean for me to win Oticon's Advocate of the Year award.

To begin with, winners get a pair of new hearing aids. If you read an earlier post about what happened when my Fabulous Husband tried to get a pair fixed that were donated to me, you understand what we have gone through this past year. (Read that post here: http://xpressivehandz.blogspot.com/2014/05/my-experience-and-tips-regarding.html)

My current hearing aids came to me courtesy of the Coos Bay Lions Club, Coos Bay, Oregon. I've had them nearly 10 years, and they were used before they came to me. The estimated age of these are about 15 years. The volume is nearly always to maximum these days, and they are wearing out. A small part of the outer casing is actually missing from one of them. I don't expect them to last much longer, however, I am blessed beyond measure they have lasted this long.

My mother passed away in December. We pretty much wiped out our funds to fly back to the West Coast to be with my family and take care of things. At this time a huge purchase would just be a hardship for my family, and I don't want to put my family in that position.

Secondly, our local Hearing Loss Association of America Chapter here in Lancaster County, PA needs the extra funds for Real Time Captioning. The donation from Oticon for $1000 would give us more time to have captioning. Currently, we only get one hour of captions for the presentations. When that hour is up, the captions stop and we no have no captioning for the "question and answer" segment of the presentation or conversations at the close of our meetings. This donation would help cover the cost to extend Real Time Captioning to the end of our meetings.

I would appreciate your vote. I want you to know I am tremendously grateful to YOU, Readers, Guest Writers, Fellow Bloggers and Supporters because you have all helped this blog become what it is today. This is OUR voice, and, in the words of Helen Keller, "... together we can do so much."

Vote for Joyce Edmiston in the category of "Advocate".

http://www.oticonusa.com/about/people-first/focus-on-people/overview.aspx

With sincere appreciation,

Joyce Edmiston,    Xpressive Handz