THE LIONS HEARING FOUNDATION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA THE LIONS DRUM In This Issue Chairman’s Report Lions Hearing Screening Bus Chairman’s Report and Update Lions Hearing Dogs helping school kids Teacher given new lease on life with hear- ing aids FM System changes the life of young Isaac New Award—The Ar- thur and Lorna Dodd Award Winners Chairman’s Report I feel very honoured and privileged to be Chairman of the Lions Hearing Founda- on. It is a posion I have now held for two years and I have just been re-elected for another year. It has been great watching the Board grow in confidence and now for the first me, thanks to DG Allan Cooper of W2, we now have a full num- ber of Lions members on board. We always had the four members of W1 but W2 has always struggled. Also, we have lost Professor Harvey Coates due to ill health but are thrilled to welcome Sandra Bellekom, CEO of the Ear Science Instute Australia (ESIA) and Dr Peter Santa Maria, surgeon scienst at the ESIA. This is the first me we have had two professionals on our Board so we warmly welcome them. They will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Board. At the start of the 2016-2017 year in July, we say good-bye to IPDG Maxine and welcome 1st VDGE Grant Hewi for W2. IPDG Ivan was elected to the Board at the last Convenon so for W1 we will also welcome 1st VDGE Sue Lowe together with IPDG Colin Heap aſter his year as DG. I would like to thank outgoing member Toni Whiteaker who has been on Board for many years. She has been a very loyal member of the Foundaon so ‘Thank You’ Toni for your contribuons. She will be replaced by Lion PDG Ivan Sturgess. We also say goodbye to our secretary Lion Mary Hodgson who is having a ‘year at large and thank Marg Glenn for offering to take on this posion. Welcome to our Board Marg. Chairman, Lion Chris Smelt Bi-Annual Newsletter September 2016 PDG Ivan Sturgess with Chairman Smelt Screening Chairman’s Report Aſter five years of holding the posion of Screening Chairman for the Li- ons Hearing Screening Bus, I am delighted to announce that at the last Board meeng PDG Ivan Sturgess was elected to take on this porolio. This involves the booking of the bus, arranging drivers, screeners and liais- ing with the event organisers for accommodaon for them. Chairman Chris felt the me was right to hand-over and delighted he agreed to take on this posion. I am sure you will give him the support you have shown to me over the years. All bookings for the bus will be made through Lion- [email protected] and no doubt he will contact you to arrange your book- ings. The bus now has a new home at Malaga. We thank Philip Couper from Whiord Lions for offering us this safe place to store our bus. It is wonder- ful having a locked facility to ensure the safety of the bus. Many thanks from the Board.
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THE LIONS HEARING FOUNDATION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
THE LIONS DRUM In This Issue
Chairman’s Report
Lions Hearing Screening
Bus Chairman’s Report
and Update
Lions Hearing Dogs
helping school kids
Teacher given new
lease on life with hear-
ing aids
FM System changes the
life of young Isaac
New Award—The Ar-
thur and Lorna Dodd
Award Winners
Chairman’s Report
I feel very honoured and privileged to be Chairman of the Lions Hearing Founda-tion. It is a position I have now held for two years and I have just been re-elected for another year. It has been great watching the Board grow in confidence and now for the first time, thanks to DG Allan Cooper of W2, we now have a full num-ber of Lions members on board.
We always had the four members of W1 but W2 has always struggled. Also, we have lost Professor Harvey Coates due to ill health but are thrilled to welcome Sandra Bellekom, CEO of the Ear Science Institute Australia (ESIA) and Dr Peter Santa Maria, surgeon scientist at the ESIA. This is the first time we have had two professionals on our Board so we warmly welcome them. They will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Board.
At the start of the 2016-2017 year in July, we say good-bye to IPDG Maxine and
welcome 1st VDGE Grant Hewitt for W2. IPDG Ivan was elected to the Board at the last Convention so for W1 we will also welcome 1st VDGE Sue Lowe together with IPDG Colin Heap after his year as DG.
I would like to thank outgoing member Toni Whiteaker who has been on Board for many years. She has been a very loyal member of the Foundation so ‘Thank You’ Toni for your contributions. She will be replaced by Lion PDG Ivan Sturgess.
We also say goodbye to our secretary Lion Mary Hodgson who is having a ‘year at large and thank Marg Glenn for offering to take on this position. Welcome to our Board Marg.
Chairman, Lion Chris Smelt
Bi-Annual Newsletter September 2016
PDG Ivan Sturgess with Chairman Smelt
Screening Chairman’s Report
After five years of holding the position of Screening Chairman for the Li-ons Hearing Screening Bus, I am delighted to announce that at the last Board meeting PDG Ivan Sturgess was elected to take on this portfolio. This involves the booking of the bus, arranging drivers, screeners and liais-ing with the event organisers for accommodation for them. Chairman Chris felt the time was right to hand-over and delighted he agreed to take on this position. I am sure you will give him the support you have shown to me over the years. All bookings for the bus will be made through [email protected] and no doubt he will contact you to arrange your book-ings.
The bus now has a new home at Malaga. We thank Philip Couper from Whitford Lions for offering us this safe place to store our bus. It is wonder-ful having a locked facility to ensure the safety of the bus. Many thanks from the Board.
FM System for Isaac
The Board has funded
a personal FM System
for Isaac who has audi-
tory processing prob-
lems which means he
can hear but his brain
cannot process the
sound. He has been
assessed as needing a
personal FM sound sys-
tem. These systems
cost around $3,000
each.
I have known Isaac for
over five years and he
is a happy and intelli-
gent boy. It was a joy
to be present at the
Joondalup Lions Hear-
ing Clinic to witness his
fitting. It was awesome
watching his face as it
was switched on. He
could hear but also
process what was be-
ing said. This makes it
all worthwhile.
- Chairman Chris Smelt
Letter from Isaac’s Mum
Dear Chris and the Lions Hearing Foundation,
Adam, Isaac and I wanted to say thank you for your donation of the Phonak Focus’s with the Roger pen for Isaac when he was in Year 1 (and part of Year 2) His teacher this year (Year 2) has said he now has no problems processing sound in noise and he does not need them anymore which is fantastic.
We have seen such a profound difference in his ability to hear/understand speech and the improvement in him socially, emotionally and educationally is just wonderful, he’s like a different child, no longer the kid in class who plays up/doesn’t listen.
He just turned 8 and his end of Term 2 report was fantastic and there were no longer any “does not pay attention in class” comments. He often thanks me and “Bus Chris” for giving them to him as it has helped so much. Anyway if I keep typing I’ll end up in tears so I’ll again thank you for your generosity.
We have now donated the Phonak Focus’s back to Lions Hearing Clin-ics, to their paediatric program in Joondalup. This will enable more children with processing problems to access the help that they need.
Thank you from us (and our extended family, friends, teachers and community), life is looking brighter for Isaac now.
Sharon
Lions Hearing Foundation of Western Australia Inc
Annual General Meeting
The AGM of the Lions
Hearing Foundation
will be held at the ESIA
Boardroom on the 2nd
Floor on Monday, Oc-
tober 31st 2016 at
7pm. There is parking
available under the
building but payment is
required.
We hope that Clubs
will send representa-
tives to our meeting.
Speakers are yet to be
arranged but Clubs will
be notified in advance.
We now have our own Facebook page, Lions Hearing Foundation Mobile Screening Bus WA, and all bookings can be seen on the web, 201w1.lions.org.au/hearing bookings.
Lions Hearing Screening Bus The last Lionistic year has been very busy with the Lions Screening
Bus attending many events in Districts W1 and W2. Grateful thanks
go to all drivers and screeners as without them, the bus would go
nowhere. I thought this year was going to be quieter but bookings
still flood in. The bus has even been up to Newman late last year
and we are grateful to the hospitality they provided. All Clubs are
great in providing accommodation etc to us when we visit and it is
much appreciated. We have recently gained two new drivers, one
of whom is our first female driver. Welcome to our team. I hope to
organise a training morning for new screeners at the bus during
September.
Where have we been? IPDG Ivan and his wife Carol took the bus up
to Newman and we have visited the Avon Descent, events at
Newdegate. Northam, Kelmscott, W1 and W2 Conventions, Ned-
tone, Dunsborough, Geraldton and Bassendean. We have many
bookings for the
next Lionistic year
and hope to get
more.
Lions Hearing Aid Bank
Recycle your old hearing aids and provide hearing to some-one less fortunate
Since its establishment in 1982, Lions Hearing Dogs has delivered 550 dogs to deaf and hard of hearing people across Australia.
The only accredited Hearing Dog training facility in Australia is located just outside of Hahndorf in the Ade-laide Hills. Every 16 days a new Lions Hearing Dog completes its training and is delivered to a deaf and hard of hearing person.
What sets Lions Hearing Dogs apart from other service dog programs is the fact that most of the dogs are sourced from pounds, shelters and rescue organisations. A Lions Hearing Dog has no standard size, shape or colour and no two dogs look alike. Sourcing dogs in this way not only provides a service to those who re-ceive a dog, but also to the lost or
rejected dogs who have been rescued off of death row.
It takes 6-8 months to fully train a Lions Hearing Dog. Each dog is allo-cated to a Trainer who is responsible
for teaching the dog how to respond to sounds within the home, and to work on the socialisation and obedi-ence to fully utilise its public access rights.
Despite popular belief a Lions Hearing Dog doesn’t bark to indicate sounds, how would that help if you could hear the bark? All dogs are trained to phys-ically alert their owners and lead them to common sounds around the home that could be a door knock, baby crying, alarm clock or most im-portantly a smoke alarm.
Lions Hearing Dogs also have the same public access rights as guide dogs for the blind. This means that they can accompany their owners to restaurants, shops, hospitals, work-places and on public transport. Dogs should be at the highest level of be-haviour in these situations and as
such Lions Hearing Dogs has a com-prehensive and thorough assessment program to ensure that all dogs carry-ing our name are at the highest quali-ty.
As a Lions Australia project we rely heavily on all Clubs across Australia to keep the program going. Clubs help in several ways. The first is financially, through our annual appeal we receive donations that run the Training Cen-tre and allows us to train the dogs. Clubs also sponsor dogs going into their area through a monetary contri-bution. Most importantly Clubs and Members donate their precious time. Members are trained to visit and re-port back to the Training Centre on how the dog is settling into its new role and how it work is going.
Lions Hearing Dogs also runs a pro-gram where the organisation donates Sound Field Systems to Primary Schools. The program is run nation-wide and gives the systems in the name of local Clubs as a thank you for the ongoing, generous and continued support to Lions Hearing Dogs. The sound system program is self-funded from a bequest received in 2006
After a Lions Hearing Dog is delivered it has cost an estimated $30,000 to get to that stage, but of course it goes to its new owner free of charge as a gift from the Lions Hearing Dogs and the Lions Clubs of Australia to the deaf and hard of hearing.
Once one of the great leaders of change in WA's education system, Beverley Pascoe had dedicated her life to teaching generations of children, while helping to redevel-op the state syllabus behind the scenes.
At the height of her career, she put her expertise to use in manag-ing an overhaul of WA’s arts cur-riculum, across all years from Kin-dergarten to Year 12. She was al-so an active member of the com-munity, and loved chatting to and playing with her grandchildren.
As her hearing declined though, Bev began to withdraw from her cherished livelihood and the com-munity activities that had once brought her so much joy and chal-lenge.
“Hearing was such an important part of my work. I couldn’t hear my colleagues during meetings; I couldn’t hear my students in the classroom. I didn’t want to give up my career, but my ears were letting me down,” she said.
“I had trouble hearing my grand-children, particularly when we
visited restaurants. Realising I was losing my hearing was a very diffi-cult time.”
When Lions Hearing Clinic Audiol-ogist Angela Liew heard Bev’s sto-ry, she knew she had to help.
“Bev told me of her struggles, and it was such a heartbreaking sto-ry,” Angela said.
“It was hard to watch her confi-dence flounder, and her wonder-ful, admirable career breakdown because of her hearing.”
Angela organised Bev to be fitted with two brand new hearing aids and, three months after her fitting, was thrilled to find out how her new hear-ing capa-bilities had impacted her life.
Bev is now back in the
classroom, assessing burgeoning teachers on their classroom per-formances.
“I’m also loving chatting with my grandchildren without having to always ask them to repeat them-selves,” she said.
“My new hearing has really brought back all the most im-portant activities I cherish about my life. It’s a real blessing.”
____________________________
Bev was helped by Lions Hearing Clinic and Ear Science Institute Australia’s Gift of Hearing Appeal
Lions Hearing Clinics
Lions Hearing Clinics are a part of Ear Science Institute Australia: a not-for-profit
centre of excellence dedicated to helping people with ear and hearing disorders
through research, education, prevention and treatment.
Lions Hearing Clinics are commission-free – which means they will only recom-
mend a hearing solution that suits your needs and your life.
We welcome you to find out more about our ear and hearing services.