Microtia and Atresia Support Group

Microtia and Atresia Support Group The Microtia & Atresia Support Group is for individuals born w/Microtia & Atresia & is part of a nonprofit organization called Ear Community.

Our website is:
www.EarCommunity.org and our Federal Tax ID # is: 46-0923897. Founded on May 20th, 2010. Ear Community is a nonprofit organization and support group community that helps connect those who have and know loved ones with the congenital anomaly called Microtia & Aural Atresia. Microtia is a congenital ear anomaly that occurs when the ear does not fully develop during the first trimeste

r of pregnancy. The "Microtia and Atresia Support Group" is a part of Ear Community, a charity organization. The Ear Community Organization is a 501c3 nonprofit organization head quartered in Broomfield, Colorado USA. Ear Community is the leading parent driven nonprofit organization that helps children & adults who have Microtia & Aural Atresia, and their families. We host family events all over the world each year. Our organization gives back to the Microtia & Atresia community in many ways including: donating bone anchored hearing devices to those in need who have Microtia & Atresia, award college scholarships, championed genetics research on Microtia & Atresia, had legislation introduced for implantable hearing device insurance coverage, & established National Microtia & Atresia Awareness Day that takes place every November 9th & is recognized and embraced by families, medical professionals, teachers of the deaf & therapists all over the world. Most of all, our organization brings families & individuals together in the same situation while educating them in an unbiased manner about all options for Microtia & Aural Atresia. If you would like to make a donation to Ear Community, please visit http://earcommunity.org/donate/ Ear Community's Fed Tax ID # is: 46-0923897 (for your tax deduction records)

If mailing a check, please make your check out to Ear Community
280 E. 1st Ave. Unit 704
Broomfield, Colorado 80038 USA

www.EarCommunity.org

Ear Community FB page: https://www.facebook.com/EarCommunity
Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/earcommunity/
Twitter page: https://twitter.com/EarCommunityOrg

Happy 17th Birthday to Ear Community's co-Founder today!I cannot believe my youngest daughter, Ally, is 17 years old tod...
09/02/2026

Happy 17th Birthday to Ear Community's co-Founder today!

I cannot believe my youngest daughter, Ally, is 17 years old today! Where have the years gone? ❤🎂

Ally is now a junior in high school, which sounds crazy to me when she was just a baby with what seems like yesterday and we were just beginning to navigate our way on our microtia and atresia journey in 2009. All these years later, Ally has gone on to find her way along our journey with a missing ear by having her hearing device implanted, which was a decision she made when she was ready. She continues to advocate alongside Congressman Joe Neguse for Ally's Act to pass, plays the guitar and was mentioned in a book called "Finn the Fox" this year!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Ally girl! We love you and are looking forward to celebrating YOU today! ❤🧁🎈🎉🍰🎁
Melissa Tumblin
Founder of Ear Community

09/02/2026

A support group member has the following question:

“My 6 year old with microtia atresia uses a baha on a softband. Last year she got the baha post implanted. Months later we got the go ahead to put her hearing aid on the post.

4 weeks after starting to attach her hearing aid to the post, the entire implant came out of her head when she was getting changed.

There was no sign of loosness or infection. The surgeon said it was a freak accident and has not had any other patients experience this.

Has this happened to anyone else?”

Lauren with Ear Community 💙

09/01/2026

Our support group member, Julie, has the following question for everyone:

"Hi All! My son is 10 with bilateral MA and has two Lewin ears. Have any of you with atresia gone scuba diving? Wondering if there are restrictions because of the possibility of no ear drum and equalizing pressure, etc.
Please share your experiences if you have any! Looking to scuba in Hawaii and Australia."

Thank you.
Melissa w/ Ear Community

Micrtoia and Atresia Awareness Day is coming up on November 9th! Here is a great book for our special day!Many in our co...
08/26/2026

Micrtoia and Atresia Awareness Day is coming up on November 9th! Here is a great book for our special day!

Many in our community often look for a book to read to a classroom or with your child during Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day. "Finn the Fox" is a wonderful book that was written by our community member, Richard Wurster, based off of his own lived experience when he lost his ear in a car accident during college. Richard wrote Finn the Fox to help offer comfort, hope and understanding to children who have microtia, reminding them that you can still feel whole even with a missing ear. 

Thank you, Richard, for your vision of bringing "Finn the Fox" to life for our community to have! 

"Finn the Fox" is a gentle and heartwarming story about courage, healing, and learning to embrace what makes us different and can be ordered on Amazon at the following link:
https://www.amazon.com/Finn-Fox-Story-About-Different/dp/B0H2WH1ND4

La versión en español de "Finn el Zorro" se puede pedir:
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Richard-L-Wurster/dp/B0H5W3W6T6

Thank you!
Ear Community

I just found out that Mellie, the mascot at MED-EL USA, has a little brother named Milo, who was born with microtia and ...
08/26/2026

I just found out that Mellie, the mascot at MED-EL USA, has a little brother named Milo, who was born with microtia and atresia! 👂💙 Milo's new children's book is now available and is called "Milo - The Little Pirate With BONEBRIDGE!"

Thank you for this gift to the microtia and atresia community and just in time for Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day on November 9th! 💙 👂

Welcome little brother Milo! ❤️ 👂

Here is MED-EL's customer service number and email address to inquire about this new book:
[email protected] or 888-633-3524

Thank you!
Ear Community

08/24/2026

Our support group member Kay has the following question:

“My daughter Eliana was born with microtia and atresia on her right side, we are pretty sure she has microtia on the left as well but just a tiny ear. Anyway she is 6 months and just got her BAHA! It is on a softband but I’m finding her pull it down around her neck and she almost chocked herself one day by pulling the band tighter. Does anyone have any tips and tricks with younger kids for it to stay in place?”

-Lauren with Ear Community

Congratulations to Ear Community's college scholarship recipients for 2026! ❤️ 🎓 👏 In order of photos:Samantha Grivno - ...
08/21/2026

Congratulations to Ear Community's college scholarship recipients for 2026! ❤️ 🎓 👏

In order of photos:
Samantha Grivno - Samantha was born with microtia and aural atresia of her right ear with a left stenoic ear canal and is aided with a BAHS. Samantha has been accepted to the audiology program at Washington University at St. Louis and is excited to take her lived experience and help children and adults in the future when it comes to hearing loss and microtia!

Ellia Schultz - Ellia was born with bilateral microtia and aural atresia and also Treacher Collins Syndrome. She has had nearly 30 surgeries to date! Ellia has been accepted into the BSN program for nursing at Ohio State University and is excited to take her lived experience and help children and adults in the future as she cares for all patients hoping to make a connection with them as she serves in health care.

Zachary Talamantes - Zachary was born with microtia and aural atresia of his right ear. He has played hockey since he was eight years old! Zachary has been accepted to Washington State University where he will begin working on his undergraduate degree in marketing. Zachary plans to obtain a Master's degree someday in teaching!

Natalia Nguyen - Natalia was born with microtia and aural atresia of her right ear and is aided with a BAHS. Natalia is in her second year at the University of Texas at Austin working toward an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. She plans to earn a law degree as a patent attorney working with renewable energy technology!

Our organization is so incredibly proud of Samantha, Ellia, Zachary and Natalia! We are excited to see the good they do in the fields they plan to go into! Congratulations from everyone at Ear Community and do great things!
The Ear Community Organization ❤️👂

08/12/2026

Our support group member, Mandy, has the following question:

“Hello, my niece was born with hemifacial microsomnia on her left year and has gone 18 years with nothing done. She is now looking into getting jaw surgery and a prosthetic ear made. She is upset about what it will look like when the ear is not on and she is very upset that it won’t make her perfect. I was wondering if there is any older teenagers or young adults that have gone through this and could give her any encouragement or talk to her about their experiences.”

-Lauren with Ear Community 💙

Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day is coming up on November 9th! 👂💙This year, Ear Community reached out to Averie Warfor...
08/10/2026

Microtia and Atresia Awareness Day is coming up on November 9th! 👂💙

This year, Ear Community reached out to Averie Warford (age 12), asking her to design our awareness day shirt for our community! ❤ Averie is incredibly talented and has been designing awareness day shirts for the past three years for our community since her brother, Gage (age 3), was born with microtia and aural atresia! This year, Averie has done it again with her "Pig-ture Perfect Just The Way You Are" design! She designed this beautiful shirt for our community and rare cause and she did an excellent job! 💙

Averie is an incredible advocate! She has been advocating for Gage since he was born and she also advocates for her youngest brother, Wesson, who was born with Down Syndrome last year. Averie and her family are amazing advocates in our community who enjoy embracing our rare cause and helping give back to the community! Averie's design, along with our other Ear Community shirts, call be purchased at the following link for microtia and atresia awareness day: (Deadline to order is September 30th)
https://stores.inksoft.com/earcommunity/shop/home

Thank you to Alise Warford and Joel for raising such a beautiful daughter who is so loving, kind, creative and accepting! You are beautiful inside and out, Averie! ❤

$5 to $8 goes directly to the Ear Community Organization when ordering Averie's t-shirt, and our other Ear Community designs, through the above link for the Ear Community t-shirt store. Thank you to Tiny Little Monster for being our official awareness t-shirt store for nearly a decade now!

Thank you to everyone for supporting our cause for microtia and aural atresia and for embracing our awareness day on November 9th! The deadline to order is September 30th so shirts can be printed and shipped, arriving one week before November 9th. Thank you for everyone's support! Thank you Averie for your creativity and love for Gage and our community! ❤
Melissa w/ Ear Community





This weekend, I had the opportunity to meet up with the Oticon Medical team while they were here in Denver for their sal...
08/10/2026

This weekend, I had the opportunity to meet up with the Oticon Medical team while they were here in Denver for their sales meeting! I always enjoy catching up with everyone from this incredible team when I get the chance to! It was great to see René Govaerts (President and GM of Oticon Medical), Laura Dixon (Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing), Robert Gulock (GM and Vice President of Sales), Daniel Lee (Director in Canada) and Matthew Mound (Financial Controller for Oticon Medical/Demant) again, along with seeing so many beautiful faces from the Brazilian, Canadian and US sales teams!

It's hard to believe that I have known so many on this team for over 15 years! Thank you so much for your incredible continued support and for being an amazing Platinum Sponsor of Ear Community since 2011, supporting the microtia and atresia community all these years! Thank you for all that you do when it comes to helping children and adults hear again through Bone Conduction Hearing Devices like the Ponto and Sentio Systems! ❤👂

Thank you!
Melissa w/ Ear Community

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Broomfield, CO

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