Ear Community

09/03/2026

Looking for a great way to support two amazing hearing loss nonprofits? Consider participating in one of the HLAA walks to help raise funds for both the Hearing Loss Association of America and our Ear Community Organization!

Walk events are HLAA’s community of support in action, encouraging people to thrive and live confidently with hearing loss. As a National Alliance partner, our Ear Community Organization is proud to partner with Walk4Hearing to work together to raise awareness and funds to improve access to hearing health. Funds raised will go to benefit both the HLAA Chapters and Alliance members like Ear Community!

Fall Walk4Hearing lineup
New York City – September 19
Chicago – September 20
Boston – October 4
Kentucky – October 10
New Jersey – October 11
Washington DC – October 17
Pennsylvania – October 18
Arizona – November 7
North Carolina – November 8
Houston – November 14

Visit the following link to register as an individual or create a team and select or insert EAR COMMUNITY to support both organizations and our shared mission!
https://www.walk4hearing.org/find-a-walk

* When registering, please send an email to: [email protected]
making sure funds have been selected for Ear Community for your team.

Our Ear Community Organization has been a proud Alliance Partner for nearly a decade with the HLAA and we enjoy having our community members participating in HLAA's Walk4Hearing to support our loved ones with microtia and atresia!

Below is a picture of our Ear Community team wearing their Microtia Kids Rock t-shirts during the Colorado Walk4Hearing.

Thank you for your support!
Ear Community
Hearing Loss Association of America (Official Page)

09/03/2026

September is Deaf Awareness Month!

Our community includes individuals who are both Deaf & Hard of Hearing who can be born with hearing loss, lose their hearing along the way, or experience sudden hearing loss later when you least expect it!

Our community is made up of individuals who typically have conductive hearing loss due to aural atresia, where the ear canal is missing, but the cochlea & auditory nerve still function. Typically, a bone conduction hearing device system can help restore hearing loss.

Our community also has individuals who have mixed hearing loss where they wear different types of hearing devices because of different types of hearing loss. Someone in our community may wear a bone conduction hearing device for one ear, but an ITE or BTE (in the ear or behind the ear) hearing aid for the other ear. We also have members of our community who lose the hearing they have along the way & eventually need something more powerful to help them hear better like a cochlear implant.

Give everyone you know a BIG HUG who has hearing loss this month! We are so proud of each & everyone one of our children & adults for doing great and managing their hearing loss like a boss!

Thank you to Ear Community's Platinum Sponsors who offer Bone Conduction Hearing Device Systems to help our loved ones hear their best!
MED-EL USA ADHEAR & BONEBRIDGE
Oticon Medical Ponto & Sentio

In addition to the different brands of hearing device systems mentioned above, ASL is also a wonderful option when it comes to sign language.
The following link offers FREE ASL courses, a dictionary, videos & printable sheets for the alphabet & more!
https://www.lifeprint.com/

Thank you for being YOU & advocating for what is best for you when it comes to hearing loss!

Please also remember to advocate for Ally's Act, H.R. 4606 & S. 3400 to pass! Ally's Act would close the loophole for private insurers to deny coverage for bone anchored hearing device systems & cochlear implants for both children & adults from birth to age 64! Every state would benefit from this bill passing!

Visit the following link for Ally's Act:
https://earcommunity.org/about/allys-act-h-r-5485/

Thank you!
Ear Community

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

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! ❤️ 👂

Reach out to MED-EL about "Milo - The Little Pirate With BONEBRIDGE" at 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

08/21/2026

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 ❤️👂

08/10/2026

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

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! ❤👂

08/06/2026

Our research team, The CARE Team Study, is proud to have another research paper published!

"Psychological Health in Caregivers of Children With Craniofacial Microsomia: Exploring Factors Associated With Distress and Family Quality of Life" - published in the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, July 29, 2026, DOI: 10.1177/10556656261470559
https://doi.org/10.1177/10556656261470559

Thank you to all of the authors who contributed to our latest published article!
Dr. Debora Blaso, Dr. Paul White, Dr. Alexis Johns, Dr. Canice Crerand, Dr. Leanne Magee, Dr. Kristin Billaud Feragen, Dr. Matthew Hotton, Dr. Laura Stueckle, Dr. Angela Mills, Dr. Amelia Drake, Dr. Carrie Heike, Dr. Nicola Stock and Amy Schefer and Melissa Tumblin

So proud to be a part of this collaborative work and research!
Melissa w/ Ear Community

Objective To explore factors associated with caregiver psychological distress and family quality of life (QoL) in craniofacial microsomia (CFM). Design Online ...

08/06/2026

Here's some inspiration for the day! Officer Carl DeForest is 1 of 7 Deaf offices in our entire country!

A reminder that little and missing ears, along with hearing loss, can never define us! Our children and adults are amazing and can go on to live the lives they dream! We have also had a few firemen in our group too who wear bone anchored hearing aids and are helping save lives every day!👂❤️
- Melissa w/ Ear Community

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19Sba9wemR/

Ohio’s 1st deaf police officer breaks barriers in Highland Hills. Officer Carl DeForest is one of only seven Deaf officers in the entire country. (A link to the article is in the comments)

08/03/2026

I hope everyone in our group knows about Ally's Act, H.R. 4606 and S. 3400! Ally's Act would help all of our children and adults have private insurance coverage for Bone Anchored Hearing Devices and also Cochlear Implants. So many of our families are denied coverage for a BAHS in the community. Ally's Act, H.R. 4606 and S. 3400 would make coverage fair and consistent.

Everyone in our group should want this bill to pass. I hope everyone takes a moment to call and email their Congressman and Senators, asking them to cosponsor Ally's Act and help us pass this bill! Ally's Act is a Federal bill, so every state would benefit from coverage of this bill.

For more details on how to advocate for Ally's Act, please go to Ear Community's website and visit the Ally's Act menu tab. We have template letters and how to find your Congressman and Senators to write to.
Thank you!
Melissa and Ally


https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Dr3UVcSjE/