WE DID IT! Not only did we meet our $10,000 goal, but we surpassed it, raising a grand total of $10,289! Thank you so much to all of the students, faculty, friends, family, colleagues, patients, and community members who supported this cause. We are delighted to have this fund at our disposal that will allow us to provide services to children and families in our community. The impact it will make will be immeasurable, and it is all thanks to you! 

I want to give a shoutout to Dr. Whitelaw and Alison Reynolds for getting this fundraiser off the ground. Their hard work and dedication to this cause allowed us to fundraise efficiently with the help of the University, and would allow us to have access to 100% of the profits. That means all $10,289 will go towards to the children!

I also want to give a huge thank you to Dr. Christy Goodman, Shannon Hand, Dr. Janet Vuolo, and Dr. Rob Fox for participating in our Change for Change campaign. This campaign raised $617.45 of our grand total! It was fun watching Dr. Fox receive a pie in the face from Brutus at our celebration Thursday night! Check out OSU SAA's Facebook page for pictures and videos. We greatly appreciate the willingness of those faculty members to participate in our celebration! 

Thank you again to everyone who donated, shared, and supported us throughout this fundraiser. We are thrilled to have met our goal, and are excited to put that money to work helping children with hearing loss in our community!

-Nicki Besse, Student Academy of Audiology President

Please consider sharing The Children's Hearing Aid Fund with your friends and family. Thank you all so much for your consideration. 

As of Thursday, September 30th, we have raised $4,232 of our $10,000 goal. The students are still ahead by about $450 in our department competition between the faculty and students.

In honor of National Audiology Awareness Month, we are honoring our wonderful faculty, and highlighting what the department and CHAF means to them! To kick off our faculty features, we would like to acknowledge the dedication of Dr. Eric Bielefeld, Professor and Auditory Physiology Lab Director. Dr. Bielefeld went above and beyond to raise CHAF awareness by wearing Buffalo Bills Zubaz pants to his first day of classes! When asked about what the department and CHAF means to him, he said:

"One of my favorite aspects of working in the Speech and Hearing Science department at Ohio State is getting to work alongside exceptional and dedicated teachers, clinicians, and students. I know that our audiologists and students are providing elite clinical care to our patients. The Children's Hearing Aid Fund equips our audiology faculty and students the chance to do what they do best - improve the lives of children in central Ohio using the best possible hearing aid technology. Our people are making a meaningful impact on children's lives, and the CHAF makes that possible." -Dr. Bielefeld

We’re almost halfway to our goal, and there are only 15 days left! For every donation milestone we meet, we will ask a faculty member to complete a challenge… in fact, our alumni might be excited to hear that the Jen Jen doll could be making an appearance in clinic if the price is right! 

Dr. Bielefeld wearing Buffalo Bills Zubaz pants to encourage CHAF donations:

We want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated thus far. The response to this fundraiser has been overwhelming to say the least. It has been live for only one week, and we are already over a third of the way to achieving our goal. We as students spend so much time in our classes discussing hearing loss in children and the implications that hearing loss has on their education, social life, and self-esteem. It is so humbling to know that because of the generosity of our friends, family, and community, we will be able to improve the quality of life for these children in our clinic.

Recently, the Children’s Hearing Aid Fund provided new hearing aids for a teenage girl. Her old hearing aids were at least five years old, and based on her goals for hearing, it was determined that she would benefit from new devices with improved technology and Bluetooth connectivity. Financial challenges limited her options, but with the help of the Children’s Hearing Aid Fund, she was able to get new technology that better supports her in the classroom and in her extracurricular activities. In a thank you note to our clinic, she wrote the following:

“To OSU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic and the Children’s Hearing Aid Fund, words cannot describe how thankful I am that I was able to receive new hearing aids. It has been a blessing for me and I am sincerely grateful. I hope that you are able to bless other kids the same way you have blessed me.” 

As of Wednesday, September 22nd, we have raised $3,642 of our $10,000 goal. This is astounding. We are so lucky to have so many wonderful people in our community that support such an important cause. Also, the competition between the faculty and students is heating up! Currently, the students are ahead of the faculty by about $450. We are working on a prize for the winning team, and if all goes as planned, it will be very worthy. 

Please continue to share this fundraiser on your social media platforms and with friends and family! We cannot do this without the help from our amazing community. Thanks again to everyone who has donated, shared, and supported this fundraiser! 

How firm thy friendship!

-The Student Academy of Audiology and the OSU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic