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They're here to help you hear

The Sertoma Foundation conducts hearing screenings and helps with hearing aid purchases. But it now faces some financial hurdles.

NEW PORT RICHEY - It started back in 1995 when a speech therapist from Mittye P. Locke Elementary School called Craig McCart and asked if his organization could help the school conduct hearing screenings.

As the Executive Director of the Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation of Florida, Inc., McCart was happy to comply.

The school hearing screening testing program has grown since. For the past five years the foundation has served 43 elementary and middle schools in Pasco County. Some 10,500 students were tested last year.

Hearing screenings are given to youngsters in kindergarten, first and seventh grade, said Tammy Rostel, an administrative assistant with Sertoma who organizes the hearing screening program.

"It's so important - especially in younger children," Rostel said of the tests. "It helps find any problems they may have with hearing or speech so the teachers can work with them and they can work to their full ability in school."

It's also essential for seventh-graders - especially those who are fond of those personal CD players.

"Teenagers don't realize the damage they could be causing that could follow them the rest of their lives," Rostel said. "We tell them it's okay to listen to the music, but you don't have to listen to it so loud."

The hearing screening program is staffed by volunteers and presently funded through contributions. Sertoma also helps with the cost of hearing aids, on a sliding scale, "from 10 percent to 100 percent" to the hearing impaired in west and central Florida. "Anyone from infants to the elderly," said McCart.

Sertoma faces some financial challenges this year, McCart said. "As of this year Medicaid no longer covers hearing aids. We're getting more requests now that those services are no longer available."

The community is welcome to help out in a variety of ways, McCart said. Volunteers are always needed to staff hearing screenings and fundraising events. Sertoma also is collecting used hearing aids that can be recycled. "We'll pick them up or they can drop them off at the facility," McCart said.

A Cosmic Bowl-A-Thon, scheduled from 8 to 11 p.m. Nov. 1 at Lane Glo North on Ridge Rd., in New Port Richey, is one way that youth can lend a hand while having some fun.

"We're trying to start programs where we can get kids involved," said McCart, adding that church and school youth groups are welcome to participate. "We want to help them put something back into the community they live in."

NOTE: For information or to help out, call the Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation of Florida, Inc. at (727) 848-5371 or drop in to the facility located at the All Children's Specialty Care of Pasco, 4443 Rowan Rd., New Port Richey.