Columns

Make loud statement with quiet gift of $1

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published January 28, 2007

When you renew your driver's license, the state gives you an option to donate a buck to various worthy causes - preventing blindness and juvenile diabetes or organ tissue donation education. It's a painless way to be charitable.

And if it benefits blind children, why not children with hearing problems, asked Craig McCart, executive director of the Sertoma Speech and Hearing Foundation in New Port Richey.

A former professional comedian, McCart, 56, knows how to make people laugh. But children's hearing loss is serious business; it's his business. Checking off a box at license renewal time, he reasoned, would be a quiet way to pay for hearing aids and other equipment for the thousands of hearing-impaired children.

Hearing aids, headsets and other devices are pretty pricey. A hearing aid can cost $1,000 to $3,000 and must be replaced every three to five years. It's a major expense many parents can't afford.

"For children who don't qualify for any other assistance and need permanent hearing devices, we would provide permanent devices until the child reaches 18 years old," McCart said.

Last year, the foundation helped 67 children with hearing aids, repairs and other services. That kind of assistance is invaluable.

McCart's first move to get the checkoff was to contact the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. That was in 2002. He also talked to state Sen. Mike Fasano, who was happy to sponsor the bill to create the Children's Hearing Help Fund. But finding a House sponsor, state Rep. John Legg, took three more years.

A year ago, the foundation received the first Children's Hearing Help Fund deposit in its account - a modest $1,441.

But the idea is catching on. In the first 12 months, the checkoff contributed $75,936 to the foundation. It means that thousands of people are sending a clear message to hearing-impaired children - you matter.

McCart said the fund is averaging about $8,000 a month. He is trying to get a similar Children's Hearing Help Fund checkoff on motor vehicle registration renewals.

The foundation was created more than 20 years ago by the West Pasco Sertoma Club in New Port Richey to provide hearing services for the poor and uninsured. The club's annual barbecue fundraiser at Chasco Fiesta has paid for many hearing aids and tests. Since 1995, the foundation has paid for hearing aids for poor patients served by All Children's Hospital Specialty Care centers in 17 counties in west-central Florida.

With the $1 checkoff, the foundation's reach is statewide. Audiologists and pediatricians anywhere in Florida can contact the foundation's equipment loan bank to borrow hearing aids for hearing-impaired children. School districts are also referring students for permanent devices.

Getting the right equipment on time makes a big difference. It costs about $400,000 to educate a hearing-impaired child in special education, McCart said. But if that child's hearing loss can be diagnosed early and he is fitted with hearing devices and gets the right therapy, he could be on par with his peers by the time he enters kindergarten.

And it starts with a $1 donation. That's a heck of an investment.

For more information, visit www.childrenshearinghelp fund.com.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 18:11:07]