May 22, 2012
MARYVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - East Tennessee will soon lead the nation in hearing and speech treatment.
For decades, The Hearing and Speech Foundation in Maryville has been helping children grow up to live normal lives. But in five months, it expands its reach to people across the country.
"It is just a travesty to me that throughout this country, this system is not available to children who are diagnosed with a hearing impairment," says Alan Boeckmann, Chairman of The Hearing and Speech Foundation.
This building will change that. He says the expansion of The Hearing and Speech Foundation will create a facility like no other.
"We've got hundreds, now adults, children, that have come through the process who are now fully functioning in an oral world hearing, speaking, to a point that you would not know they were deaf."
Like Mandy Burnside. She was diagnosed with severe bilateral hearing loss at 3-years-old.
"First time I ever heard anything, which was getting in the car and hearing the door slam. What was that like? Very terrifying."
After therapy here, she's been able to go to school and work a full-time job answering phones, which is unheard of for the hearing impaired.
"I'm very thankful that I can be a part of the normal hearing world without any hesitation."
To give you an idea of what they do here, while I'm talking to you, you probably hear a lot of the outside noise, a lot of the vibrations, so to cut that out, they created the anechoic chamber, you can actually hear that sound go away, it gets silent, so doctors are able to use this room and that silence to get the information they need.
"What this room does is allow me to fit the exact frequency that's necessary to get the speech," says John Berry, CEO and Co-Founder of The Hearing and Speech Foundation.
This function of the foundation will stay the same, but expand to include training and therapy in the new $1.3 million facility.
"We're trying to get that message out there and trying to drive this system of treatment for hearing impaired children to be a national reference system," says Boeckmann.
One that changes lives for those like Mandy.
"The Hearing and Speech Foundation has been my family my whole life and if it's hadn't of been for them, I wouldn't be where I am now."
The facility is scheduled to open on January 1st.
There is one challenge: funding. The organization needs your help to keep it on target.
