Chloe enjoys her cochlear implants.
She doesn’t sleep with them, so first thing in the morning when she realizes, you have
them ready for her to put on she gets excited.
The smile on her face is priceless.
“Bird.”
“Ball.”
I call Boys Town our family and that’s very much what they are, and you feel that while
you’re there.
Boys Town has a place in my heart and always will and I will forever be thankful for them.
My son Wesley, he actually passed his newborn screen.
We noticed his speech pronunciation was kind of lagging.
One of our friends suggested that we maybe go get a hearing screen done on him.
He was actually moderate to severe in the higher frequencies.
They suggested that he go with hearing aids.
It has helped him with his speech a lot.
He’s making strides we never though he would have.
Before he was diagnosed hardly anybody outside our family could understand a word he was
saying, and now everybody can understand what he is saying.
We could not have asked for anything more.
It has totally changed his life, its changed our life.
We have no hearing loss in our family so it came as a big surprise to try to figure out
how we were going to deal with this.
We felt so much better after talking to the staff at Boys Town.
“I thought he would never leave!”
It’s just amazing how far he has come.
I would tell other families how great Boys town is.
With all the support that we have, we know he is going to be just fine.
My son Austin does have bi-lateral cochlear implants and we have had hundreds of experiences
at Boys Town from when we originally came and had Austin’s hearing tested all the
way to getting his cochlear implants here.
Going to preschool here it has been an amazing experience and the people at Boys Town have
changed our lives.
The Pure Inspiration Art Event comes from the children and is about the children.
The proceeds go towards the educational programming and also the clinical services for children
who are deaf and hard of hearing.
Many times when children are identified with hearing loss, extensive amount of intervention
and clinical services as well as hearing technology is needed in order for them to reach their
optimal outcomes.
The event is important because mainly about the community becoming aware of our children
and what supports are needed.
It’s also an outgrowth or an outflowing of our art program.
“Music” Our art program here is all about capturing
each child’s human potential.
We can see their human spirit through their work.
We learn about what their interests are, what their loves are, what their questions are,
and what their problem solving abilities are, even when there is limited language that is
present.
“This tool is going to make a little hole here.”
When we invite community artists in its all about the children being apprenticed to the
artists, learning about their trade, but also I think the artists learn about our young
children and learn to value the insights and gifts that children bring.
We were exposed to the great work of Boys Town National Research Hospital some time
ago when our granddaughter was born with hearing loss and it became gradually worse through
her early years.
We were very impressed with how she developed through those years so as a company it was
easy for us to decide to support the Boys Town National Research Hospital with further
sponsorship and financial assistance because it does such great work and we would love
to see other kids further develop and grow as our granddaughter Claire has.
We think we need to carry it forward, pay it forward as they say, and as an organization
we plan to continue doing things like that to keep Omaha the great community that it
is.
I think Boys Town is a great institute all the way around.
All local businesses like helping companies but I was born and raised there and saw over
the years what they had done.
They have helped a lot of kids.
They have helped a lot of kids in the past and they are going to help a lot more.
It’s just a well-operated institute.
Without the sponsorship we wouldn’t be able to hold this event.
We also appreciate the individuals who donate to our silent and live auctions.
The event is all about giving the children the best of all possibilities and we thank
our community sponsors for all of their support.