Yanks help in aid to hearing impaired

For the third consecutive year, the Yankees will help Starkey Hearing Foundation deliver the gift of hearing to New Yorkers in need. The mission scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at Yankee Stadium will provide hearing to more than 100 children and adults from throughout the New York area.

Starkey Hearing Foundation is dedicated to building better lives for the hearing impaired by providing hearing instruments to those in need. This mission precedes the Foundation’s participation in the annual Clinton Global Initiative meetings and fulfills its CGI commitment to provide one million hearing aids to people in need this decade.

During the hearing mission, the Foundation’s team of audiologists and staff will fit each of the recipients ranging age from 2 to 65 with their own custom-made, digital hearing device.

Assisting the Foundation team will be celebrity and VIP volunteers and hearing ambassadors including Yankees manager Joe Girardi and third baseman Alex Rodriguez and former First Lady Barbara Bush. Each will be paired with at least one recipient to witness hearing’s life-changing impact. They will also provide support and encouragement as recipients are fitted with their new hearing aids, receive audio testing and counseling and instruction on how to care for their new devices, all courtesy of Starkey Hearing Foundation.

“We are so thankful to the Yankees organization for welcoming us back to New York City and helping us make a difference in a child’s quality of life and future for the third consecutive year,” Starkey Hearing Foundation founder Bill Austin said. “We also thank all of our partners for joining us as we help open up the world to those with hearing impairments, so that they may smile, laugh, and connect in ways never before possible.”

Starkey Hearing Foundation’s New York Mission is one of dozens conducted each year by the Foundation. Hearing missions are the primary way Starkey Hearing Foundation realizes its goal – So the World May Hear. According to Starkey Hearing Foundation, hearing loss affects 34 million Americans, or one in 10. Yet, with the help of a hearing device, hearing loss can often be corrected in a majority cases.