North Notes
Spokane-North Rotary Club Bulletin
April 12, 2021
 
Calendar:
 
           April 19: Rotary Zoom lunch, Joe Bruce, JPL Solar System Ambassador and NASA
 
           April 30: Rotary Serves. 2nd Harvest project, 2-4 p.m.  Twelve spots open.
 
Briefly:  
            Changes due: A leadership change is due at Holmes Elementary School as Kale Colyar, now principal at Woodridge Elementary, moves to Holmes in the fall, succeeding Stephanie Lundberg.  Her new assignment with District 81 was not named yet.
 
            “All good:” Treasurer Bill Simer announced that, despite the pandemic forcing cancellation of the annual fund raiser, “all of our commitments to Holmes projects have been fulfilled.”  
          
             Happy times:
 
                     Eric Johnson celebrated a birthday April 12.
 
                     Lenore and Bob Romney said “they were treated like kings and queens” on a 3-day visit to various wineries in the Walla Walla area.
 
             Great Service Project at Second Harvest on March 26th --- Dave and Robin Hayward, Ron Schurra , Lenore and Bob Romney, and Sandy Fink worked together to put together food boxes of non perishable items for distribution to families in our community and area.  Some pics of the group:
                         
 
For deaf infants, there is HOPE
         
             Kim Schafer said one of the worst nightmares occur when new parents learn their new baby cannot hear.
 
            Schafer is development director for Spokane’s Hearing Oral Program of Excellence (HOPE).  She talked about the non-profit agency as 10 members Zoomed in for the April 12 club luncheon meeting.
 
            HOPE works in programs for birth to age 3, for a toddler group and for preschool students.
 
            She has three daughters and one had meningitis at age 3 when the severe hearing loss occurred.
 
            With that diagnosis, Schafer said, “All you hear is DEAF.  There is a whirlwind of emotions.  We bawled out our eyes.”
 
            The cure, for them, was a coclear implant.  The implant is a surgically neuroprosthetic device which bypasses the normal acoustic hearing process to stimulate the auditory nerve.
 
            After technicians adjust the unit and its small processor – often hidden under a head band – the result is sound.
 
            Schafer recalled hearing her daughter’s response to a toilet flushing – “I hear that!”
 
            The small HOPE classes help intensify the progress.  Schafer showed a “graduation class” phot with six students.
 
            At first, the agency was at 5th and Sherman.  When our club members visited the HOPE school several years ago, the agency was in the RiverPoint campus area.  With the WSU medical school expanding, HOPE, which was founded in 2004, had to relocate to 1821 E. Sprague.
 
            Covid issues made difficult times for HOPE.  Schafer called it “incredibly difficult.”  Some programs were temporarily closed because parents could not meet at the program’s offices.  Fund-raising events like its annual “Hoe-down” became a virtual program and funding dropped from $234,000 in 2019 to $163,000 last year.
 
            But HOPE never lost hope.
 
            The coclear implants and processors have been improved and  smaller.  And the plan still is to have the students allowed to mainstream regular classes, rather than in special ed classes.
 
Bulletin editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink