Rotary Club of Hendersonville

Purpose : Solicit and collect used hearing aids from citizens and hearing professionals in Henderson County on a year-round basis. The old hearing aids are exchanged for new ones, which are then given free to indigent children in foreign countries.

Structure: One overall chair and a small steering committee organize the annual public relations drive, and another four members make periodic visits to hearing professionals in the community throughout the year, to pick up donated hearing aids.

Collected hearing aids are shipped to Help the Children Hear in New Jersey. That organization, in cooperation with The Starkey Manufacturing Company refurbishes the hearing aids and organizes volunteer hearing professionals into clinical teams. Local Rotary Clubs in third-world countries organize free clinics for children who suffer hearing loss. Volunteers from the US pay their own travel expenses and local Rotary Clubs provide room and board for them on site .

Once each year a widely-advertised hearing aid campaign is mounted in Hendersonville. This includes a motivational program for the club, recruitment of, or re-commitment by, local hearing aid professionals to collect for us, and media coverage. A larger number of club members are needed for a short time, to distribute posters and collect aids from various collection places.

Timing and Sequence : Various times of year have been tried for the "Public Relations Push" program where posters are distributed in town, media coverage is arranged, and the public is made aware of the program. The majority of hearing aids however, are collected in the offices of local hearing professionals who collect and hold them for us.

Current plan is to try a February/March timeline for the 2006 "PR Push" program. Local collections continue and are ongoing.

Budget : No funds have been requested of the club, although there have been modest printing and other minimal costs associated with the program.

Reporting Requirements: Only news releases for the public and occasional announcements to the club regarding the number of aids collected are necessary, along with occasional correspondence with Help the Children Hear .

Unique Requirements/Action Steps (Please be thorough and specific):

Establish and maintain a good relationship with hearing professionals in the area and their office staffs.
Get as much public attention as possible during the "PR Push" phase.
Provide, when requested, IRS contribution form to donors. This is very rare and prepared forms are mailed to donors.