Lions Multiple District 5 M Hearing Foundation Inc

Touch a Life with Hope by giving the gift of hearing! Your donations help create programs & support research that will change lives forever

The Lions Multiple District 5M Hearing Foundation is constantly striving to implement programs that will improve the lives of hearing impaired children and adults.

In 1999 the Lions Hearing Foundation lobbied for mandatory neo-natal hearing testing, so that every baby born in the State of Minnesota would be screened for hearing loss at birth, prior to leaving the hospital.  This was an extremely important initiative, as statistics show that treatment of hearing loss before six months of age allows children to develop language skills at the same rate as their normal hearing peers.

Following the new-born hearing screening, the Lions Hearing Foundation paid for training of 111 hospitals throughout the State of Minnesota to screen these babies.

The Lions Hearing Foundation then implemented the Lions Loaner Hearing Aid Bank, which allows a hearing impaired child and their family to loan hearing aids, free of charge, for up to 6 months while the family identifies insurance benefits, or finds financial resources for the course of treatment prescribed.

In late 2005, the Lions Hearing Foundation opened the Lions Children's Hearing Center at the University of Minnesota.  This multi-disciplinary center is deemed to be a truly unique clinic, allowing a hearing impaired child and their family to see up to six specialty doctors in one setting in one day.  Specialty areas being 1) Genetics; 2) Infectious Disease; 3) Neuro-Psychology; 4) ENT; 5) Audiology; 6) Speech Pathology.  Parents wanting to understand more about how their baby incurred hearing loss, might meet with a genetic's doctor to determine if it was a genetic component; or maybe meet with an Infectious Disease doctor to see if the mother contracted an infection while pregnant with the baby, causing hearing loss.  This Center is extremely important for parents traveling a distance as well as working parents who live nearby to have the ability to take one day and see all specialty areas in one setting in one day.  The ultimate benefit is that once that child leaves, all specialty doctors come together as a team, to find a unified approach of treatment for that hearing impaired child.

In 2011 the Hearing Foundation opened the Lions Children's Hearing & ENT Clinic at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital.  The Lions Children's Hearing Center is a subsidiary clinic within the Lions Children's Hearing & ENT Clinic.

In 2011 the Lions Hearing Foundation pledged $1.3 M for research and diagnostic equipment at the University of Minnesota. 

In June of 2012 the Lions Hearing Foundation conducted the "first annual" D-Feet Hearing Loss Fundraiser walk out at the beautiful University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minnesota.  Our goal was to raise $50,000.00 and we exceeded that goal.

In August of 2012 Lions Hearing Foundation Board Member, Lion Bob Harms, rode a donated Toro lawnmower from the Canada border to the Iowa border in an effort to raise money and awareness to change the lives of hearing impaired children.  The fundraiser was entitled "Steering for Better Hearing so Little Ears Can Hear".  It was a huge success with front page news in over 30 newspapers throughout the State of MN as well as state wide radio coverage, and raised over $41,000.00.

In June of 2013 the Lions Hearing Foundation will hold its second annual D-Feet Hearing Loss Fundraiser Walk at the beautiful University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minnesota.

There are no lengths the Lions Hearing Foundation will not go to change the lives of others.  We hope you will find our cause worthy enough of your donation.  Your donation can truly "touch a life with hope" and "give the gift of hearing to someone".  Help us...help them!