Hearing Resources: One of the goals of Quota is to assist those in need of hearing devices and provide additional resources for them. Please visit the Virginia Department of Health website for more information: www.vahealth.org/hearing.
Winchester — Maria Ayala, 9, is the second recipient of hearing aids thanks to the help of Quota Club of Winchester.
Winchester Quota Club specializes in helping children with hearing disabilities. Seventeen-year-old Daniela Porras of Frederick County received hearing aids in August.
A student at Orchard View Elementary School, Maria has been deaf since birth. Her mother had rubella in her first month of pregnancy, said Lee Perkins, secretary of the local Quota Club.
The hearing aids — which can cost around $3,000 — are provided by Seimens, in which the company provides vouchers for free hearing aids.
Maria’s teacher, Peggy Bainton, will now be able to speak into a special microphone that will transmit right into Maria’s hearing aids, Perkins said.
The Seimens’s program benefits children age 17 and under. Anyone interested in applying for hearing aids or who knows of a child who needs help should call Lee Perkins at 662-7147. The deadline for completed applications to Seimens is December 31, 2009.
