LIHU‘E — Roy Nishida of the East Kaua‘i Lions Club Foundation said Lions International discontinued its hearing initiatives, instead placing its focus on vision.
That did not stop the Lions Saturday when the club presented hearing aids for Sherrie Orr’s brother, Jack Mentz, during a break from their service project of painting at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center in partnership with Team Rubicon.
“The East Kaua‘i Lions Club lives up to its motto of ‘We Serve,’” Nishida said. “When there is a need, call the Lions. We received a used hearing aid from an anonymous donor, the hearing aid being fairly new. Traditionally, we would recondition the hearing aid and provide it to where it was needed.”
At the same time, EK Lion President Janice Bond received a request from Orr, who looked for a hearing aid for her brother who had lost his.
“He only has 10% hearing,” Orr said. “He is eligible for Medicare, but the insurance doesn’t cover hearing aids. It covers the visits to the audiologist, but not the hearing aid. A replacement hearing aid would be between $3,000 to $7,000 out of pocket.”
Orr said communicating with her brother has been very difficult since the loss of his aid, and was finally referred to the Lions by a co-worker who learned of her dilemma.
This is not the first instance of the EK Lions and the Lions Foundation working with the hearing impaired.
Earlier, during the return to school during the COVID-19 pandemic, the EK Lions and the Lions Foundation provided special face shields to a teacher who works with hearing-impaired students.
These face shields allow students to look at the facial expressions as a means of communication.
“Through working with the vision and hearing screening, and the meeting with the teacher, we learned there are 65 students on the island who have issues with hearing,” Bond said. “It speaks of the value of the screening programs being done by the different Lions clubs on the island.”
The presentation to Orr was a pleasant interruption to the project at hand — painting at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center in partnership with Team Rubicon, a group that serves the community by mobilizing veterans to continue their service by helping people prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters and catastrophic events such as the ongoing battle against COVID-19.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
