OWEN AND STARKEY ARE WINNERS AT THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS
James Owen of the Chillington Manor Lodge No.4649 writes:
I was honoured and delighted to join forces with Starkey Hearing at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin this June. My company Owen Hearing www.owenhearing.com supplies US-based Starkey Hearing products (among other products) and has had a close relationship with the company for fourteen years. We supplied 244 hearing aids free of charge to the athletes, plus education on the importance of regular hearing screenings, with the goal of making healthy hearing more inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities.
Each athlete was also given contacts that could help them in the future.
James Owen (front row, second left) with a group of Starkey Cares volunteers (in blue T-shirts), Moroccan athletes and their coaches
Everyone deserves hearing health, which is why we were honoured to partner with Starkey Cares and showcase our shared commitment to creating a world where people with intellectual disabilities have every opportunity to hear the world around them. Our participation in the World Games allowed us to show all Special Olympics athletes that we would take care of them and their hearing health, so they could continue to shine on and off the field!
James with Jayne Bryce – another audiologist, from Scotland – fitting a German Athlete
As the world’s largest inclusive sports event featuring 7,000 athletes from 190 delegations, the World Games www.specialolympics.org took place from June 17th to June 25th in Berlin. The global event revolved around the common mission of celebrating the joy of sport and the power of inclusion through camaraderie, competition, and breaking down social barriers. With more than six million athletes and Special Olympics Unified Sports® partners in over 190 countries and territories and more than one million coaches and volunteers, Special Olympics delivers more than thirty Olympic-type sports and over 100,000 Games and competitions every year.
I have personally been involved in the past with missions to Armenia where we would fit up to 1600 people with recycled hearing aids over a period of four days. I went on three of these missions before the COVID pandemic unfortunately curtailed our work.
It gives me such pleasure to be able to fulfil that great Masonic attribute of Charity in this way – to be able to help those less fortunate than ourselves by giving them not just “relief” but providing the tools so that they can seize opportunities in life that would previously have been unattainable.
