By Lauren McGrath

Residents of Westport, CT and the surrounding area shopped and socialized at “Cheer for the Hearing Health Foundation” to support life-changing hearing loss research and awareness on Thursday, November 29.

Graciously hosted by Genevieve Bouchard at her women’s clothing boutique, Scout and Molly’s, proceeds from the all-day event benefited both Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) and the Staples High School (SHS) Cheerleaders in Westport.

The shop was open to the public during the day with 10% of sales supporting HHF and another 10% going to the cheerleading team. In the evening, Ms. Bouchard and the SHS cheerleading team entertained a private group of attendees with food and beverages, raffle prizes, and a silent auction.

The SHS cheerleaders organize a fundraiser annually for their team in conjunction with one nonprofit organization. Ms. Bouchard selected HHF because her two daughters, Katelyn, 12, and Solenne, 10, are cochlear implant recipients.

A presentation from HHF staff was kindly captioned by Lisa Nuland, a Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) provider at Bedford Middle School in Westport. In addition to giving an overview of HHF’s research, speaker Lauren McGrath highlighted the importance of hearing loss prevention and challenging stigma to an audience of mostly school-age children and their parents.

HHF is sincerely grateful to the organizers for the opportunity to share our mission, and thanks the event guests for their interest in our work.

You, too, can host an event to help HHF advance progress toward better treatments and cures for hearing loss. There are many different fundraising event ideas from golf outings and bake sales, to birthdays and weddings, to marathons and triathlons. Email development@hhf.org to plan your event.