The donated hearing aids were brought by volunteers to about 140 children.
RANDOLPH, Vt. (AP) – About 140 Ukrainian children received hearing aids this spring from a group of Vermont volunteers.
The children attend a school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Mirgorod, Randolph’s sister town in the Ukraine. The trip was sponsored by the Randolph Rotary Club, which worked with the Starkey Foundation, a major supplier of hearing aids.
Four volunteers from the Randolph area traveled to Mirgorod in April.
“I think I became dehydrated from shedding tears,” said one of them, Jean Grout.
Starkey Foundation provided the hearing aids at a low price and also gathered a team of audiologist volunteers to go to the school, test the children, make the hearing aids, and train teachers there to make more.
The team also carried with them a $500 gift from a Ukrainian living in the United States who had heard about the project.
“The audiologists left in a van from the school yard with the children running along the fence waving and yelling,” Grout said. “Then we left on foot and could hardly get out of the yard-hugs and tears galore.”
“The smiles, the hugs, the tears of joy and gratitude…no words were needed,” said Cindy Volker of Rochester, another volunteer. “For me it was the deepest expression of love I have ever felt and was a very powerful force. I have been changed by my experiences in Ukraine.”
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