Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Jacob's Ride: Cross-Country Tour to Fund Hearing Devices

A 24-year-old hearing-impaired baseball fan from Annapolis, Md., hopes to raise $1 million to help others facing hearing loss, so they too can experience in what he calls his “miracle,” the cochlear implant performed at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1999 that restored much of his hearing when he was 10 years old.

The young pizza baker, Jacob Landis, is placing a constructive hold on his college plans while he combines his passion for America’s national pastime with his love of bicycling so that he can give back to people like him. His personal mission: to raise funds while bicycling to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums during the 2013 season.
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Image Source: Wikipedia
All told, Landis’ charity bike ride will take six months, and cover more than 10,500 miles in 175 days, he says. His million-dollar goal is designed to benefit those who need financial support to purchase a cochlear implant, or other kind of hearing-assist device, including hearing aids. Landis says that modern hearing devices like his, recently upgraded to include a remote-controlled computer that rests behind his ear, in addition to language rehabilitation therapy, needed especially by children, can cost upwards of $100,000, a sum he knows is beyond the health insurance coverage and resources of many families.

Donations to Jacobs Ride can be made through his website, www.jacobsride.com, his Facebook page, and through text message and mobile phone announcements at all stadiums he visits, as well as with bike team sponsorships and fund-raising events planned along the ride route.

All proceeds will benefit The Gift of Hearing Foundation in Narragansett, R.I.; The Listening Center in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md.; the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; and the J.W. Pickle Foundation in Nashville, Tenn.

“Hearing loss is a prevalent medical condition with serious psychosocial consequences for many as 32 million infants, children and adults in the United States,” says Howard Francis, M.D., an associate professor of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins and director of The Listening Center. “Jacob’s Ride is important to raising awareness about the condition and, I think, in celebrating his success in overcoming a debilitating condition that restricts achievement and social connection in the hearing world. I can only hope that many other people will be inspired by his young spirit and courage in what will certainly be a physically grueling and emotionally taxing national tour.”
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For additional information, please go to:
www.jacobsride.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/JacobsRide2013?fref=ts http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/specialty_areas/listencenter/ http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/our_team/faculty/francis.html

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