Here at the Special Education Foundation, we often talk about the Gift of Sound when working with our partners in the Audiology program in the Special School District. Recently, we came across a letter from twenty years ago from some parents whose son had just discovered the gift of sound and its impact on this young boy’s life.
His name is Malachi Schauer. His parents, Caleb and Melanie, were living in Clayton and attending Concordia Seminary, and in 2003, Malachi was three years old. As students, the cost of buying hearing aids for these young parents was enormously challenging. Luckily, through the generosity of others, they could acquire hearing aids for Malachi.
Because of his difficulty hearing, Malachi’s speech was delayed. But with the help of his hearing aids, and the extraordinary work of SSD audiologists like Deb Quick, Malachi quickly adapted to the new world of sound in his life.
The letter from Caleb and Melanie below describes the impact that the hearing aids had on young Malachi’s life.
Fast forward twenty years later.
The Schauers now live in Union, Illinois, near Rockford, where Caleb is a Pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church.
Meanwhile, Malachi has thrived. After graduating from Faith Lutheran High School in Crystal Lake, Illinois, he attended Michigan Tech in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He will graduate next month with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
He’s planning to return home after graduation with his wife, Hannah Elise Russell, whom he married last year. Last week in a phone conversation, Malachi told me how important his hearing aids continue to be for him and that their technological advances have made life much easier.
One of the advances developed over the past few years is that his hearing aids are digital with Bluetooth® connectivity allowing him to listen to music and talk on his cell phone using the hearing aids.
Twenty years ago, Caleb and Melanie shed tears of joy the day Malachi got his first set of hearing aids. In the letter to their SSD audiologists, they described the new experiences Malachi was discovering through this Gift of Sound.
“Malachi notices new sounds every day. He has shown visible awareness of the sound of a car heater, the tires rolling underneath the car, the “swish” of his snow pants where he walks, the “crunch” of walking on snow, the leaves blowing in the wind, the soft tap of the keyboard where you type, the sound a plastic toy makes when it hits the ground, the little squeaks a bed makes when you sit on it, and more.”
There are dozens of stories like Malachi’s, and many of them are made possible through the generosity of donors to the Special Education Foundation. With your donation, you can do your part with a gift to the Arbeiter Gift of Sound fundraiser.
Thanks to Malachi, Caleb, and Melanie for allowing us to share their story.
