Happy New Year!

January 2025

At the 2024 holiday party

From left: Don, Steve, Ellen, Victoria, Thomas and Marilyn at the Blue Bonnet Restaurant

Chapter to start year with new leadership

At its December 7, 2024 meeting, the HLAA Denver Chapter Board agreed to nominate the following members to serve as officers and board members in 2025:

President: Marilyn Weinhouse

Vice President: Jennifer McBride

Secretary: Ed Winograd

Treasurer: Steve Nelson

Audiology Liaison: Dusty Jessen

Student Liaison: Victoria Rivera

At Large Board Member: Roger Ponds

Newsletter Editor: Paula DeJohn

The membership will vote on these and any other candidates at the January 18, 2025 meeting.

Peace Corps work continues

Roger Ponds, a Denver Chapter member and veteran of Peace Corps service, stays in touch with his former colleagues in the local area through RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) of Colorado. A highlight is the annual Christmas party, the latest of which took place December 14 at Geotech in Denver.

As Roger reports, the former volunteers are still serving their country and the world by supporting charities that help people around the world. At the December meeting, they collected hygiene products such as toothbrushes, soap and diapers and donated them to Arapahoe Public Health and the Rocky Mountain Welcome Center. The items were then given to members of our immigrant and refugee communities.

A safe place to share

On December 18, Denver Chapter Vice President Jennifer McBride hosted the second Zoom meeting for members and other people dealing with hearing loss. The group decided to meet regularly the third Wednesday of every month from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The next meeting will be January 15, 2025.

Jennifer is putting her career experience as a grief counselor to use by organizing a local version of the national program called Hearing Other People’s Experience (HOPE). She recalls how with her recent hearing loss and cochlear implant, she learned first-hand how emotions like anxiety, frustration, anger and humiliation can accompany such a major life change.

Participants share their own memories of adjustment to hearing loss and discuss strategies for managing communication and relationships. Meetings are confidential. To receive an invitation to future meetings, email Jennifer at jen427mcbride@gmail.com.

Caption companies merge

Two popular phone captioning providers have joined forces with the November 2024 acquisition of CaptionMate by InnoCaption. Irvine, California-based InnoCaption said in a news release it plans to keep CaptionMate as a “standalone service” but will provide technical support.

CaptionMate uses speech-recognition technology to provide captions in more than 100 languages. InnoCaption also uses live stenographers.

“We have been impressed with the CaptionMate team’s technology platform and focus on high quality service to their user base. We are excited to welcome CaptionMate and their users to the InnoCaption family and continue to provide the best call captioning experience possible,” said Paul Lee, InnoCaption’s Chief Operating Officer.

“We felt that InnoCaption and CaptionMate had a strong alignment of mission and values. Today’s acquisition ensures that our users will be well-supported and that we will see our investment in advancing accessibility continue through this next phase of CaptionMate’s journey,” said CEO Beryl Bucher.

Sally Hodge, Denver Chapter member, and user of CaptionMate, provided this information.

Commission: We hear you now

The Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind has long been known as a major resource for deaf Coloradans, but not so much for the hard of hearing. For example, courtroom captions are a fairly recent innovation. The commission plans to focus more attention on its hard-of-hearing constituents during 2025, according to Communications Technology Program Manager JoAnne Hirsch. In January, her office will begin hosting meetings for the hard-of-hearing community to discuss and propose topics they would like to see addressed. “We will be focusing on access to services, communication accommodations, and other topics related to hearing loss,” JoAnne says.

The first meeting will be online, and has not yet been scheduled. To sign up, or if you have questions, please email joanne.hirsch@state.co.us.

Grocery fundraiser

The Denver Chapter is promoting a program by King Soopers, in which participants using a shopper’s card (the card you swipe to get a discount) can generate a contribution to the chapter with each purchase. As Secretary Marilyn Weinhouse explains it:

To help support our chapter, please join the King Soopers Community Rewards Program. https://hearinglossdenver.org/community-rewards-program You also can pay dues or make a donation to our chapter online. Just go to https://hearinglossdenver.org/

Looking for nominations

The Hearing Loss Association of America is looking for impactful HLAA Chapters or inspiring members for the HLAA 2025 Awards, to be presented at the annual convention in Indianapolis, June 11–14. Members are invited to nominate candidates they think should be honored. See the HLAA 2025 Awards Application Package for criteria, categories and instructions. Deadline for submissions is January 17, 2025. Email awards@hearingloss.org with questions.

Peace on Earth

Two seasonal symbols shared a space at downtown Denver’s holiday light display. Photo by Sue Weinstock