The Starkey Hearing Foundation Partners With the Country Music Association to Celebrate the Sound of Music Through the Gift of Hearing

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., Nov. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- An estimated 100 children will have the opportunity to hear, many of them for the first time, on November 9, 2010 from 11:00am to 3:00pm at the Nashville Convention Center, 601 Commerce Street in Nashville.  The mission, sponsored by Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, FedEx and United Health Group, is being held on the Eve of the 44th Annual CMA Awards also in Nashville.  Special guests include, 2 time GRAMMY Winner and 5 time CMA Winner, Lee Ann Womack, 2010 CMA Nominee Steel Magnolia's Meghan Linsey, NFL Hall of Fame Members: Joe De Lamielleure and Raymond Berry. Also scheduled to appear: Sarah Darling, Linda Davis, Rick Evans, Emma Jacobs, Kelly Lang, Daisy Mallory, Justin Moore, Ray Pillow, Ronnie Reno, Scott Rouse, Lang Scott, Jordyn Shellhart, T G Sheppard, Larry Stephenson, Josh Thompson, Heather Whitestone McCallum, Chuck Wicks and the bands: Love and Theft, Eden's Edge and The Line.

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The press is invited to attend the pre-mission press conference at 10:30am with welcome and guest introductions by Justin Osmond, followed by the hearing mission at 11:00am.

The Starkey Hearing Foundation is the global leader in hearing health care and is striving to change the social consciousness of hearing.   Since 2000, the Foundation has supplied nearly 500,000 hearing aids to people in need and is striving to achieve its goal of over one million more by 2020.  In addition to giving the gift of hearing, the Foundation partners with Best Buy, the GRAMMY Foundation and a number of recording artists to promote "Safe Hearing" and prevention especially among teens, through its National program, SoundMatters.  

"When we help a child hear, we connect that child with life," says Bill Austin of the Starkey Hearing Foundation.  "There is no disability, only ability and it is my personal mission to help these children use that ability to reach their full potential and enjoy the beautiful sounds in our world like music." According to the Starkey Foundation, an estimated 63 million children worldwide suffer from hearing loss.  

Austin was recently awarded the Azteca Eagle Award from the President of Mexico in honor of the great humanitarian efforts of the Starkey Hearing Foundation. This is the highest honor paid to a non-citizen.  President Eisenhower, Senator Ted Kennedy and Bill and Melinda Gates are the only other US Citizens to have received the prestigious award.

For more information on the Starkey Foundation visit www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org  

SOURCE Starkey Hearing Foundation