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Dr Ryan Whitaker
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Every Christmas, our ears are bombarded with the sounds of the holiday season: carolers, family gatherings, Christmas music, and the laughter of our kids and grandkids. For some, the season can be overwhelming and isolating when those sounds have faded away like snow in spring.
Every year, our team at Hearing & Balance Doctors puts on a special giveaway to provide deserving winners with a free hearing assessment and complimentary hearing aids, based on nominations from you and fellow members of our community.
This past year was no different. We received so many incredible nominations, and reading through all of them made it a really tough choice to pick our winners! But eventually, we narrowed it down to two very deserving individuals.
Your Hear for the Holidays 2025 winners are…
Clarence Stubbs: Former Naval Sailor and Town Gardener
Clarence came to visit our clinic thinking he was there for a routine appointment. Imagine his surprise when I had the chance to tell him in person that he was one of our lucky winners!
His family came to his appointment with him, and his daughters were both delighted to find out he was a winner.
“He’s given 110 percent to everybody: his family, neighbors, friends,” they told us. “Dad served in the Navy and he’s had some hearing loss… but he just loves to communicate with people. He loves to tell jokes and he loves to socialize. And that taken away has made him feel like he’s not fully himself.”
Clarence is also a beloved community gardener, growing tons of food in his garden to give away to people. With people driving by the “natural grocery store” that is Clarence’s garden, he loves to talk to the people who come to visit him.
“He’s always giving back to others and always caring for others,” one of his daughters said. “He’s given so much, and I think he’s very deserving of this, as well.”
His daughters wanted to make sure that he has the chance to continue these conversations with the community he cares so much about.
Fitted with ReSound Vivia hearing aids, now Clarence can not only hear clearly but also communicate with the people he loves without interruption or stress.
Getting the chance to fit him with his devices was a delight. He was a jokester from the moment he stepped through our doors!
Bruce Clark: Passionate Teacher and School Sports Coach
As a dedicated educator and basketball coach, Bruce needed strong, healthy hearing that wasn’t overwhelming. He was a natural winner for our Hear for the Holidays giveaway, and we were delighted to have him visit us to talk about his experience with hearing aids and Apple AirPods.
During COVID, Bruce came across an issue in his classrooms: With social distancing spreading people apart and the speaker at the front of a giant classroom, it was becoming exceedingly difficult to hear lessons.
“I knew that I had some hearing issues,” Bruce admits, “I didn’t know the extent of them.”
He got hearing aids, but unfortunately lost one: “Somewhere at the bottom of Sand Hollow Reservoir, there’s this little hearing aid saying, ‘Please come get me!’” And then Bruce heard about Apple AirPods Pro 2 with their hearing aid functions.
Bruce did find some benefit from Apple AirPods, but he struggled to focus on the sound around him when he needed it, especially trying to swap between functions. When he won our Hear for the Holidays competition, his hearing experience quickly changed.
Bruce’s wife, Bev, was aware of our giveaway, and she nominated her husband to receive the complimentary hearing assessment and devices. Bev’s perspective, telling us she was struggling to communicate with her husband and he wasn’t understanding their young grandkids, really sealed the deal for us in choosing Bruce as one of our winners.
“The [difference] between a hearing aid and an AirPod, it’s like night and day,” Bruce says. “When I have these [hearing aids] in, I can hear, I can communicate with people. It makes a huge difference.”
Bruce needs to communicate well for both his family’s benefit and his team’s benefit. Even with some self-consciousness around the hearing aids’ appearance, he’s grateful for the chance to hear well again, even if it does make the heckling on the court significantly louder!
Thank You for Your Nominations
Each year that we put on Hear for the Holidays, we’re blown away by the response from everyone in our community coming together to help their parents, grandparents, friends, spouses, and community members.
Thank you for all of your incredible nominations. Reading through each one is one of the best parts of this giveaway, even if it makes it really difficult to pick winners!
We’re already looking forward to next year and seeing what stories we get to hear and whose lives we have the opportunity to change with the gift of better hearing.
