Mission Statement
The mission of Hear The Runway Foundation, Inc. is to increase the self-esteem, self-worth, and self-image of teens who are deaf and hard of hearing, which will provide them with the strength and motivation they may need to lead productive lives after high school. Hear The Runway Foundation, Inc. strives to create an environment in which all teens with a hearing loss can feel free to move forward in their post-secondary education goals without having doubts about whether they will be accepted due to their known hearing loss. Currently based in Miami, Florida, Hear The Runway hopes to soon expand to other areas in the State of Florida and beyond.
Description
My Name is Dr. Leslie Walker and I am an Educational Audiologist for Miami-Dade County Public Schools as well as the Executive Director of Hear The Runway Foundation, Inc. a local non-profit organization here in Miami, Fl. As you can probably imagine my group of students is very diverse as they come from different backgrounds, different degrees of hearing loss, different types of amplification, and different modes of communication. One thing that I have found to be similar characteristics of most of my students is that they have low self esteem, self image and self worth, which I have discovered after speaking to them one on one or to their families. They feel that they can't accomplish the same things as their normal hearing peers and my main goalas an EA is to change that. Hear The Runway Foundation was founded in October 2011 and we are moving quickly in our S. Florida community to change lives and we would like you to join us.
Hear The Runway Foundation has hosted 3 fashion shows since May 2012, and we are now planning our 4th show. We have about 50-60 kids from the ages of 4-18, different modes of communication and different types of amplification, who are all part of our community. They take to the runway in today's latest fashion for both males and females and let our community, their peers, family members, doctors, audiologist, teachers and neighbors congratulate, praise, cheer and honor them for becoming successful this far in life with an obstacle that they have overcome and will continue to rise above, but not be ashamed of, for the rest of their lives. Our next fashion show event is set for May 10, 2014 in Doral, Florida, during one of the most important months in Audiology and Speech Pathology, Better Speech and Hearing Month, and it would be a pretty great End of the Year finale for some of our graduating seniors here in Miami-Dade/Broward county schools (both public and private). We have an amazing team and great community sponsors but we are in need of volunteers to make this event amazing for these deserving young children. We are a 5013C Non Profit organization and we are relying heavily on community support, sponsors and volunteers to help us make this happen. In our most recent events we have had the sponsorship and support of Med-El, Advanced Bionics, Cochlear Americas, The University of Miami Barton G Kids Hear Now foundation and various others. We have also had many MDCPS high school students who have volunteered their time for the day in return for a rewarding amount of community service hours. We would love to have additional support of more volunteers as well. Community service hours will be provided to any individual who is in need for high school and/or college. Again, I am truly grateful for your time to read more about my cause and reason for this wonderful event. I am looking forward to hearing from you in regards to supporting and volunteering for Hear The Runway Foundation, Inc. If you have any further questions and /or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly at your earliest convenience.
