Nancy Sideri, owner of Preferred Hearing Care of Merrimac, along with Buddy “Cake Boss” Valastro, Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship, Yankee Legend, Whitey Ford and others help fit more than 150 children with hearing aids.

NEW YORK – Sept. 26, 2010 – At Yankee Stadium, Nancy Sideri, Owner of Preferred Hearing Care, Alliance Member of the Starkey Hearing Foundation, and Die-Hard Red Sox Fan, put Yankee Rivalry aside and joined forces with the Yankee Organization and delivered nearly 300 free state-of-the-art, hearing aids to underserved, hearing-impaired children throughout New York City.  

The mission, sponsored by FedEx, welcomed Justin Osmond (Osmond family) as the emcee for the event and special celebrity volunteers to assist with the fittings.

These included: Buddy Valestro, TLC’s Cake Boss; Whitey Ford,
Yankees Hall of Fame Pitcher; Gabe Saporta, lead singer Cobra Starship; Dominic Chianese, actor, The Sopranos; Sam Moore, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and the original “Soul Man”; Alan Kalter, CBS Late Show; Yul Vazquez, actor, War of the Worlds; Heather Whitestone McCallum, former Miss
America and first deaf Miss America; Gina Cirili, Miss Pennsylvania; and Elena LaQuatra, Miss Pennsylvania Teen.

“So the World May Hear,” is the global leader in hearing health care and is striving to change the social consciousness of hearing. Each year, the Foundation delivers more than 100,000 hearing aids through hearing missions in countries stretching
from the U.S. to Vietnam. Since 2000, the Foundation has supplied nearly 500,000 hearing aids to people in need and is striving to achieve its goal to distribute more than million free hearing aids in this decade.

“These children have so much talent and ability, by giving them the gift of hearing, we can help them maximize those abilities and have a productive life,” said Bill Austin, CEO and Founder of the Starkey Hearing Foundation.

“They are our future and we want to make sure it’s a good one.”

Founder and CEO Bill Austin attended the Clinton Global Initiative, a summit bringing together key foundation leaders focused on Global Humanitarianism, earlier this week in New York as a guest of Former President Bill Clinton.

Additionally, Austin recently received 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 Dwight D. Eisenhower, Senator Ted Kennedy and Bill and Melinda Gates are the only other U.S. citizens to have received this prestigious award.