SHIPSHEWANA — Seven-year-old Alex Rial is quick with a hug. He has a sweet smile and an engaging personality. He loves going to church and isn’t afraid to talk about his faith. In short, Alex is a special kid.

And it didn’t take long for the Starkey Hearing Foundation to figure that out and put Alex into the spotlight during a mission to give more than 250 new hearing aids to children and adults during Super Bowl weekend.

Alex, a second-grader at Shipshewana-Scott Elementary, has been hearing-impaired since infancy.

“He came to us when he was 3 1/2 years old, and he had never talked intelligibly,” said his grandmother Vicky Davis, who along with her husband Denny now have custody of Alex.

Six months after he began his new life with his grandparents, Alex was fitted for hearing aids.

With twice-weekly visits to Children’s Memorial Therapy Clinic in South Bend, lots of work at home and with the support of a close-knit family, Alex began speaking clearly.

“Without them (the clinic) I don’t know what I would have done,” Davis said. “He doesn’t hear certain sounds like ‘f,’ ‘ph,’ ‘sh,’ ‘ch’ and ending sounds.”

Through the work of audiologists at the clinic, Alex has learned how to form the sounds and use them in speech.

“How he’s accomplished that is beyond me!,” Davis said. “He’s just doing fantastic.”

She is also impressed with the school’s efforts, specifically through the Indiana Special Education Co-op’s program.

The only downside was Alex’s bulky and outdated hearing aids.

“They were such great, big awkward things,” Vicky said. “And he’s had those same ones since he was 4 years old.”

The Minnesota-based Starkey Hearing Foundation was about to change all that.

The foundation started in 1984 with the mission to help the hearing impaired overcome their disability and reconnect with their families and the community. From 2000 to 2010, the foundation fitted more than 500,000 people in more than 86 countries with hearing aids.

To promote its cause to a larger audience, the Starkey Foundation tied its latest mission effort into the media frenzy surrounding the Super Bowl.  

Foundation representatives notified teachers around the state to offer hearing-impaired kids the opportunity to apply for new hearing aids.

Davis immediately took them up on their offer.

“We had 10 days to fill out a lot of paperwork, which included visits the doctors for some of the information,” Davis said.

Along with 250 other children and adults ages 3 to 92, Alex was chosen to be fitted for state-of-the-art hearing devices.

By 3:30 a.m. on the Friday before the Super Bowl, Alex, Vicky and close friend Dana Schmucker were on their way to Indianapolis.

“We were warned about the traffic, so we left early and got there about 25 minutes before check-in time,” Davis said.

That put them at the front part of a long line at the Sports Zone on the northwest side of Indianapolis. Alex chatted with employees of the Starkey Foundation and a few of the more than 200 volunteers and volunteer audiologists from around the state and country.

While most children were handed white and orange cards, Alex was given a green one. His grandmother asked why and found out Alex’s winning interaction with the employees and volunteers had earned him a front row seat during the media portion of the event.

With microphones and television cameras surrounding him, Alex told the media that he could hear better, more clearly and liked the almost invisible hearing aids much better than the big ones he came in wearing.

One of the highlights of the event for Alex was meeting past and present players from the Chicago Bears, and receiving a signed football and T-shirt. Country music artist Garth Brooks, Starkey Foundation Chief Executive Officer and founder Bill Austin as well as football players from the Colts, Buffalo Bills, Arizona Cardinals, Washington Redskins, Tennessee Titans, San Diego Chargers and Houston Texans, were also at the event to talk with the children and adults.

“He didn’t even fall asleep on the way home, he was so excited,” Davis said. “He was up from 3 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.!”

Overcoming obstacles

Davis feels like Alex has overcome so much besides being hearing impaired. In addition to a difficult first three years of his life and dealing with ADHD, he has endured several trips to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis for eye surgery.

Davis feels he has a good support system with all five of her children and 10 grandchildren living within 30 miles of their Shipshewana Lake home, as well as a helpful and dedicated staff in the Westview school district.

“We feel so blessed to have him. He’s such a spiritually-minded boy,” Davis said. “This has been a wonderful opportunity for him. I don’t know what God’s plan for him is, but I know it’s going to be good.”