ESTEVAN - Living with Down syndrome, young Wyatt Wock already has some challenges in his life, but fortunately, weak hearing shouldn't be bothering him anymore, thanks to the support the family received from the Estevan No. 113 Elks Lodge.
Some time ago the doctors told Wyatt's family that the kid needed hearing aids, and the estimate for it was over $3,000 – money that was difficult to produce on the spot. But the audiologist that assessed Wyatt directed the family towards their local Elks lodge, and it turned out that the service club could help the family with covering this essential expense.
"We reached out to them, and they helped us walk through the process and then donated the cost of the hearing aids," said Wyatt's mother Kala Wock.
The exalted ruler of the local lodge, Randy VanAchte, said that this program has been running through the Elks Saskatchewan and Elks Canada for quite a while, but until now the Estevan club hasn't had a chance to help anyone through it.
"We do a lot of stuff for kids, and the hearing program is just one of them that works out very well. A lot of people obviously don't know it has been out there, but it has," said VanAchte, adding that they hope to assist more children that need their help.
"The Elks are not just standing for the hearing aid part, but it's for a lot of other kids’ charities that we help out."
VanAchte said Estevan Elks secretary Bonnie Mack knows a lot about the club's programs, and she was the one to guide the Wock family through the paperwork. Kala noted the "Elks were so good," as they did their best to process everything in a timely manner.
The process was started in late November-early December, and after the holidays the family received a call saying they were approved.
"There's a bit of a process. We sit down as a board and decide, Hey, okay, this is what's come up, what can we do? Where can we help out? And with this one we said, no, this is important to do. And we got through really quickly. So hopefully it was quick enough to help," VanAchte said.
Wyatt has already received his first hearing aid, a cochlear implant, and is now getting used to the new life experiences. Kala said they knew something was wrong with Wyatt's hearing since they adopted him, but it took doctors quite a bit of time to figure out what it was.
"Wyatt can't hear from the outside of his ear to his ear. This (the new hearing aid) goes through the bone, it vibrates tiny bones behind your ear that conduct the message to your brain," Kala explained. "It bypasses the inner ear, which isn't working for Wyatt. It's a specialized device. And we're really very grateful. We have seen how it's improved his quality of life, so we're really thankful to be able to have this for him."
"We're really glad that we're able to help out and that Wyatt could benefit from it," VanAchte said. "We are honoured that we were able to offer this to your family and hopefully down the road to other families and organizations because it's not necessarily families, there're organizations that may need help too. So it's good that we can keep it local and in the community."
More information on Elks programs can be found on their website elksofcanada.ca.
People can also call Elks Lodge in Estevan and talk to VanAchte or Mack. Some programs are running locally, but there is also a lot of opportunities on provincial and federal levels, and members are happy to do their best to get people the help that's needed.
