Distinguished Citizens of 2008
Manharts Make the World Sound So Much Better
Pat and Joe Manhart, owners of Advanced Hearing Systems in Rancho Mirage, have been named the 2008 Distinguished Citizens.
The Manharts live at Thunderbird Heights and have operated Advanced Hearing in Rancho Mirage for the past ten years.
The Manharts are truly great humanitarians who have traveled all over the world to give those less fortunate the gift of hearing. Through the national Hearing Foundation, they donate their time and expertise. They travel to impoverished corners of the world to test children’s hearing and fit them with hearing aids or other devices that allow them to hear.
Their most recent mission took them to the Dominican Republic, where, with a team from the Hearing Foundation (which supplied the hearing aids), they helped test and fit 1,240 children and adults with free hearing aids.
Children account for about 95 to 98 percent of the fittings. Many of these people who received hearing aids had no speech skills and had not been able to hear from birth.
Factors contributing to hearing loss in the underprivileged countries include poor nutrition, medical care and hygiene, as well as heredity. When families are struggling to put food on the table, a hearing loss falls far down the ladder of necessity. Thus, providing these hearing aids gives individuals an opportunity for a better life that they may not have had otherwise.
The Dominican Republic mission was eight days long and served the largest number of individuals the Hearing Foundation has helped at one time.
Pat and Joe have participated in ten similar missions around the world in places such as South Africa, Ecuador, Brazil, San Salvador, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.
In addition to their efforts in other countries, the Manharts carry out missions from their own Rancho Mirage office for the Coachella Valley children in need. They work with local school districts to determine which children require hearing assistance, then testing and fitting them for hearing devices.
The Manharts were awarded the Shiny Apple Award by the Palm Springs School District for the work they have done for the young people of that school district.
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