Question: What do Pinehurst UMC and the Sunrise Theater have in common with the U.S. House of Representatives, Library of Congress and Supreme Court; NYC’s Museum of Modern Art, Boston’s Symphony Hall, San Francisco’s Transit System; and Yankee Stadium’s ticket booths?
Answer: All are equipped with hearing loops.
Fifty million Americans — 365 million people worldwide — are afflicted with serious difficulty hearing, including deafness. Americans enduring serious hearing difficulties substantially out- number those suffering serious difficulty seeing. Hearing loss is the third most prevalent health condition among older adults, trailing only arthritis and heart disease.
Age-related hearing loss, presbycusis, is a matter of “when,” not “if.” Between a third and a quarter of “older” Americans (aged 65-plus years) have impaired hearing.
Dr. Juliette Sterkins, a retired audiologist who advocates for the hearing impaired, asserts half of America’s seniors suffer from hearing loss by their 75th birthday.
Summarizing research findings, Sterkins states hearing disability is more prevalent than heretofore recognized, cautions it’s “far more significant than previously understood,” and concludes its consequent “feelings of isolation and depression” are profound and devastating.
Stealthily and steadily, presbycusis invisibly, incrementally impacts seniors’ quality of life. Many folks are unaware of how much their hearing has deteriorated. It’s estimated roughly 30 million American adults would benefit from using hearing aids, but don’t own them.
In burgeoning recreation/retirement communities like Pinehurst, demographics skew more elderly: 24 percent of Moore County’s residents are seniors; that’s twice the percentage living in Wake or Mecklenburg Counties and five percent higher than Florida, America’s grayest state.
Odds are older folks currently experiencing mild hearing difficulty will eventually develop serious hearing disability. Whether or not misery loves company, they’ll commiserate in droves.
If technology existed that allowed gathering places of any size—from individual meeting rooms to immersive meccas — to guarantee patrons a phenomenally precise aural experience, Pinehurst would seem just the place where the powers-that-be would prioritize it.
Actually, technology already achieves this. It’s collectively scalable and subjectively unassailable. Unfortunately, it’s only very selectively available here in Moore County. Prominently,
he Sunrise Theatre’s 2019 renovation installed an assistive listening system (colloquially called a “hearing loop,” technically referred to as an Audio Frequency Induction Loop System, or AFILS).
Recently, Pinehurst UMC retrofitted its entire sanctuary this spring with a hearing loop.
The gist: hearing loops accommodate nearly perfect listening that’s proven, simple, reliable, flexible, hygienic, affordable, ADA-compliant and always “on.” Anyone who wears almost any hearing aid, has cochlear implants, or uses an updated iPhone can quickly hear clearly in a looped facility.
People without can borrow a headset (or earbuds) for enhanced sound.
According to Pinehurst UMC’s Senior Pastor, Rev. Dr. Jabe Largen, installing the hearing loop “…became a must do kind of thing … (because) many among us … struggle to hear clearly…. Considering their needs … aid(s) in the restoration of their wholeness.”
“Pinehurst UMC will regard the project …success(ful),” Largen emphasized, “if just one individual feels more connected to the church …” because that special someone becomes “… excited to hear our music and … ministries with a volume and vibrance that they have never…” previously experienced.
After several weeks’ superior looped experiences, it’s clear Pinehurst UMC has addressed hearing loss resoundingly successfully, offering its game-changing hearing loop for those seeking refuge in Pinehurst UMC’s sanctuary.
Excerpted from chapter entitled, “Loop de Grace,” from Andy Fox’s forthcoming book about Pinehurst United Methodist Church, available later this summer.