Free ear plugs are distributed at each nut sale and by members to individual customers. Ear plugs have also been shared at some community events - at air shows and events involving motorcycles or fireworks, etc. If anyone has any ideas of an event that would benefit from this free ear plugs, please email us at quoteofthecedarvalley@gmail.com.
This committee also sponsors scholarships for students who are hearing impaired or for college students majoring in a speech and hearing field. The scholarship applications are mailed to local colleges and high schools at the first of each year. The scholarship requires a good grade point, an essay and a recommendation from a professor.
The scholarships are traditionally in the amounts of $500 to $2000 each. The committee receives the paperwork and reviews each students' paperwork. A vote is then taken on each student, an amount of a scholarship is decided and these decisions are presented to the entire club for a vote. After the students are approved, each student is notified and pictures are taken of each receiving their scholarship. The scholarship monies are sent to the colleges's financial office. The pictures are shared on Facebook, on this website and in the local newspaper. In 2020, 10 scholarships totally $10,000 were presented to UNI students.
This committee also helped sponsor a dog from Deafinitely Dogs, a Cedar Rapids center which trains dogs for various clients including deaf clients, autistic clients, clients suffering from PTSD, and other medical conditions. A donation made from the family of a former committee member, Doreen Entz, was combined with a committee donation ($5000) to sponsor a dog named Dorrie. Quota had previously donated $1000 to Deafinitely Dogs for general funds to help sponsor the dogs.
Quota Club of Waterloo upgraded the hearing assistance system at the Waterloo Community Playhouse/Black Hawk Children's Theater to make the performing arts accessible for more individuals. The club's gift allowed patrons to check out hearing assistance devices to improve the noise to sound ratio and bring sound to the listener without interference or loss of intelligibility. The new system benefits patrons with some residual hearing. In America, approximately eight percent of the population has hearing loss.
