Going Into The New Year With New Hearing

Eloise Green, Joyce Collins, and Dr. Larry Otwell

A Christmas miracle brought one local senior citizen into the new year with new hearing ability. Ms. Joyce Collins is an area resident who enjoys spending her days at the Jackson County Senior Citizen – Graceville Lodge. While she enjoys the company of the other visitors and the employees, she had dealt with very little hearing ability for many years. That all changed on Friday, December 20 when Graceville High School 1971 graduate Dr. Larry Otwell gifted Ms. Collins with a brand-new hearing aid with the most updated technology.

Dr. Larry Otwell called Graceville home as teen, after graduating from GHS he attended college at Chipola Jr. College as well as Florida State University graduating with his M.S. in 1978. He then began work in Alaska before returning to Panama City as an Audiologist. He would eventually find his way back to Jackson County opening up Hometown Hearing Care in Marianna.

Last year, Dr. Otwell began his mission with giving the gift of hearing for Christmas with a Washington County resident. He commented, “We just came up with the idea that we wanted to give back to our community because they are good to us.” This year, Dr. Otwell’s practice provided two hearing aid giveaways, one for a Washington County resident and the other for a Jackson County resident. Chosen to be two of our at least ten other applicants, Dr. Otwell spoke about the letter sent in on Ms. Collins’ behalf stating, “It was such a nice letter”.

Information on the giveaway is placed in local papers and employee at Jackson County Senior Citizen’s Graceville branch Eloise Green felt her heartstrings tug when she read about the giveaway in The Graceville News. When asked why she decided to take the time to write a letter on why Ms. Collins needed the hearing aids, Green commented, “I love her, and I know what a hard time she has. She has such a hard time in life not being able to hear.”

Just a few short weeks ago, Mrs. Green had the opportunity to pull Ms. Collins to the side during one of the senior days and give her the good news. Ms. Collins commented, “it was a big surprise.” Mrs. Green added, “It’s exciting to me to know that she will be able to hear something.”

On Friday December 20, Dr. Larry Otwell made his way to Graceville where he gifted Ms. Joyce Collins with a hearing aid. He spoke briefly on the hearing aid noting that his business partners with Starkey whose mission is to help the world hear, noting the company is known for having the most technologically advanced hearing aids on the market. He also spoke about Ms. Collins situation and how the new hearing aid will help her noting that she had a hearing aid but it was extremely old and “obviously this technology is so much better and we were able to get her the newest technology.” He noted that she was dealing with issues of background noise and with the newest technology she will be able to actually change the “channel” on her hearing aid to help reduce background noise and a remote control to help her manipulate the hearing aid as needed.

Dr. Larry Otwell’s practice Hometown Hearing Care is located at 4297 3rd Avenue in Marianna. His office assists with hearing issues from newborn screenings to geriatrics. He is also available at the Northwest Florida Community Hospital every other Thursday. Starkey Hearing Technologies is a Hearing Aid Company that is based out of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. They are one of the largest hearing aid manufacturers in the world.

When asked how it feels to know that he was able to give Ms. Collins the gift of hearing going into 2025, Dr. Otwell stated, “This is my home, basically my home county, I graduated here. So, this makes me feel real good to help people locally.” When asked what her plans were for 2025 Ms. Joyce Collins happily noted that she planned on going to hear an Elvis Impersonator with the ability to hear him and not just watch him.

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