Extraordinary Gifts
A Wild New Welcome
WINTER 2010
UNC Cochlear
Implant
Picnic!
WHEN:
April 24th, 2010
11 to 2 PM
WHERE:
UNC-CH Campus
Kenan-Flagler Business
School Courtyard
WHO:
Bring your family to join
both the UNC Adult and
Pediatric Cochlear
Implant teams
RSVP:
www.med.unc.edu/earandhearing/rsvp
create a new, permanent endow-
ment
for CASTLE. The
Barnhardt family has supported
UNC in various ways for nearly
a decade.
“Traditionally,
the NCFI/
Barnhardt Foundation had the
philosophy of trying
to give a little bit to
a lot of people, in-
stead of focusing on
large gifts. But we
began
looking at
opportunities where
we can make a lar-
ger impact and this
was a great opportu-
nity for us to take a
first step in that
direction,”
says
Lewis.
Called
the NCFI/
Barnhardt Directorship Endow-
ment, it is the CASTLE pro-
gram’s first endowment. Payout
from the endowment will be
used to provide financial sup-
port to the CASTLE program,
a s
w e l
l
a s
Story continued on page 3
In 1993, Kim and Lewis
Barnhardt of Charlotte, NC,
learned their infant daughter
Betsy was profoundly deaf.
Like all parents, they immedi-
ately sought to do whatever
they could to help her lead a
normal life.
“We were opening
every door to try to
find a
solution,”
says Lewis. During
their
search
for
answers, they dis-
covered
the
co-
chlear implant team
at UNC
through
resources
in
the
Charlotte
area.
“Since it was closer
than the other op-
tions we explored,
we began looking into what
UNC could do for Betsy.”
The Barnhardts brought Betsy
to UNC Hospitals’ Department
of Otolaryngology/Head and
Neck Surgery, where Betsy
would receive a cochlear im-
plant one week after her second
birthday.
With
support
from
the
W. Paul Biggers Carolina
Children’s Communicative
Disorders Program (CCCDP)
at UNC and
specialized
speech therapy, Betsy, now
16, is a mainstreamed student
and a multi-sport athlete at her
high school in Charlotte.
Last year, t