Hear the Cheers campaign helps provide hearing aids for kids

April 21, 2013 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A Chicago-area sixth grader who is hearing impaired understands the benefits of wearing hearing aids and wants to help other children have the same opportunity.

Eliza Peters, 12, is a young athlete who knows the importance of being able to hear when playing sports. She helped create "Hear the Cheers" a fundraising campaign that focuses on getting hearing aids for young female athletes.

"Because hearing aids aren't covered by insurance, and I wanted to bring awareness to it and give people the chance to hear," the girl said. "Some people can't because they don't have enough money."

Eliza Peters is a student at Geneva Middle School North.

"I like to play basketball and dance and golf in the summers," she said. "I don't like getting up sometimes in the morning. It's not the best part of it, but I like to come to school to see my friends."

Earlier this year, Eliza and ESPN radio personality Sarah Spain partnered with Chicago Hearing Society to start "Hear the Cheers," using social media as a method to campaign.

"I started in December or January, and it went for two weeks, and then we raised $18,000," Eliza said. "We're still getting donations from some things, like, I was asked to speak at the Lions club and they gave a donation to it."

Eliza's hearing itinerate teacher Sharon Jenkins is not surprise Eliza is doing this.

" She's never been afraid to stand up in front of a class and talk about her hearing loss or her hearing aids and advocate for herself. So, it doesn't surprise me now that she wants to advocate for other kids, too" Jenkins said.

Eliza's mom, Amber, explains how they came up with the campaign slogan.

"We chose Hear the Cheers because when Eliza comes off the court or comes off the cross country course, she can hear the cheers because of her hearing aids," the mom said.

This is just the beginning for Eliza.

"I really want to do it again next year," she said. "I want to do sports broadcasting&because I really just like to play sports, and I want to do broadcasting."

To learn more about the Hear the Cheers campaign go to www.chicagohearingsociety.org

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