Braden Baker

Background

Braden Baker was diagnosed with a hearing condition that affects the inner ear, making it hard to hear soft and sometimes even loud noises. From a very young age, he required external help to hear clearly. That help came in the form of hearing aids when he was just three months old. Ashley admits that the aid helped ease his development tremendously. At six months, Baker was enrolled in speech therapy, and after a few years, he had no speech delays and was talking just like his peers. In school, his teachers would use an F.M. system to make sure he never missed a thing, making it easy for him to learn at the same pace as his classmates.

The small family of four owns a cute Shih Tzu dog called Chewy. Early in 2017, Baker fell ill and was laying down with his hearing aids put aside, when Chewy ate them! This unfortunate predicament led to a lengthy talk about the responsibility and value of money. The parents sat their son down to explain how expensive hearing aids were, how lucky he was to have them, and that he had never had to go without them for long. They also pointed out what a blessing it was that they could afford hearing aids and how so many children in the world were without that privilege. You would think that would have been enough to make the then 10-year-old more cautious and responsible, but a couple of months later, Chewy struck again. In March of the same year, Baker left his hearing aids lying around carelessly, and Chewy ate them again. This second incident could not go over his parents’ heads, and this time, the disciplinary talk came in full force, adding the fact that insurance did not cover hearing aids, and a pair could cost as much as $6,000. Luckily enough, that particular device was covered under its warranty, and this talk hit the right spot with the young boy. Baker was saddened by the thought of other kids not being able to afford hearing aids, and he took it upon himself to act.

He already loved making videos with his older brother, so he used that to create a campaign video for his newly formed GoFundMe page to raise money for hearing aids for the needy, specifically for his hearing aid brand’s Oticon Hearing Foundation. The video was shared on his mom’s Facebook page, and the response was incredible. They were able to surpass their initial goal of $1,000 and make a total of $15,000 toward the campaign, and that was just the starting point. Since then, Baker has gone on to become a full-blown child activist, continually making more videos, appearances on T.V. shows like “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “TEDx Talks,” and becoming an ambassador for organizations like Hearing The Call and Fort Worth ISD.