On August 2, 2019 we hosted the New Jersey Microtia Meet & Greet at the Summit Speech School in New Providence. I presented on Porous Implant Ear Reconstruction surgery and had Individual Patient Appointments with both pre- and post-op families. Several patients had their non-microtia ears 3D scanned for a future surgery. Our Patient Care Coordinators, Larrissa and Sharyn, gave Insurance Overview informational sessions and also met individually with families to discuss their specific plans and coverage. In addition, we had TEN post-op families that volunteered to sit on the Patient Panel for a Q&A session.
Despite some chaotic weather related travels getting to New Jersey, the event was a great success! It was so much fun to see both old and new faces (and ears, of course!). On the way to the airport we stopped by the Ear Community picnic at a beautiful pavilion park area in West Orange, New Jersey to meet additional microtia families and vendors. We LOVED seeing families in their green Route 66 New Jersey Microtia Meet & Greet shirts from our event the day prior, as well as our t-shirts from our prior conferences in New York ~ that was an unexpected yet fun surprise.
Checkout our New Jersey Microtia Meet & Greet wrap-up video:
Post survey says:
“Hearing from other (post-op) people was incredible.”
“Dr. Lewin’s knowledge about Microtia and reconstruction surgery is amazing! Her presentation was exactly what I needed my mom and mother-n-law to hear!”
“This was so informative and exactly what I needed to hear in person before starting my Dr. Lewin reconstruction journey.”
“My favorite part was meeting Dr. Lewin and her incredible staff! Meeting in person is invaluable and makes things much easier to proceed with the reconstruction surgery.”
100% of attendees said they would recommend a Microtia Meet & Greet event to another family!
We would like to thank the following for making our NJ Microtia Meet & Greet a great event:
- Mary Baumont, Nancy Schumann Summit Speech School for their event coordination and the many volunteers that helped throughout the day
- Davin Cedeno with CochlearAmericas for educating families about Baha technology
- Patient Panel families (Campeas, Goleniak, Kellam, Massa, Matteson, Nadeau-Frye, Pacifico, Sides, Strehle, Wilke) for sharing their surgical journeys
- Elise Garfinkel (Dexter’s mom) for being our local Uber driver and go-to gal, as well as for donating handcrafted Nemo bags for all attendees
- Debbie & Frank Butera of Butera Design for event logo and website registration
- Joe Loizzo of Kollege Town for t-shirts
- Sam the Balloon Man for his incredible artistry during our event (samtheballoonman@gmail.com)
- Our onsite team (Larrissa, Sharyn, Tiffany) and our team at the office (Julie, Kim, Maribel, Veronica) for their event help and preparation, and my husband John for joining in on the fun
- Sofi’s Color Lounge for some much needed hair beautification
- Hilton Short Hills for their “15 minutes from everything” location
- Waiter Luis at Roots Steakhouse for providing excellent service (we are still dreaming of the key lime pie)
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, until one has dined well” ~ Virginia Woolf
Although the Short Hills-Summit-New Providence area was gorgeous (and happens to have one of the top 5 ranked shopping malls in the country), we were most impressed with the delicious food! Nummmmy!