Celebrity attendees at the 2018 Starkey Hearing Foundation Gala

Many celebrities were invited to the event to show their support of the foundation. They included actor Forest Whitaker, musicians Alice Cooper, Robbie Krieger and Don Felder, and comedians Billy Crystal and Sinbad. Former US President Bill Clinton was a guest speaker.

“Most of us are here because we think — among other things — that we are better off doing something good for somebody else than tearing them down,” Clinton said in his speech. “We believe in holding hands and taking a flying leap of faith instead of trying to drive people apart.” Incidentally, Clinton was wearing his own set of Starkey hearing aids, reports the TwinCities Pioneer Press.

Clinton highlighted that 80% of the people who suffer from hearing issues live in places that are not sufficiently well developed economically to provide hearing aids. Many of those affected in these countries are children.

Starkey Foundation Founders Bill Austin and his wife Tani Austin have worked with Bill Clinton on humanitarian initiatives for some time. Clinton inspired the foundation to increase its target of 50,000 hearing aids a year. Austin upped the goal to give away one million hearing aids by 2020. Three years early, the million mark was reached.

Source: TwinCities Pioneer Press