William F. Austin, Founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation, Receives Prestigious UST Golden Cross Award

MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 30, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Starkey Hearing Foundation is pleased to announce that founder Mr. William F. Austin, has been honored with the UST Golden Cross Award from University of Santo Tomas (UST), the Catholic University of the Philippines. The award was presented to Austin at a special convocation at UST on Friday, November 27.

Austin was honored with UST Golden Cross Award for his tireless efforts to reflect caring and use hearing as a vehicle to change lives. Guided by his mission So the World May Hear, Austin works with his team at Starkey Hearing Foundation to build sustainable systems of hearing healthcare around the world and provides 200,000 hearing aids annually to children and adults in need. To date, Starkey Hearing Foundation has provided more than 1.8 million hearing aids to people in more than 100 countries. Austin and the Foundation team are currently in the Philippines providing free hearing aids and hearing healthcare to more than 9,000 Filipinos over the course of three weeks.

"I'm extremely honored to receive the UST Golden Cross Award," Austin said. "I'm also very humbled, as I consider it a blessing to be able to share the gift of hearing with people in the Philippines and other countries around the world. I am deeply moved by how people—even if they don't speak the same language—embrace the chance to share kindness, empathy and generosity. We feel very blessed to be able to do this work."

The UST Golden Cross Award is the highest award granted by the university. It is given to individuals who excel in the promotion of the arts, humanities, and sciences, or have distinguished themselves by their total commitment to the service of humankind. Past recipients of the UST Golden Cross Award include His Majesty King Juan Carlos I of Spain and H.E. Madame Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, among other leaders and dignitaries.
 
About Starkey Hearing Foundation

Starkey Hearing Foundation uses hearing as a vehicle to reflect caring and change lives around the world. Disabling hearing loss affects more than 360 million people, including 32 million children, worldwide, yet many do not have access to the hearing devices that can help them. Starkey Hearing Foundation has pledged to provide more than one million hearing aids to people in need this decade and currently gives more than 200,000 hearing aids annually. Starkey Hearing Foundation also promotes hearing health awareness and education through the Listen Carefully campaign and provides hearing instruments to low-income Americans through the Hear Now program. Started as the philanthropic effort of Starkey Hearing Technologies, Starkey Hearing Foundation was founded by William F. Austin in 1984. For more information on Starkey Hearing Foundation follow them on Facebook and Twitter, or visit www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org.

A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=37879