Early on in my career at the Glasgow Daily Times, it was strongly suggested by my boss, the late Carroll Knicely, that I needed to be a member of Travelers Protection Association (TPA).

Needless to say, I followed that suggestion and have been a member of Post B for nearly 50 years. Knicely was a strong supporter of TPA, served in a number of important positions including national president and national director. He attended many national conventions, often accompanied by associates at the newspaper including Harold Spear and the late Clyde Harlow. They visited a number of the nation’s premier cities for these conventions and the Kentucky Post has always been one of the strongest in the nation.

Then it would come as no surprise to longtime TPA’ers that Thursday’s paper included reports on recent activities of Post B. TPA is still a strong organization, active in community affairs and host of the annual ham dinner at the Cave City Convention Center.

This year’s national convention was held in Charleston, South Carolina, and Post B. was represented by Leonard and Pat Kingrey.

TPA always has a national project to which each post contributes. At this year’s convention, delegates heard about the TPA Scholarship Fund for the hearing impaired which helped 246 young people. Two of these young people were featured in the September 2008 edition of the TPA Travelers, the national magazine of TPA. They were 5-year old Sebastian Conlon and 24-year old Jade Mitchell.

Sebastian suffers for LDAS, a progressive and incurable vascular disease which has resulted in the loss of 65 percent of his hearing in one ear and 10 percent in the other. He will eventually have hearing aids replaced by cochlear implants. He had to wait six months to get hearing aids simply because his family couldn’t afford them. With funds from the TPA Scholarship Trust Fund, he was able to get the help he desperately needed. He’s made tremendous progress since receiving the hearing aids and he and his father Jon attended the national convention.

Jade has been deaf since the age of 5, but her malady was not discovered until three years later because she had learned on her own to read lips. After hearing aids proved of no help, she received cochlear implants which greatly improved her condition. But two years ago, she suffered a stroke and it was then learned that she has melas, a mitochondrial disease which is also incurable. She had her implants removed in order to have the MRIs she needed. She also became legally blind and for nearly two years, she could neither hear or see.

But with funds from TPA, she has been able to have the implants repaired and she can now hear again. She and her grandmother also attended the national convention.

Pat Kingrey said is was inspirational to meet these two young people and to realize that you are helping them through your fundraising efforts through TPA.

The Kingreys hope to be able to attend next year’s national convention in St. Louis in June.