Profile By Robyn Bouillon Photography by Bill Stokes Michelle Tjelmeland Wired for Sound I Springfield Scene Magazine Tenth Anniversary Issue/Nov/Dec 2014 n a second story room on MacArthur Boulevard, a half dozen chattering, laughing lady “elves” are carefully dabbing colorful designs onto large burlap Christmas stockings, while they conduct a lively debate on the merits of a popular TV show. They are clearly having a wonderful time. “I kept thinking of all the I was going to let this disability overcome people that could benefit me,” she says. “I determined to show Ellie that she was going to be okay, with or from the implants.” without hearing.” “My husband Joel and I had only been married a year,” she recalls. “I was a teacher for District 186, but due to a difficult pregnancy I was confined to bed rest. Ellie was born three months premature and totally deaf. There was no history of deafness in my family, and doctors never identified a cause. It was a traumatic year, to say the least.” She and Joel decided that she and Ellie would both undergo Cochlear Implant surgery, a procedure known for good results for young children and recent hearing losses like Michelle’s. Cochlear implants incorporate a complex external hearing device that is magnetically connected to a receiver and stimulator implanted in bone beneath the ear. The removable earpiece fits over the ear and is barely noticeable. The women are part of an army of volunteers that devote countless hours year round to fundraisers for the Cochlear Implant Awareness Foundation (CIAF); on this night, “Socks for Sounds.” As CIAF’s founder, a vivacious woman In typical fashion, Michelle put on a good named Michelle Tjelmeland (pronounced face, seeming to easily adjust to a world “Chum-Land”) walks past, one calls out, without sound. Inside, she was shattered. “We love you, Michelle!” “Even my wonderful husband had no “Love you too!” she returns. idea how deeply it affected me,” she says. “I was really good at hiding it.” For Michelle, the cause is intensely personal. Both she and her older daughter, The defining moment came when Ellie Ellie, are implant recipients. was about seven months old. Ellie had surgery in 1999, with Michelle’s the following year. Instead of returning to teaching, Michelle earned a master’s degree in computer technology and education at the U of I-Champaign and started a successful web and graphic business, e-websmart. She and Joel had a second daughter, Lucy. But despite these Michelle’s hearing loss began in her teens. “I was holding her and lying on the blessings, it wasn’t enough. By the time she entered college, she was kitchen floor, bawling my eyes out. I was wearing hearing aids. In 1997, at age 25, a mess. I remember thinking that I was “I kept thinking of all the people that she totally lost her hearing. either going to do what God intended, or could benefit from the implants, if they 15