Denise Kapsa

Denise Kapsa574/237-7242

"He calls about 30 clients to make sure they're up and have taken their medication," Saint Joseph Medical Center's volunteer coordinator Denise Kapsa said.

Denise Kapsa couldn't wait to let her hair grow down her neck and over her ears in high school.

"I was so happy that was the style back then," Denise says.

Her long locks would cover her hearing aids that way.

She loved what those new-fangled hearing aids could do.Oh, but she hated how they looked.

A South Bend native, Denise was born in 1951 profoundly deaf -- with an 85 percent to 90 percent loss of hearing.

"I did not hear during the first seven years of my life," she admits.

Nobody quite knew what she was thinking ... how she was coping ... where she was going to fit in.

"But my parents (the late Bill and Alice Kapsa) worked so hard with me," Denise says."They helped me form my lips, worked on my sounds and taught me never to give up."

Then as a 7-year-old, she was hooked up with hearing aids -- with wires running down to the transistor held in a cloth harness around her waist.

"Oh, I was teased, but I could hear," she says.

And achieve.

She wasn't going to listen to any negative talk.

"In some ways, I look at my hearing loss as a blessing," Denise admits."I know it has allowed me to relate with other people with problems -- especially the underdogs."

She can certainly share her own success story.

After graduating from IUSB and after 22 years in retail management with J.C. Penney Co., Denise has been the volunteer director at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center since 1999.

An avid volunteer herself, Denise recently was honored as the second-place national finisher in the 2005 Oticon Focus on People Awards, given to those who are hearing impaired and who have made key contributions to their community.The local sponsor of the award is Darr & Associates.

One of her prizes is a $500 check.

"I'm not sure what I will do with that," Denise says.

There was a time in her life when some people might have wondered if she would ever be able to count that high.

"Because I couldn't hear and couldn't talk when I was young, some people assumed I was mentally challenged," he says.
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Denise remembers when Sister Nazareth at St. Casimer's School would work extra hard with her, sending her into the cloak room and then having other students shout out a word to see if Denise could hear it.So many others have helped her along the way, too.

And now she is the one who does the helping.

"Denise is tops," says Tim Sexton, the hospital's vice president of community development.
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Denise herself volunteers at St. Margaret's House and serves as a mentor at her brother's Jefferson school.

Of course, her hearing aids can only do so much.

"The phone is not my buddy, and sometimes I have to tell people to slow down because of my hearing loss," she says."Men with mustaches and beards can also be tough when I am trying to watch their lips."

Denise makes sure to chart out the best place to sit in a room when several people will be talking.

"If people don't know about my hearing, that's great," she says."Regardless, I am always working hard (at listening)."

She still wears her hearing aids under her hair.

"At some point, hearing aids need to be as fashionable as glasses," she says with a smile.

At bedtime, she takes them out and uses a strobe light for an alarm.

But then there is her 12-year-old beagle, Abby, who isn't going to let her sleep in, either.

"They always talk about people like me developing a sixth sense," she says.