Born with bilateral hearing loss, Isaiah Harvey said he once was “scolded” by a teacher when he couldn’t hear a fire alarm.
“At first, I didn’t think much about it,” he said.
Over time, it motivated him to start a nonprofit, Quantum Visionary Foundation, he said. It aims to “create safe spaces” for other kids with hearing loss, his mother Janell Harvey said. The organization, formally established in May, will be honored Saturday as the Gary RailCats’ Wintrust Non-Profit of the Night.
A new initiative started this season, it was created to put a spotlight on local nonprofits, RailCats General Manager Anthony Giammanco said in an email.
“We wanted to give non-profits the opportunity to come out to a baseball game and share information on the work they are doing and how people could get involved with them,” he wrote.
Isaiah, 17, a Merrillville High School senior, will throw out the first pitch before the game. They will also have flyers to pass out with more information, said Janell, a Bishop Noll marketing teacher and nonprofit consultant.
As part of its mission, Isaiah is currently working to design a safety watch that would vibrate and flash lights, for example, if there was a fire or potential carbon monoxide poisoning, he said.
He also gives after school talks, including hands-on science experiments for kids with disabilities and works with groups, including a local church to promote disability awareness. They have gotten $3,000 in grants that helped them apply for its nonprofit status and will help with future programming, Janell said.
After high school, he hopes to study mechanical or biomedical engineering.
He first got interested in engineering as a child when he saw an “Iron Man” movie when he made his “suit with a bunch of scraps.”
“I want to do something like that, too,” Isaiah said, recalling his thinking.
Find more information at quantumvisionaryfdn.org or on Instagram at @signal_safe2.0.
Interested nonprofits can apply at the RailCats website: https://railcatsbaseball.com/fan_zone/wintrust-non-profit-of-the-night/.
