University of Ottawa thank George Shields and the Harmonize for Speech on May 7th, 2024 to help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of their Health Sciences Faculty of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Program.

Dean van Lieshout, Professor Martino, Lynn Ellwood, to all of the Teaching staff, student support personnel, but most importantly the new and returning SLP students. I bring you greetings from the Board of Trustees of the Harmonize for Speech Fund which is involved in the SLP Masters program in several ways. We are proud to support you by raising funds from our hobby and obsession, that of making music through 4 part acapella singing in the Barbershop Style. Our motto is “We Sing That They Shall Speak” and you in part, are the beneficiaries of us having an enormous amount of fun! So, I thank you all for providing us with a reason to keep on singing! I must also recognize George Shields who is with us on the call. George is the Founder of Harmonize for Speech Fund. He has run many a mile to raise money to support communications challenged people, but he is getting on a bit these days so now we support the Fund by paying for George NOT to run. This is a particularly pleasing moment because while every single one of you has done remarkably well and achieved success in your undergraduate studies, you have taken the serious steps to enter a Masters program, some in your 1st year and some in your 2nd. This in turn means you will become vital members of our society as clinicians. I have quite a good idea of just what that means. My daughter-in-law is a graduate of this program and in addition to giving me two beautiful granddaughters, is still working full time as an SLP. I even get roped in from time to time to assist in her clinics. I am only sorry that we can’t all be in the same room for me to personally present some of you with your scholarships. Covid has affected all of us in many different ways. From day 1, singing has been recognized as a super-spreader activity and so for almost two years, we have done no singing at all. For years, George would bring a quartet and sing something for you. But that is not so easy to arrange in these strange times. My chorus, the Toronto Northern Lights got to sing in public a few weeks ago for the first time in two years, just before the Omicron variant hove into view. Given the recent inclement weather, I thought it might be appropriate to share with you a single song from that show . . . . “Let It Snow!”