Students in Durham College’s (DC) Communicative Disorders Assistant (CDA) graduate certificate program will benefit from a $50,000 donation made by Harmonize for Speech, the charitable arm of the Ontario District of the Barbershop Harmony Society International. To recognize this generous gift, the program’s lab has been renamed in their honour to the Harmonize for Speech Communicative Disorders Lab.
On November 9, members of Harmonize for Speech visited the college’s Oshawa campus to celebrate the naming of the lab and hear from faculty and students in the CDA program about the impact their gift has made to students’ education and to the clients of the program’s Kids Speech Clinic.
“The support for Harmonize for Speech will enhance our ability to provide essential services to young clients in need,” said Gillian Dunn, Associate Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences. “The Kids Speech Clinic has been an important part of the CDA program since 2018, helping to meet the needs of children in our community with speech while providing our students with invaluable experiential learning opportunities.”
Founded in 1977, Harmonize for Speech provides funds and support for Ontario children and adults to improve their ability to communicate. In addition to directly supporting the Kids Speech Clinic, funds provided by Harmonize for Speech will contribute to the purchase of assistive technologies and tools that will enhance therapeutic students to create communication aids such as visual schedules, communication and choice boards. Funds will also contribute to procuring an Anatomage 3D digital anatomy visualization and virtual dissection system.
“Our number one goal as a charity is to see that individuals with communicative disorders receive the help they need,” explained Jim Finlay, Co-chair of the Harmonize for Speech Fund. “We believe that if we see to it that more people are well trained to work with them, the better chance they have of receiving the services they require.”
The Ontario District of the Barbershop Harmony Society has 23 chapters across the province made up of men and women who sing four-part harmony in the barbershop style in choruses and quartets. The Fund is administered by a seven-member Board of Trustees from across the province.
During their visit, members of Harmonize for Speech and the Last Call quartet treated attendees to a performance, which included their theme songs We Sing That They Shall Speak and Keep the Whole World Singing – and even engaged students in a brief singing tutorial.
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 […]
Tour de Four sang at the University of Ottawa on May 7th, 2024 to help them celebrate the 30th Anniversary of their Health Sciences Faculty Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Program. Tour de Four is a registered quartet of the Ontario District of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Harmonize for Speech (H4S) continues to Support the University […]
The Board Trustees of Harmonize for Speech (BOT of H4S) would like to thank the Kitchener/Waterloo Chapter of the Ontario District of the Barbershop Harmony Society for once again hosting an incredible fundraising event known as “Dawg House Night” at the Portuguese Club in Kitchener. This is an annual event and funds raised are donated […]
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