President Kyle and RU Foundation Thank Scottish Rite for
Continued Support; New Scholarship Announced

RADFORD -- President Penelope W. Kyle and the Radford University Foundation hosted a luncheon to thank the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for its generous support of RU’s Summer Language Clinic and other outreach and scholarship programs within the Waldron College of Health and Human Services. These gifts have helped children with speech and language disorders and RU graduate students in the speech-language pathology program.

President Kyle said this partnership between RU and the Scottish Rite makes a life-long impact on the children receiving therapy and RU students.  "Thank you for giving us the opportunity to help so many of these young children, plus offering our students experiences that will help them make a difference in their future career as speech-language pathologists," said Kyle.

The theme of the 2006 RiteCare Clinic was Reading Through the Seasons with Curious George and explored the past, present, and future. “Children with language difficulties often are challenged by time concepts,” explains RU Scottish Rite clinician, Patricia Rossi, who directs the RiteCare Clinic. Children enrolled in the clinic attended therapy two days a week for two hours with RU graduate students who are Scottish Rite scholarship recipients.

"This was a very intense five weeks," says Scottish Rite scholarship recipient and speech-language pathology graduate student Katie Woods.  "This camp forces you to think on a creative level so that the children don't realize they are receiving therapy.  They think they are just having fun," says Woods.

Parents and grandparents of the children receiving therapy through the clinic told the Scottish Rite about the progress their children have made through the summer clinic.  8 year-old Samantha who is diagnosed with agenesis of the corpus callosum, a complicated brain disorder that affects the amount of nerve endings connected between the right and left hemisphere of the brain, has been receiving therapy at the Radford University Speech and Hearing Clinic for the past four years.  Her mother, Josephine Allen, sees a marked difference in her daughter after each summer clinic.  Four years ago, Samantha "could indicate no and yes by shaking her head appropriately," says Allen.  "Now, Samantha can sound out almost all the letters of the alphabet and say about 20 words including Samantha, come on, and go.  It is rough, but she is doing a fine job of trying."

"This truly is a relationship that benefits Radford University, and especially benefits these families," said Kyle.

During the luncheon, James Cole, the Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Virginia for the Scottish Rite Masons, announced a new scholarship created by Scottish Rite member George Dewese, his wife Matsue and the Scottish Rite of Virginia.  The Matsue Yamazaki Dewese Scottish Rite Endowment will fund an annual $5,000 graduate internship/fellowship in the Speech and Hearing Clinic in addition to the current level of support of $15,000 provided by the Scottish Rite of Virginia.  The scholarship will be awarded to a speech-language pathology graduate student this fall. 

The Deweses previously created three endowments through the RU Foundation: the Dewese Scottish Rite Endowment Fund to benefit a speech-language pathology graduate student working in the RU Clinics, the George E. and Matsue Scottish Rite Endowment Fund to benefit an Auburn High School or Eastern Montgomery High School student enrolling in RU, Ninevah and Daisy Moss Dewese Scottish Rite Endowment Fund to benefit a student from Covington High School or Alleghany High School enrolling in RU.

In addition, the Dewese's donated 270 acres of property in Shawsville for the creation of the George E. and Matsue Y. Dewese Scottish Rite Biological Preserve for use by the university.

Cole thanked all of the Scottish members for their dedication to helping these children through the endowment of scholarships and volunteering of their time.  "We're all given time, but you know something, that is a gift we received.  But what we do with it is our gift to others," said Cole.  "I encourage you to use a few ticks of the clock to do something beyond ourselves."