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.  The Foundation has facilitated nearly $600,000 in donations from the Scottish Rite.  These gifts have helped children with speech and language disorders, uninsured families and RU graduate students in the speech-language pathology program.

“In most cases, this outreach would not be possible without private support.  It is apparent that the Scottish Rite and its many members have had a major influence on numerous Radford University programs,” said President Kyle.

(In the photo: President Penelope W. Kyle and Scottish Rite Sovereign Grand Inspector General James Cole celebrate the Radford University and Scottish Rite partnership in front of RU Clinics Mobile Health Unit.)

Children aged three to eight years and their graduate student clinicians, who are Scottish Rite scholarship recipients, demonstrated some of the activities they learned from and enjoyed during the Rite Care Summer Language Clinic that ran from Monday, June 13 to Tuesday, July 12.  Scottish Rite members saw and heard first hand from parents and clinic staff about how their generosity has helped children learn to communicate better.

Scottish Rite donations have supported programs including a clinician for the annual Rite Care Summer Language Clinic for children, Scottish Rite student fellowships, Mobile Health Unit outreach programs, an international research and medical mission through Operation Smile for graduate students who help children with cleft lip and palate, the newly formed autism center,  books and supplies for the Arney Dalton Children’s Language Room named after the late Scottish Rite Secretary of the Roanoke Lodge of Perfection and a pirate ship-shaped therapeutic recreation area located outside of Waldron Hall.

The Scottish Rite was recognized as the RU Foundation Partner of the Year in 1996 and has continued to generously support RU initiatives in communication sciences and disorders.

RU’s department of communication sciences and disorders has a nationally recognized graduate program accredited by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.  For the past 30 years, the department’s faculty and students have provided state-of-the-art speech-language and hearing services to clients from across Virginia.

To learn more about how you can support RU outreach initiatives, contact the RU Foundation at (540) 831-5108.

In the photo below: Speech-language pathology graduate students and Scottish Rite Fellows conduct activities during the summer clinic for children with speech and hearing disorders.