Students in Durham College’s (DC) Communicative Disorders Assistant (CDA) graduate certificate program will benefit from a $50,000 donation, contributed over the next five years, made by Harmonize for Speech (H4S), an official charity of the Ontario District of the Barbershop Harmony Society International. To recognize this generous gift, the program’s lab has been named in their honour the Harmonize for Speech Communicative Disorders Lab.

On November 8, members of the Ontario District including three members of the H4S 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.

During their visit, members of H4S and the Last Call quartet also 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.

“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, H4S 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 H4S will contribute to the purchase of assistive technologies and tools that will enhance therapeutic outcomes and equip students with crucial hands-on experience. Equipment purchased through this donation allows students to create communication aids such as visual schedules and 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,” said 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.”