If anyone ever needed general evidence of the positive impact of Radford’s RiteCare
Clinic Summer Camp, they only had to walk past the entrance of Kyle Hall’s third-floor
conference room at about noon on June 27.
On that day, the expansive wood-walled chamber – a frequent venue for board meetings,
visiting lecturers and job fairs – was filled instead with the sounds of children
laughing, playing and chattering.
The joyful noise stood to reason because it was coming from a celebration, one that
both marked the conclusion of another RiteCare camp, now in its 29th year at the university,
and commemorated the more than three-decade partnership between Radford’s Speech-Language-Hearing
Clinic and the Scottish Rite Masons of Virginia.
The Scottish Rite Masons provide financial support for the five-week day camps, which
help children develop and enhance their communication and literacy skills; the program
also offers graduate student clinicians invaluable training and experience.
As they have in the past, the Scottish Rite donated support to the program, this year
with a check for $33,000.
“The Scottish Rite has given well over a million dollars to Radford University and
to our department over the years,” Waldron College of Health and Human Services Dean
Ken Cox told the crowd during the luncheon, whose theme was “Going for Gold!”
“Hundreds of university students have benefited over the years from the funding that
you guys have provided in the form of scholarships and research,” Cox said to the
Masons. “Your generosity has impacted and improved the quality of life of… tens of
thousands of students, children and families.”
Chair of the Department of Communication Science and Disorders (COSD) Diane Millar
coordinates the camp, and she thanked the group for its support as well.
“The Scottish Rite very graciously provides research and service scholarships for
our graduate students, they help provide free services to all of our families, and
they keep our materials room very well stocked,” Millar said, offering a nod to Patty
Reynolds, who curates those supplies, and to the young scholars who participated.
“We have an exceptional group of 24 graduate students this year … some of the most
compassionate, creative and inspiring women I have been fortunate to meet,” she said.
“They are amazing.”
Millar also recognized this year’s Radford University RiteCare faculty supervisors
– Brandi Holland, Kate Leeper, Angela Obst and Maggie Turner – and the 2024 summer
scholarship recipients Lauren Bledsoe, Lauren Cornett, Natalee Deaton and Meredith
Gwinn.
Gwinn told the audience her group of six pupils ranged in age from 7 to 12 and said
they targeted pragmatics and other social aspects of language.
“Working with these children has been so rewarding, and we have seen several members
of our group not only thrive but also independently start and hold conversations with
others,” she said. “We are so proud of the progress that all of these children have
made.”
Bledsoe described the results of working speech sounds, language and literacy with
6- to 9-year-olds and said they “learned to share, take turns and work together during
group activities.”
According to Cornett, whose subjects were between 3 and 5, “a lot of them learned
how to say their names.”
Alan Adkins, Scottish Rite’s Sovereign Grand Inspector General of Virginia, and numerous
other Masons toured the camp during their visit. They got a chance to interact with
the children and faculty and witness firsthand the progress to which they were contributing.
“We’re looking forward to continuing this relationship for many years to come,” Adkins
said.
