Martha Simpson McDade M.A., CCC–SLP
Director, Columbia Center
South Carolina Scottish Rite Centers for Childhood Language Disorders
7230 Sumter Highway, Columbia, South Carolina 29290

The Director of the Columbia, South Carolina, Center for Childhood Language Disorders thanks the Brethren for their generous support.

Photo: Ill. H. Wallace Reid, 33°, presents a Special Recognition Award from the South Carolina Speech-Language-Hearing Association (SCSLHA) to the Scottish Rite Foundation of South Carolina, Inc., to Martha Simpson McDade, Director of the Columbia, South Carolina, Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Language Disorders. The award recognizes the Foundation's "contributions to both communicatively impaired children and their families and to the profession of Speech-Language-Pathology." It was originally presented to the Foundation by June Maranville, SCSLHA President Elect, at the association's State Convention at Hiltonhead, South Carolina, on February 4, 2000.
Each year, at the Scottish RiteSweetheart Dinner in Greenville, I, as Director of the Columbia Center, am given an opportunity to talk about the families served by the Scottish Rite Childhood Language Disorders Program in South Carolina and, specifically, at the Columbia Center. Sometimes, I've presented information about the different types of clinical services the Columbia Center provides. Other times, I've presented data on the number and types of children we see. For example, since 1987 over 800 children have received services at the Columbia Center. And still other times, I've talked about the parents of those children. I've shown videotapes of the Center, of children receiving speech therapy, and of interviews with their parents—all of which are intended to demonstrate exactly how the Scottish Rite Masons have made a significant difference in the lives of these children and their families. These testimonials represent those individuals whom our staff at the Columbia Center have directly affected. And, as impressive as some of these numbers are, they represent only a small portion of the children and families whose lives have been touched by South Carolina's Scottish Rite Masons and benefited from services at the Center.

Throughout this state, indeed throughout the country, countless children whom we will never see and never come to know, are receiving state-of-the-art speech-language therapy today from practicing speech-language pathologists who received clinical training at the Columbia Center. These are children who manifest a wide range of communication difficulties. Some have been diagnosed with mental retardation, others with autism, some are hearing impaired, while others have no known developmental problem other than they simply cannot be understood when they talk. Many of these children are served in the public schools, some are seen in community clinics, some go to hospital outpatient clinics, and others receive services from private practicing speech-language pathologists. Whatever the cause and severity of their condition, the South Carolina Scottish Rite Masons are there, directly or indirectly, providing the different types of special services necessary.

As a clinical training site, the Columbia Center provides undergraduate and graduate students with a unique set of experiences available at few other places. Students at Columbia College, the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and the University of South Carolina are regularly engaged in supervised clinical practicum. Each is assigned a number of children for whom they are responsible for planning and implementing therapy procedures for an entire semester. Thus, in addition to working directly with young children, the Columbia Center staff actively trains future speech-language pathologists to carry on the mission undertaken by South Carolina's Scottish Rite Masons.

It has often been said that the ultimate act of charity is the generous gift of an anonymous benefactor who seeks neither glory nor attention, but simply the joy of giving to those in need. Through the continued support of Scottish Rite Masons, you have given to those who will never be able to thank you and who, perhaps, will never know what it means to be a Scottish Rite Mason. On behalf of the countless children whose names you will never hear and whose faces you will never see on videotape, we at the Columbia Center—representing all the speech-language pathologists and other clinicians working at the Scottish Rite's 138 Childhood Language Disorders Clinics, Centers, and Programs—would like to say "Thank You!" for the generous gift of speech that you have given to America's children.

The above article was originally delivered by Martha Simpson McDade as an address to the Brethren, wives, and guests attending a Scottish Rite Sweetheart Dinner at the Greenville, South Carolina, Scottish Rite Center in Greenville on January 28, 2000.