Lenexa Sertoma Club supports Hartley Family Center, Hearing and Speech

Jun 6, 2009

Pictured: (from left) Jeffrey Searly, PhD, Frank Fuller, Sandy Keener, John Ferraro, PhD, Sally Roberts and Stephanie Volk

The Lenexa Sertoma Club has donated $6,000 dollars to the Hearing and Speech Department's Hartley Family Center – a facility centered on providing early intervention services to deaf and hard of hearing children and their families.

Sertoma International, which was founded in Kansas City, is a service organization which assists individuals with speech, language, and hearing difficulties. With more than 650 clubs, Sertoma is able to fund local community service projects in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United States. The Lenexa Club's primary fundraiser, from which this donation was made possible, is a golf tournament held each spring.

“The Sertoma Club unites people for a cause,” said Dr. John Ferraro,Chairperson of the Hearing and Speech Departmentand Sertoma member for nearly 20 years. “It raises the visibility and attention we need to help those with hearing and speech disorders.”

The Lenexa Sertoma Club has supported the Hearing and Speech Department at the University of Kansas Medical Center for more than 10 years. In that time, the Club has funded individual projects and graduate student scholarships. Among non-federal funding sources, Sertoma International is the second largest provider of scholarships to speech-language pathology and audiology students.

“If you're endeavoring to help the community, it's great to do it in a manner that's near and dear to your heart,” said Ferraro. “Both individually and as the chair of this department, it's great to see the difference these donations make in the lives of those dealing with communication disorders.”

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Graduate training in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at the University of Kansas is an intercampus program combining the faculty, research and clinical facilities of two departments: the Department of Hearing and Speech and the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing.  According to U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Graduate Schools," KU's Speech-Language-Pathology programs is ranked fourth in the nation and the Audiology program is ranked seventh.

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