RADFORD – Ten-year old Zach Crosier is a charter student of Radford University’s Summer Language Clinic for children with autism and language-related disorders. His grandmother walked four blocks in the summer to take Zach to the clinic, and at Wednesday’s Scottish Rite Luncheon at RU, his mother, Mary Vaughn, told the assembly that the clinic has had a major impact on her son’s life.

At the luncheon, James Cole, Scottish Rite Masons’ Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Virginia, gave RU President Penelope W. Kyle a check for $15,000 from the Scottish Rite Foundation Freemasonry and the Scottish Rite Foundation to ensure that the clinic continues to help children like Zach. This is the 15th year that the Scottish Rite Freemasonry and Radford University have partnered to host the RiteCare Clinic. To date, the Scottish Rites Foundation has donated more $500,000 to RU’s clinic.

(IN THE PHOTOS: RU President Penelope W. Kyle receives the check given to the university by James Cole, the Scottish Rite Masons’ Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Virginia. Later, children participating in the RiteCare Clinic presented flowers to President Kyle, with a helping hand from Pat Rossi, at right.)

The clinical program is founded upon family-centered intervention as a means of enhancing children’s language and literacy skills. Parents engage in workshops and learn to participate in therapy sessions with their children so they can facilitate their language development long after camp ends.

The RU RiteCare Language and Research Clinic is a partnership among the RU Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, psychology and music therapy faculty members and students. Peer models and undergraduate volunteers also participate in the event.

Vaughn said, “Without this program, our children’s future would really suffer. Thank you for what you’ve done.”

James Cole of the Scottish Rite Foundation reads the book Little Pea to participants in the 2009 RiteCare Clinic.