March 30, 2011
This week marked another chapter in the history of the Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre in Wembley with a Ground Breaking Ceremony for the planned Bendat Parent and Community Centre.
I was delighted to be amongst the guests.
Due for completion in mid-2012, the Bendat Parent and Community Centre will be considered a world class facility for deaf children in Western Australia.
The centre’s namesakes, Jack and Eleanor Bendat, are prominent philanthropists in Western Australia, and were donors towards the project.
Other notable donors include: the Federal Government, Wesfarmers, Telethon Trust, Stan Perron and the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation, Frank Tomasi and family, Terry Crommellin, and LotteryWest.
The Telethon Speech and Hearing is a centre where children with speech, language, or hearing impairments learn to listen and speak. Part of their mission is to continually improve the facilities and services available to the children and families affected by hearing impairment throughout Western Australia.
This project will see the expansion of the Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre’s current Dodd Street Campus program for deaf children, adding five state-of-the-art audiology booths, and the first dedicated early literacy library for Western Australia. Additionally, an extensive parenting centre, along with modern training, seminar and conference facilities.
When competed, the Bendat Centre will be the first stop for parents in Western Australia to solve their child’s hearing problems.
According to Nigel Satterley, Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre Patron, in his introduction speech, 1 in 6 WA children will be born with a hearing problem.
The want to help these families is evident and reflected by the Centre’s plans to increase from 10,500 to 25,000 children per year across Western Australia by 2012.
Julie and Telethon Speech and Hearing CEO Paul Higginbotham at the ground breaking ceremony
Julie and Aboriginal elder Janet Hayden following her Welcome to Country address
Julie and Telethon Speech and Hearing’s, Larr Rose, view the floor plans for the Bendat Parent and Community Centre
