Landmark H4S Donation for EYBS
At the conclusion of Happy Together, our show in May this year, East York Barbershoppers were thrilled to be able to present a $7500 cheque to Harmonize for Speech (H4S) through its Chairman, George Shields, and Treasurer, Bruce Dibble. This allowed H4S to fund two initiatives that were in jeapordy. And with that cheque the East York Chapter has now donated a total of $500,000 since the charity was founded in 1977.
The H4S Fund was established as the Ontario District of the Barbershop Harmony Society’s formal service project, with George Shields as its first Chairman. For almost 40 years H4S has been raising funds through the efforts of Ontario District Chapters, quartets, members, and their families, friends and supporters. And they have done so entirely on a shoestring budget, using only volunteers, which lets them keep administration costs down to a paltry 3%.
With George Shields as one of our Chapter’s founding members, we are understandably strong H4S supporters. But this was an unusually large cheque and it came about when we decided to honour George in celebration of his 90th birthday. We knew that he wouldn’t want anything for himself so we contacted the H4S board to get ideas for a program or two that we could support. We then discussed the plan with the chorus, and passed it through the board. And we did all this behind George’s back and without him getting wind of it – an amazing feat because George rarely misses any meetings.
There were two projects that we were able to help with. First, was a donation to help a Georgian College Communications Disorder Assistant program student complete her mandatory practical placement, without which she would have lost her year’s work.
The second was a five year scholarship in the Masters in Music Therapy program at Wilfred Laurier University. H4S had the money for the first year, and East York was able to provide the funds for the last 4 years.
Once we had calculated how much we’d collected from our fund raising initiatives combined with the amount that we were able to donate from a small surplus we’d accumulated, we found we were still $1000 short of the amount needed to fund both projects. Once again, the stars aligned and two wonderful things happened. First, an anonymous donor stepped forward to provide $500. Then, after one of our board members explained what we were trying to do to his bank manager at the TD Canada Trust Branch at Yonge and Carlton Sts., she was so moved that she arranged for the Branch to kick in the final $500!!
We’re very proud and honoured to be the first chorus to hit the half million dollar mark in cumulative contributions. We’re also very proud of the other choruses in Ontario who, with us, have raised over $5,250,000 for Harmonize for Speech in the charity’s 39-year history!
For further information on Harmonize for Speech, or to make a donation, visit harmonize4speech.org.