Troy and Jade Klante welcomed their firstborn child, Ava Madison, into the world on the 25^th of November 2010. She was a perfect baby and although she failed the newborn screening test, they didn’t start to worry until she was 5 weeks old and failed further testing with the CAFHS nurse.

Ava was diagnosed with a profound bilateral hearing loss when she was 7 weeks old, and life changed dramatically. The Klante’s live in Wudinna, a small farming town on the Eyre Peninsula approximately 600kms from Adelaide. “We started travelling to Adelaide a fair bit for various appointments, and it was all very overwhelming,’ says Ava’s mother Jade.  “We were still coming to terms with the diagnosis and were having to make all these decisions, such as which early intervention provider to choose. We met with them all but there was something about the Cora Barclay Centre (First Voice South Australia centre) that we liked and we went with that gut instinct, which I’m so glad we did as it was the best decision we could have made.”

Ava began Skype lessons with her therapist, and saw her in person when in Adelaide for other appointments. She received bilateral cochlear implants in October 2011 and was ‘switched on’ at the start of November. In the six months since her switch on, she has progressed quickly and is now saying lots of different words and starting to put words together. She loves music and has a wonderful cheeky personality. This is all because of her amazing therapist Niva and the support she has given to Jade and Troy to help them teach Ava.

Ava’s brother Brodie was born in March 2012 and was diagnosed as profoundly deaf at the age of two weeks. Jade said that “while it was very hard to hear those words again, we see what Ava has achieved and know that Brodie will do the same. The fear of the unknown is gone because we know that with help from the Cora Barclay Centre, both our children will go on to lead productive normal lives and do whatever they wish to achieve in the future.”

Paul Roos urges Aussies to give kids the gift of sound

 Tuesday, 27 September, 2011– Former Sydney Swans Coach and 2008 Australian Father of the Year Paul Roos has joined forces with The Shepherd Centre to encourage people to support Loud Shirt Day on October 21^st and to help raise funds for deaf and hearing impaired children.

The Shepherd Centre and its passionate ambassadors want people to take up the challenge and register to swap their business shirts, school uniforms and every day wear for their brightest possible outfits on Friday 21 October and to encourage their friends and family to sponsor them.

Paul Roos is delighted to be on board again in 2011 and showing his support for the children at The Shepherd Centre.

“I’m proud to be supporting The Shepherd Centre and Loud Shirt Day again in 2011.  It’s a great way to get the community involved and raise awareness about the work The Shepherd Centre does. I’ll be wearing my Loud Shirt on October 21^st and I encourage everyone to get behind the campaign,” said Mr Roos.

According to Jim Hungerford, The Shepherd Centre CEO, thousands of Aussies have already committed to Loud Shirt Day and we are looking for an additional 900 hosts to ensure that it breaks its 2010 records.

“Thousands of Aussies, like Loud Shirt Day ambassador Paul Roos, already have it in their diary to wear their support on October 21^st. It’s vital that we have as many people as possible registered for Loud Shirt Day, and let us know if they intend to encourage their colleagues, family and friends to sponsor them.

“The Shepherd Centre and The First Voice centres are all charities and although we receive some limited government funding, we rely on the generosity of the community and fundraising.  Loud Shirt Day is the primary fundraising event for The Shepherd Centre,” said Mr Hungerford.

Research shows that every dollar invested in early intervention services for deaf children produces almost two dollars worth of social, educational, vocational and economic benefit.[1]

According to this recent report, launched at Parliament House last month, the costs of early intervention programs are dwarfed by the benefits such as reduction in educational costs, more jobs at higher incomes, and an improvement in social connection.

“These are the kinds of very real and positive benefits generated by Loud Shirt Day fundraising”, said Mr Hungerford.

To register your Loud Shirt Day event, or to participate, head to www.loudshirtday.com.au.

Loud Shirt Day is now a little over 4 weeks away – very exciting! We thought that it might be a good time to remind everyone of the very simple steps to planning a Loud Shirt Day…

- REGISTER of course, this is the first and most important place to start! Its a simply process that should take about 2-3 minutes with our easy registration form. The information that you provide allows us to send out your Host Kit quickly and it allows gives us the information that we need to plan for future years and ensure that the campaign is raising lots of funds to give the gift of sound and speech to deaf children.

- The official date of Loud Shirt Day this year is Friday 21 October however if this date does not suit you then feel free to decide on another one that does around that time.

- Planning your own Loud Shirt Day can be as simple or as elaborate as you choose. We have some great fundraising ideas in our Host Kit as well as here on the blog. Have a think about where you will have your Loud Shirt Day, who you want to invite and how you will raise funds on the day and in the lead up to your event.

- Use your Fundraising Page to ask your friends, family, colleagues and other networks to support your involvement and sponsor your Loud Shirt Day easily. The Fundraising Page is the perfect way to let people know how they can support by credit card payment, receipts are automatically sent and the donations are tax deductible –  TOO easy!!

- The posters in our Host Kits are LOUD, bright and cheery and provide all of the information that you need to promote your Loud Shirt Day. Its also a good idea to email everyone about your event, letting them know the date, time and what they need to do to support you, be sure to include the link to your Fundraising Page in your email invitation!

- Plan your LOUD shirt or LOUD outfit, be sure to get as bright and crazy as you can, this is the one day of the year that you can wear clashing, crazy colours and patterns proudly! Encourage others to do the same and share some pictures of the outfit that you are planning to wear for inspiration.

- HAVE lots of fun at your event, choose a few ways that you will entertain and raise funds on the day and remember that you can be as imaginative as you like or you can keep things nice and simple.

- Say THANKS, be sure to follow up your event with an email and some pictures to those you helped you plan and those who came along to WEAR THEIR SUPPORT.

- If you received donations on the day of your event in cash or cheque then you will need to bank them using the banking instructions in our Host Kits. The donations that were made online are all collated automatically so no need to worry about doing anything with them except to promote them on your Facebook page and in your emails of course!

If you have any questions at all, or need any more materials or help with your fundraising please call our national event hotline on:

1300 721 326.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!