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Fifth Annual Callier Center Luncheon Collects More Than $200,000 for Patients in Need
Stuart Bumpas Receives 2016 Ruth and Ken Altshuler Callier Care Award

Callier Cares Luncheon

From left: Stuart Bumpas was presented with the Ruth and Ken Altshuler Callier Care Award by Dr. Ken Altshuler, Ruth Altshuler and Dr. Tom Campbell.

Supporters of the Callier Center for Communication Disorders raised more than $200,000 for patients in need at the fifth annual Callier Cares Luncheon held at Brook Hollow Golf Club in Dallas. 

Through the leadership of honorary chairs Michal and Loyd Powell and chair Angie Kadesky, the luncheon attracted 350 philanthropists, community partners, patients, families, clinicians and friends to support the Callier Center and honor Stuart Bumpas, Foundation for the Callier Center and Communication Disorders distinguished trustee, with the 2016 Ruth and Ken Altshuler Callier Care Award

The money raised from the event will benefit patients in need with speech, language and hearing disorders through the Callier Care Fund. The fund, established by Ruth and Dr. Ken Altshuler, provides treatment for children and adults who would otherwise be unable to afford care. 

Callier Cares Luncheon

Featured speaker Bailey Turfitt (left), a Callier patient, enjoyed the luncheon with her sister, Emily, and mother, Denise.

The Callier Care Award is presented annually to an individual or group who has contributed significantly to the betterment of the community and to advancing the care of patients with communication disorders. Bumpas, a Dallas attorney and community advocate, has contributed to the Callier Center’s growth for more than 30 years through his service on the foundation board. 

In 1981, Bumpas was invited to serve on the board by Nelle Johnston, who, along with UT Dallas co-founder Erik Jonsson and Callier founding director Dr. Aram Glorig, formed the committee that established the Callier Hearing and Speech Center in 1963. 

During his time on the board, Bumpas helped to secure a Crystal Charity Ball grant, which served as a catalyst in funding the cochlear implant program in 1993. He also engaged in the foundation’s efforts to raise funds for the Advanced Hearing Research Center in Dallas, the Callier Richardson facility, the Callier Autism Center in Dallas and the 50,000-square-foot Callier Center Expansion, which is scheduled for completion in the fall on the UT Dallas campus. 

“Stuart was the boy next door to me,” Ruth Altshuler said. “He and Diane (Stuart’s wife) are our favorite people. … We’re so proud of Stuart.” 

Callier Cares Luncheon

Loyd and Michal Powell were honorary chairs of the 2016 Callier Cares Luncheon.

“Deafness is the loneliest of disabilities,” said Bumpas after he was presented with the award by the Altshulers and Dr. Tom Campbell, Ludwig A. Michael, MD Executive Director of the Callier Center and Sara T. Martineau Professor. 

“Today, under the leadership of Tom Campbell and his predecessors, Callier is confronting deafness and dispelling the loneliness that it can cause,” Bumpas said. “Callier has developed one of the largest and most consequential cochlear implant programs in the world. 

“I am deeply honored to receive this award, an honor enhanced by the fact that it’s in the name of my two friends, Ruth and Ken Altshuler,” he said. 

The luncheon also highlighted the stories of Howard Palmer, a 3-year-old Callier patient who has cochlear implants as a result of profound hearing loss, and the Urban Speech and Language Initiative, a partnership created last year between Callier and the Dallas Independent School District. 

In a video, Howard’s parents, Mandy and Jaime Palmer, shared their story as the footage showed the continuum of care that Howard receives including audiology services through the cochlear implant program, speech-language therapy and deaf education in the Child Development Program

Callier Cares Luncheon

Luncheon chair Angie Kadesky (left) spent some time with John Stuart, president of the Foundation for the Callier Center board of trustees, and his wife and 2013 luncheon chair, Barbara Stuart.

“I don’t know that there is a better place for us and for Howard than Callier,” Jaime Palmer said. “It was the best decision we ever made.” 

The Urban Speech and Language Initiative is focused on overcoming the shortage of speech-language pathologists in urban school districts. In the partnership, graduate students in communication sciences and disorders are trained and encouraged to provide speech and language services in an urban school district upon graduation. 

Featured speaker Bailey Turfitt, a University of North Texas freshman and Callier patient, concluded the luncheon by sharing the challenges and victories she had growing up with a severe hearing impairment. 

“The reason I am able to speak with you today is a direct result of my extensive speech therapy provided by Callier,” she said. “Not only that, but without my hearing aids, I practically hear nothing. With my hearing aids, I can hear right at about 50 percent.” 

Turfitt said that Callier supplied her with microphones and FM systems that she has used throughout school and in college today. 

“Your support has made numerous opportunities available to me, so that I am able to pursue my dreams, as well as for countless others with hearing loss,” she said. 

The sixth annual Callier Cares Luncheon will be held April 20. To contribute to the Callier Care Fund, please visit utdallas.edu/calliercenter/give.

Callier CaresLuncheon Underwriters

The luncheon’s major donors included the following:

Love ($25,000)

Palo Verde Oil LP

Compassion ($10,000)

AnonymousAl G. Hill Jr.Locke Lord LLPDavid B. Miller Family FoundationThe Wolf Family Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas 

Kindness ($5,000)

Lisa and Clay CooleyThe Stanford C. & Mary Clare Finney FoundationAngie and Kevin KadeskyBeth LaytonBarbara and John Stuart

Hope ($3,000)

Baylor & Scott White HealthChildren's Health/Children's Medical Center FoundationBetsy and Bennett CullumGail FischerTricia M. GeorgeLouise and Guy GriffethThompson & Knight Foundation

Contributor ($1,501 - $2,999)

Lee BaileyDrs. Carol and Daniel PodolskyMelissa and Ben SweeneyBeth Thoele

Friendship ($1,500)

AnonymousDr. Richard R. BrettellNancy CarterCenter for Brain HealthLinda and Bill CustardAnn and Bob DyerClaire EmanuelsonKerry Wildenthal & Michael FagelmanJenifer and Peter FlynnRachel A. Gonzalez and Dr. Jeffrey MartinLibby and David HuntJoyce and Larry LacerteRebecca and Bobby LutzMaryann and Frank MihalopoulosUT Southwestern Medical Center/Southwestern Medical FoundationVin and Caren Prothro FoundationWestwood Trust

Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].

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