Rotary Club of Vancouver News Room

RHF Hearing Foundation

and the

Rotary Bike-A-Thon

Initial Years

When RHF started the Bike-A-Thon, proceeds were nowhere near as big as they have been in the last few years.  Virtually all the money first went to support the cochlear implant research work done by Dr. Dietrich Schwartz at the UBC Hospital in what became known as the “Rotary Hearing Centre”. The amount donated was gradually reduced $20,000 a year.  In 2001/2002 RHF made a major donation of $80,000 to establish, together with Pacific Otolaryngology Foundation and UBC, a perpetual professorship to fund the salary of Dietrich’s successor.

The other major contribution made was to the UBC School of Medicine together with the estate of the late Syd Welsh, to establish “The Rotary Club of Vancouver Syd Welsh Endowment Fund”

RHF also made several donations to establish “The Rotary Hearing Clinic” at St. Paul’s Hospital.  One of its major functions was the counseling of tinnitus sufferers.

Recent Years

The largest gift RHF ever made was the $137,000 gift to St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation in 2005 for the purpose of remodeling and re-equipping the Rotary Hearing Clinic.  The RHF funds were the catalyst which together with funds from two of St. Paul’s other sources funded this $370,000 improvement.

In 2006 RHF made the following donations:

BC Family Hearing Resource Society – $18,000 for portable camcorders and computers for their outreach staff which visit smaller towns all over the province.

The Vancouver Oral Centre for Deaf Children – $17,368 for a hearing analyzer.

The Vancouver Community College Foundation – $19,000 for equipment for use in their Program for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Adults.

Island Hearing and Hard of Hearing Centre (based in  Victoria and Nanaimo) – $9,000 for equipment purchases.

Vancouver General Hospital and UBC School of Medicine - $20,000 to purchase high rotary assessment equipment for the Neurology Unit.  This equipment is used to analyze particular kinds of hearing problems.

In 2007 RHF approved the following gifts:

Kootenay Boundary Regional Health Foundation - up to $5,000 to partially fund a surgical microscope used in ear operations.

The Hearing Foundation of Canada  - $18,500 to bring the “Sound Sense” program to 40 Vancouver Area schools.

St. Paul’s Hospital – $3,000 to send a surgical resident to Uganda to assist in a Rotary related hearing project.

Vancouver Community College foundation – $25,506 for the purchase of additional equipment for their Program for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Adults.

The Vancouver Oral Centre for Deaf Children – $15,000 to assist in the purchase of FM equipment to be used in their teaching of very young and elementary school aged children.

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