Dinner Nets Hearing Center $150,000

For 20 years, employees of the Providence Speech and Hearing Center have opened the door of communication to more than 70,000 children and adults with hearing and speech disorders.

Friday night’s Anniversary Benefit Dinner at the Anaheim Marriott was dedicated to them.

Nearly 900 guests attended the dinner and silent auction chaired by J. J. Scott Immel, netting $150,000 for Providence. Marie Osmond and the Osmond Brothers were the featured entertainment.

Inside the ballroom, names of corporations and individual sponsors, too numerous to mention, were rolled across two giant screens placed on either side of the stage. Their financial gifts underwrote $80,000 of the benefit.

“This is our primary fund-raiser,” Immel said. “We (board directors) are responsible for raising 20% of the operating budget.” The money raised by the benefit will go directly to the Speech and Hearing Center.

Highly recognized and respected by the board, employees and guests is the founder of Providence, Margaret Anne Inman.

Before dinner, Inman told of how her career as a teacher took a turn in working with the troublesome children in her classes.

“I knew they had potential, and I wanted to know how to handle them. I took a summer workshop in speech pathology at Marquette University in Wisconsin, and I came to realize that the problem with the children was communication.”

Inman continued: “CHOC (Childrens Hospital of Orange County) was just a year old, and they needed a speech pathologist. I started a speech and hearing center with the help of many, many people.”

A 15-minute slide program, “20 years of Providence,” presented some of the case histories of children that attend the clinical preschool and normal school program, which is located in Orange.

The Help, Hope and Love Award, presented to “individuals who have made significant contributions in helping the speech- and hearing-impaired,” was awarded to speech pathologist Judy Smitheran.

Smitheran, accepting the award on behalf of staff members, praised their work and added, “Communication is the hallmark of a quality life.”

Immel read a congratulatory letter from Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton). The congressman had sent the school an anniversary gift of a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol. He requested that the flag be flown from the Providence flagpole “as a symbol of my personal support.”

Marie Osmond and the Osmond Brothers took over the stage and sang a variety of country and pop tunes.

The group interacted with the audience for a large portion of the hour and even singled out John Word III, president of the board of directors, for a duet with Marie Osmond.

The closing song, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” was interpreted with sign language by two audiologists from Providence, Jane Rogan and Janice Loggins. Underwriters were treated to a private reception with the Osmonds after the performance.