Wear a 'loud' shirt today - and support hearing impaired kids.

This Friday (21 October), leading children’s charity The Shepherd Centre will be asking Australians everywhere to “turn up the volume” on their drab business attire in the name of charity. The organisation is celebrating the success of over 2,000 deaf and hearing impaired children who have been helped through their world-leading early intervention programs over the last 46 years. It hopes this milestone will shine a light on the increasing need for support services in time for their annual national fundraising campaign – Loud Shirt Day.

Loud Shirt Day encourages participants to get together with friends, workmates or peers and wear their ‘loudest’ clothing in a bid to raise funds to support The Shepherd Centre (and other First Voice organisations) and aid families of children with hearing loss.

Deafness is the most common disability amongst children in the western world and many people don’t realise that it costs more than $18,000 per year, per child to provide these critical early intervention services. Recent research revealed that 50% of children with hearing loss are missing out on receiving critical support services.

The Shepherd Centre is aiming to close this gap by 2020 to ensure every child is given the opportunity to access a listening and spoken language future and is calling on Australians to lend a helping hand.

On average, 90% of children graduating from The Shepherd Centre’s early intervention program enter mainstream schools with speech and hearing skills that are on par (and sometimes above) those of their hearing peers.

Randwick mother Renata has experienced the benefits that The Shepherd Centre provides first hand, not once, but twice – as the mother of two beautiful boys living with a hearing loss.

Renata and her two boys. Source: Supplied.

The family’s world was turned upside down with the news three-week old baby Rafael had permanent hearing loss. Devastated and confused, the family was connected with The Shepherd Centre where they were welcomed with open arms and were guided through the process to eventually fit Rafael with a cochlear implant and start him in regular speech and language therapy.

Two years later the family experienced that anxiety again when they discovered their second child, Gabriel, was also born with a hearing loss. The family committed to supporting Gabriel’s hearing loss as they had with Rafael years earlier and the family credits The Shepherd Centre’s support for the amazing progress the boys have made.

Renata with her son Rafael. Source: Supplied.

Now Rafael is an energetic four year old and Gabriel a busy two year old, both chatterboxes whose speech and language skills have progressed in leaps and bounds. Rafael will be heading to ‘big school’ in 2017 and speaks both fluent Portuguese and English. Gabriel continues to show significant improvements with the development of his speech and language.

Renata says “from the moment we walked into The Shepherd Centre, everything turned around. They taught us how to best help our boys progress and develop, and now Gabriel and Rafael really are each other’s biggest supporters. They have come so far thanks to The Shepherd Centre - we couldn’t have done it without their unwavering support.” 

Each year, the family runs fundraising events on the boys’ birthdays, encouraging friends to donate to the centre instead of bringing presents.

Jim Hungerford, CEO of The Shepherd Centre, said that the campaign is the perfect excuse to trade in boring office attire for something flashy in the name of charity.

“Hosting a Loud Shirt Day event is a fun, simple way to help raise funds to ensure every deaf child is able to achieve his or her full potential. With the help of the community, we can change the futures of all children with hearing loss. Grab your brightest and silliest shirts, socks, dresses, even hats and help us give the gift of sound to kids who need it,” said Mr Hungerford.

For help with hosting your own Loud Shirt Day event, visit www.loudshirtday.com.au, where you can register and download your free Host Kit. You can also visit http://shepherdcentre.org.au to donate directly to The Shepherd Centre.

People are encouraged to share their LOUDEST images of support via social media using the hashtag #LoudShirtDay and tagging @ShepherdCentre and @LoudShirtDay.