The Fruits of Your Labor – Your Foundation at Work

Recently, my wife and I had the honor of attending an open house at the Speech Language Pathology Clinic at the All Children’s Hospital in Saint Petersburg. My wife started a conversation with a lady in attendance. The lady asked my wife what connection we had with the clinic and when my wife told her we were there representing the Scottish Rite the lady became very excited and told us an inspiring story about how the Scottish Rite assisted her family in time of need. I asked permission from her to use her story on our web site and in our brochure. She was gracious to grant that permission. Below is the email that she sent me a week later.

Patrick C. Palmer

Special Assistant to the SGIG

In the Orient of Florida

Dear Mr. Palmer,

I was so delighted to meet you, your wife, and the other two gentlemen in attendance at the Dedication & Open House of the new Child Development and Rehabilitation Center of All Children’s Johns Hopkins in St. Petersburg on Thursday, September 20, 2012. To be able to personally thank all four of you for the generosity that was displayed to our family nearly 20 years ago was very gratifying.

My husband, Steve and I are the very proud parents of three wonderful children. Our eldest, James, who is now 23 years old, was born autistic. He began receiving the services of Speech therapy at All Children’s Hospital at the age of three. After approximately one year of therapy, it was clear that much more work was necessary and our insurance carrier denied any further payments. That left us in the perplexing circumstance of desiring the very best for our son, yet not being in the position to supply the much needed help merely due to a financial hardship. As you can well imagine, this was heart-breaking to us.

We were informed by All Children’s that there might be financial assistance available to us through your organization, the Scottish Rite Foundation of Florida. We were given the information, filled out the paperwork and quickly were notified that we qualified for a percentage of the costs. The gratefulness we have for this donation of “love” towards our son and his future cannot simply be expressed in this letter. It made all the difference in his life. Had he not received these services, it is entirely possible that James would not be the man he is today. Not only did he learn to speak clearly, but he learned to express his thoughts and ultimately became a voracious reader and speller. He is an avid historian, digesting book after book on his very favorite subjects, WWI and WWII during all his free time. He graduated from high school, even took several college classes and has worked for Publix Grocery stores for 3 years. He is a respected and hard working employee.

Our family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts. We talk kindly whenever given the opportunity to share about this organization that so generously assisted our family at a time of need. To finally meet some members, people who work diligently to raise the funds to serve others like ourselves, was thrilling, to say the least. Thank you! We are eternally grateful. If there is anything we can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely and gratefully,

Mona and the Tomlin Family (Steve, James, Melissa and Patrick)