User:ECorlett/sandbox

Loud Shirt Day is an annual charity event that takes place in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom on the 19th of October to raise funds for children experiencing hearing loss. Loud Shirt Day raises money to provide technology, education and employment choices, and social integration to deaf children.

History
It was founded in 1998 by the Cora Barclay Centre, Australia's oldest listening and spoken language service for children who are deaf or hearing impaired to raise much needed support funds. They enlisted a volunteer consultant to brainstorm ideas for a fundraising day. A revenue committee was initiated and the concept of Loud Shirt Day was chosen, with the slogan "get loud for deaf kids". The following year, Victorian not-for-profit organisation, Taralye, one of the world’s leading early intervention centres for children with hearing loss joined the event. Since then, not-for-profit oral learning organisations across Australia, New Zealand and the UK have become involved.

Loud Shirt Day
Loud Shirt Day came about as a fun event that everyone could easily get involved with, to dress brightly and create an association with loud clothing for children who are hard of hearing. In Australia, there are four main oral language centres that each oversee Loud Shirt Day events in their state, with raised funds going directly to support that charity. In addition to the Cora Barclay Centre and Taralye, The Shepherd Centre in NSW and Hear and Say in Queensland are the organisations involved in the promotion of Loud Shirt Day. Each of the not-for-profit organisations support early intervention learning for children, with an aim of preparing them to communicate with their hearing peers and integrate into mainstream schooling by age six, and go on to have successful careers. Auslan is not taught in these centres, as multichannel cochlear implants, developed by Australian Graeme Clark and first used in children in the 1980s is the preferred communication aid, as they do the work of the cochlear to provide sound signals to the brain and studies have shown that speech is improved in children with cochlear implants who have not learned Auslan.

Loud Shirt Day 2018
Loud Shirt Day 2018 is celebrating 20th years as a fundraising arm for children with hearing loss and their families.