During the Biennial Session Gala Banquet on October 4, 2005, Steve Karelitz expressed his gratitude for the speech therapy the Scottish Rite gave his daughter, Jill Elizabeth.
Steve Karelitz—
Thank you very much for letting me speak to you this evening.
How many times have we watched TV or read a newspaper and have seen a car that crashed and the person who came to their rescue. And that person was recognized as a hero. Please look around this room. Each and every one of you is a hero to our family. I get very emotional about this because of the hopelessness that we felt at one time in our lives. My wife, Cheryl, and I have been married almost 26 years. The joke is that I say it’s been 22 of the best years of my life, and she comes back and says it’s only been 20 years for her. And I always take it with a grin.
Our daughter Lauren was born 11 weeks premature. She weighed 2 lbs. 7 oz. and spent 51 days in the hospital in the Neonatal Center in Columbia, S.C. In her first two years of life, she was back in the hospital on four different occasions. As we progressed through this, we just couldn’t believe how difficult it had been, but yet how beautiful and how healthy she turned out to be.
So Cheryl and I talked, and we said, “That was okay. Let’s try it again.” And so we planned, and we had another baby. We worried the whole time whether Cheryl would go full term. She did, we had another beautiful baby girl, Jill, and so we thought it was over. Cheryl’s mother and father kept Jill when we were on a trip, and when we came back they asked if Jill really hears us. And, of course, the alarm went off because that’s the same conversation Cheryl and I had while we were away. We immediately took Jill to a doctor who said to rattle keys and see what she does.
When she was eight months old, we took Jill to an Ear-Nose-Throat doctor and to an Audiologist. On that very first visit, the doctor told us that our baby was profoundly deaf in her right ear and was severely or profoundly deaf in her left ear. When I asked about her education, the doctor said she could probably go to the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind and get a good education. He then told us that deaf people, if nothing else, make good cosmetologists.
When you look at an eight month old baby, how can you tell me that she can grow up to be a cosmetologist—but not a doctor, not an attorney, not a President? We just wouldn’t stand for it. So at eleven months old, we placed one hearing aid on Jill, and in her first year she was fully aided in both ears.
We had speech therapy at home. The South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind had a program that helped Jill when she was two years old. I learned that we learn 90% of our vocabulary by the time we are six years old, and my daughter was two, and she could not speak.
My father-in-law just happens to be a 33° Mason in Charleston, South Carolina, and he introduced us to Martha McVey and the Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Language Disorders. For three years starting in 1986, you worked wonders for my daughter. You have been the foundation for all of her success.
At this point I’m going to get out of the way and introduce my daughter, Jill Elizabeth Karelitz.
Grand Commander Ronald A. Seale thanks Jill Karelitz for her kind remarks during the Gala Banquet. As a child, Jill received care at the Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Language Disorders in Charleston, South Carolina.
Jill Elizabeth Karelitz—
I want to thank the Scottish Rite Center, Martha McVey, my teacher, my speech pathologist, and all of you for contributing to a big part of my life. If it were not for you all, I would not be up here talking as well as I can. God has helped me become as successful and normal a person as I can be. You helped me build confidence that I carry today with me every time I’m thrown a challenge.
Because of your help I was mainstreamed into regular hearing classes. I was put on “grade-level classes,” but that separated me from all of my friends who were in “regular-level classes.” For me, classes were not challenging enough. Being in grade-level classes made me feel inferior to my friends. I felt I was being labeled as dumb, but I knew I was smart enough to do what my friends could do.
I wanted a challenge, and I finally convinced my parents and the school to put me into regular classes. My family is Jewish and at the age of thirteen you usually have a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. This is when a young person becomes an adult. I was tutored for five years and learned to speak and read in Hebrew, and at my Bat-Mitzvah I had to read out of the Torah in Hebrew—and in front of a couple of hundred people. I gained confidence at age thirteen by knocking down my personal challenge and by proving to others that I can do things people did not expect me to do.
My parents have asked me to tell you a little bit about my achievements. I’ve been fortunate to have good teachers, good coaches, and great teammates. And of course, great mentors. In my junior year of high school, I was inducted into the Spanish National Honor Society. I took three years of Spanish classes and I made all As in these classes. I was one of eight nominated for outstanding senior at my high school, I received the Life Scholarship, with a 3.5 GPA, and I was in the top 25% of my class.
Soccer has been a big part of my life and I have been playing since I was five years old. In high school I was the state newspaper 2003, 4-A, “Female Player of the Year,” on the South Carolina High School League 2003 All-State Team, and nominated as the National Soccer Coaches of America Association All-America and State Player of the Year.
Today I am a sophomore attending Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. I am also playing college soccer for the University. My major is Health Promotions, and after college I don’t know what I will do, but I know whatever I do, I will be successful in life because of the foundations you gave my life. Once again thank you all.
