Swing (Feb-Dec 1952)

CHAMPION OF AMERICAN CHILDREN 93 sid wearily, "we've een trying to set up rest room where hildren in the lower rades could take a ap during the day. iut every time we ik for help we get le same answer : No loney. No equipment, to labor." While the teacher }6ke. Harold Welch. M business man, faler and president of he PTA chapter, stened thoughtfully. iThen she'd finished, e turned to her and remised : "You'll get your est room — and soon." Next day, Mr. Welch ' nd another father ' ^ent out and bought 'f, truckload of hardoti and lumber. On 11 he way home, they " ailed on the presi' ent of the Board of ■flducation. They left ' ith the president's romise to donate all le canvas and musn they would need. While their wives ;wed the canvas, Mr. Telch and other fa thers hammered together several dozen cots. "Then, they painted and decorated an empty storeroom in the school and moved in the home-made cots. In the meantime, teachers trained a squad of older students to make up the cots, scrub the room and keep the linen closet in order. A few days later, the children began taking rest periods. Characteristic of many PTA's is the concern of members for all children, not just their own. Two years ago, the San Francisco PTA received a shocking report from Mrs. Dorothy Holley, an exmember of the chapter who, with her husband, had become a government teacher on the Navajo Indian Reservation at Toadlena, New Mexico. None of the 60 children in her school, Mrs. Holley wrote, had ever owned a toy. Few possessed comb or toothbrush. Not one of them had ever seen a book, chair or desk before coming to school. And they were happy to sleep two and three on a wornout mattress — because none of them had ever known the luxury of sheets or pillows before. Aroused by the teacher's letter, the San Francisco PTA went into action during Thanksgiving week. Dozens of them sent packages directly to the reservation. Mrs. J. P. Henthorne, the mother of a fouryear-old little girl, organized a door-to-door campaign for funds. And instead of asking for "Trick or Treat," a flock of costumed youngsters collected clothes and toys for the Navajo children. By the end of the week, more than 1,000 pounds of supplies were on the way to New Mexico. The Holleys immediately distributed warm underwear, socks, sweaters, sheets, dresses and shoes. And at a Christmas party, Navajo youngsters and their parents received candy, toys, combs, soap, mirrors and handkerchiefs. From the flood of gift packages, there was enough overflow to hold parties for children of three other Navajo schools. But the San Franciscans haven't settled back to bask in the glow of this humanitarian gesture. Instead, they are now working to keep regular contributions flowing to the New Mexico reservation. In addition, they have been campaigning to get permanent relief agencies set up for the Navajos. One San Francisco mother explains it this way : "We won't be able to rest until we know that the Navajo children are getting as decent a start in life as our own." In much the same way, other PTA's work tirelessly to combat juvenile delinquency. In the town of Nanakuli in the Hawaiian Islands recently, PTA members appointed themselves special truant officers. They visited the homes of juvenile delinquents and dispensed some scathing, straight from the shoulder talk to parents who were shirking their responsibilities. Within three months, the school's truancy rate fell from 26 to 6 per cent ! On a larger scale, Chicago mothers have formed a "fosterPTA" for young offenders — most of them from broken homes. With patience and understanding, the PTA women from other sections of the city attempt to give street hardened youngsters motherly guidance. "After a few weeks," explains one of these "foster" mothers, "I found that the boys weren't really much different from my own children. Through no fault of their own, they had simply missed out on something— love and understanding. When I'm with them, I realize that there but for the grace of God — and a good home — go my own sons." According to Chicago officials, the project is paying off in two important ways : Many potential young criminals are being steered back to honest paths — and valuable information on how to curb juvenile crime is being circulated to PTA's throughout the nation.