During
the years of 1937 and 1938, the high school teacher of
Wellesley Orthopedic
School would often discuss the future of the more severely handicapped
teenager and adult. It was a real source of concern. It was
during just such discussions
that the teacher, Mr. J. M. Henderson, first planted in the mind of Jean
Lauder, one of the pupils, the idea of a residential sheltered
workshop. In
later years,
Mrs.
Karin
Roon, Jean’s
mentor from New York, fostered the dream and Jean’s family
encouraged it to the point where something realistic had
to be done.
Mrs. Roon’s
advice to Jean was to start in a small way – to form a social
club for adults with cerebral palsy. The aim of such a club
was to help eliminate the isolation, loneliness and boredom
which these people were experiencing. With the aid of family,
friends, Red Cross, the Riverdale branch of the Kiwanis Club,
newspapers and radio, the first meeting of the Cerebral Palsy
Adult Association was held December 2, 1948...
