The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-05-20
International Sunshine Society
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

II BY FREOERl
The eleventh annual convention of the
/ International Sunshine society viii be held
in New York today and reports Of
branches from all parts of the United
States, including Alaska. and from Mex
I leo and Cuba, will tell of the good work
/ being done. It Is in every respect an
unique organization. Its membership IS
/ unlimited and its dues are only the do
{ ing Of some kind deed. the passing OF
| a bit of sunshine and happiness to some
one else. Any group Of ten persons wish
/ ing to cooperate IN good work may or
ganize into a club. Generally these clubs
/ unite. for greater helpfulness. into state
! or territorial associations, and these, IN
turn. affiliate with the International so
ciety.
/ The object Of the society. as stated in
the constitution and bylaws. is: ITO in
! cite its members TO the performance OF
/ kind and helpful deeds. and TO bring
/ the sunshine and happiness into the great
/ est possible number OF hearts and homes.
! Under this constitution each branch pays
to its state society annual dues of one
dollar and each state society pays to
the general society five dollars a year
/ to help defray the expenses at headquar-
I tiers. This, in brief. covers the aims and
financial obligations. Beyond that each
/ branch may do the work it wishes, and
there are many different avenues OF en-
deavOr.
/ A sanitarium at Bensonhurst-b blythe
Sea, New York, is conducted in the inter-
| est of the society. This is open all the
year around. The New York society has
/ also opened a rest house next door to
| the sanitarium where inValids and very
| tired people sit in the reading rooms or
on the sun pOrches and get well and
strong again. This branch has also
/ home for blind babies, where the forlOrn
and neglected little ones are fed and kept
| clean fquuhf Einderrra rfan lessons and
games and how to make music on sim
/ pie instruments. This is the first kim
dergarten for blind babies in the United
States.
At Hot Springs. Ark. the local Sunshin-
ers keep a home, primarily for gentle
women, who are suffering with rheuma-
/ tism and who have gone there to take
advantage of the baths In New Orleans
there is maintained a Sunshine lodge for
working girls, helping hand to the girls
who make their own way on small sal
aries. On Forest Lake, Mimi. the Mary
| Davis lodge is maintained for summer
vacations for mothers and little children,
/ and more than 800 are taken there every
summer. At TecIfmseh. Neb.-tO show the
diversity of effort in one place alone
there is a Sunshine rest room, in the
! business center; free reading tables are
placed in the depots, and a scholarship
/ is provided for in a business college.
! In Toledo, o.. the Sunshine society main
] tains a wheel chair fund with which wheel
chairs for invalids and cripples are
| purchased and loaned these unfortunates
/ for indefinite period. They maintain
also a Sunshine corner in the Toledo
hospital where a free reading table is
/ kept supplied with magazines. and they
maintain a flower mission in one of the
/ big stores there. At Center Point and
/ Kerrville, Tex and at Logan, Ida, free
! libraries have been established on a small
scale. Various Maine branches have I'M
/ dertaken to support several beds in the
| hospital for cripples, and to furnish wheel
| chairs for any eripples who need them.
The Kansas City branch is working
among defOrmed and crippled children,
and the New Britain, Conn.,, one looks aft
er the entertainment of the folks at the
poor farm.
| At La Junta, COlo a rest room is kept
open for visitors and weary workers, and
at Knoxville, Tenn, a similar institution
/ is maintained. In St. Louis ten mem orlal
cribs are supported in the Children's
Home, and q bed in the ChildTen's Hos
pital. In Boston an exchange and free
! library are kept open, and in Memphis,
| Tenn, a home for aged men is q mOnu-
| ment to the earnestness Of members OF
! Sunshine society, although the nome
| has been given over to a different board
| following the change of residence of the
| leading Sunshine workers from that city
| or other is being pushed by the branches,
| Boston Just now being engaged in get
] ting together money for summer camp
/ in the country where working girls may
3 go Tor NdCdlOn. IN Oupd lfl6 WOTk IOl-
I lows the lines Of helpfulness first laid
/ down by pioneer Sunshiners in looking
after old and young, sick and poor.
! An interesting branch that has men,
! bers throughout the country, and whose
members meet only through the medium
/ of the press, letter, post card, or small
gifts is called the FoUrscore club, the
members being fourscore or more years
| old. These old people make known their
/ occasional needs. or send greetings and
/ messages to other members through the
official organ of the order. This branch
/ is so large and the members are so old
/ that rarely an issue appears but chron-
/ icles the death of some of them.
| An interesting feature Of work center
/ ing in the national headquarters is that
! conducted under the name of the con
! science fund" Whenever any person has
/ more clothes or books or money than she
| feels that she really needs or that she
/ deserves, she is invited to send this to