The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-20
International Sunshine Society
By Frederic J. Haskia.

The eleventh annual convention of the International Society will be heio in New York today, and reports or branches from all parts of the united States, including Alaska, and from Mexico and Cuba, will tell of the good work being done. It is in every re- spect a unique organization. It's mem- bership is unlimited and its, dues are only the doing of some kind deed, the passing on of d bit of sunshine and happiness to someone else. Any group of ten persons wishing to cooperate in good work may organize Into club. Generally these clubs unite. for greater helpfulness, into State or ter ritorial associations. and these, In turn, affiiiate with the international society.
 The object of the society. as stated In the constitution and bylaws. Is: ITO incite It's members to the per formance of kind and helpful deeds. and to thus bring the sunshine of happiness into the greatest number or hearts and homes. Under this con- stitution each branch pays to Its State society annual dues of one dol- lar, and each State society pays to the general society five dollars q year to help defray the expenses at headquar- ters. This, in brief, covers the aims and the financial obligations. Beyond that each branch may do the work 1t wishes, and there are many dinerent avenues of endeavor.
 A sanitarium at Bensonhurst-by-the- Sea, New York, Is conducted in the interest of the society. This Is open all the year round. The New York society has also opened a rest house next door to the sanitariufn. where in- valids and very tired neopie sit in the reading rooms or -bn the sun porches and get well and strong again. This branch has also home for blind babies wbere the foriorn and neglected little ones are fed and kept clean. taught Kindergarten lessons and games and how to make music on simple in- struments. This Is the first kinder garten for blind babies in the United States.
 At Hot Springs, Arkansas. the local sunshiners keep a home, primarily for gentlewomen. who are suffering with rheumatism and who have gone there to take advantage of the baths. In Sunshine Lodge for working girls, helping hand to the girls who make their own way on small salaries. On Forest Lake. Minnesota, the Mary Davis Lodge is maintained for sum mer vacations for mothers and little children. and more than 500 are taken there every summer. At Tecumseh, Nebraska-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. Ohio, the Sunshine Society maintains a wheel chair fund with which wheel chairs for invaiids and cripples are purchased and loaned these unfortunates for an indefinite period. They maintain also a Sunshine corner in the Toledo Hospital where free reading table Is kept supplied with magazines. and they maintain flower mission in one of the big stores there. At Center Point and Kerrville. Texas. and at Logan, Idaho, free libraries have been established on small scale. Various Maine branches have under taken to support several beds in the hospital for cripples and to furnish wheel chairs for any cripples who need them. The Kansas City branch is working among deformed and crip- pied children, and the New Britain. Connecticut, one looks after the en- tertainment of the folks at the Poor Farm.
 At La Junta, Colorado, a rest room Is kept open for visitnrs ar' workers. and at Knoxville, Tennessee. a similar institution is mainta'ned t'' St. Louis ten memorial cribs are sup ported in the Children's Home. and a bed in the Children's Hospital. Tn Boston an exchange and free library