The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1921-06-01
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1921.
REPORT OF PEACE TIME PROGRAM
OF
AMERICAN RED CROSS, REDWOOD COUNTY
I CHAPTER.

July, 1920 to April, 1921 Inclusive.

Redwood County branch in 1920 includes the fol-
lowing activities; Civilian Relief, Child Welfare,
Ex-Service Mems Relief, Recreation, Production,
Boys and Girls Club Work and Nursing.
The aim Of this Peace Time Program has been
to promote health, to relieve distress, to educate
and to encourage recreation-an altogether un-
ique combination and which reflects much
credit upon those who stood back Of it's inception
and to those agencies that have given it support
during the ten months of its operation. Chief
among these agencies have been;
The county superintendent, Miss Kennedy, who
has at all times been ready and willing to assist;
The members of the Child Welfare Board who
have assisted in making Investigations and in
making careful study Of family problems;
The County Commissioners who have without
one exception assumed the responsibility of car
ing for INDECENT persons as they have been report
ed by the Red Cross;
The County Farm Bureau in so far as it has
been able, and the County agent who has given
technical advice concerning the management of
the Boys and Girls Club Work.
This report represents my own actual expert
ence and is not in any sense summary of what
local Home Service workers in each branch have
accomplished and reported.
Civilian Relief
Civilian Relief work has taken many forms,
CHIEFLY however, along the lines of family work
and child welfare work. Each case is short
history in itself but for illustration will mention,
briefly, the history of few.
One family of the "Ne'er do well" type, living
on low SCALE encouraged to brace up, and
have remained SO up to the present. The son has
been given employment which allows him to help
in the support of the family, and daughter OF
immoral tendencies has been directed otherwise.
In another family the father assisted, by
slight operation, for which the County Commits
= sioners paid, to regain the health which makes
him able to support his family again after long
term Of dependence upon others, among whom
was the Red Cross which had given material as
sistance for over year. The mother Of this
family was cared for by the Public Health nurse
during trying Illness clothing was provided for
the children and the family is now on it's way
toward self-supporting, sef-respecting future
- This illustrates how the Red Cross functions
by following the principle of Judge Hall Of Gran
lite Falls. His idea Of service is the one held by
social welfare workers everywhere and teaches
that the function Of the Red Cross is to place
responsibility where it should rest-to teach and
help the needy to help themselves. Similar
cases are numerous. '-~-
An elderly woman with incurable disease
was living lonely, dependent life. She has been
put in an excellent home where she is as COM
Portable and as happy as it is possible for one in
her condition to be.
family coming into the county from outside
had a son who died shortly after the family
reached the county. The family was extremely
poor, the father having barely enough to meet
the funeral expenses These expenses were later
refunded to the father through the Commissioners
and the family shown such kindnesses as were in
the reach of the Red Cross. The father was so
impressed by this treatment that he has taken
a new interest in his family and is now making
fair home for them, working hard in their sup
port, and is Loyalty keeping his word to abstain
from the drink which he stated was the cause of
& his poverty
Child Welfare
Closely related to this family work is the Child
Welfare Work It is most difficult to describe
the subtle cases that come to us-poor little waits
whom no one seems to want, pathetic cases of
neglect, cases of mental deficiency where the
sins Of the parents have surely made heritage
for the child but the sort of heritage that acts
as handicap through all that child's life.
The Child Welfare Board is under the direct
supervision of the State Board Of Control and in
full cooperation with the Red Cross. Twenty-Five
children have been aided by this Board By this
statement mean more lasting aid than the
furnishing of clothing, although clothing has been
given to many more than this number. Briefly
the work has gone as follows.
One little boy, abandoned by both father and
mother, who went their separate ways, was taken
up by us and placed in good home with kind
lady who is a resident of the County. His teeth
and eyes, which were in bad condition, have been
successfully treated.
In one family Of three children where the moth
er was dead and the father totally Indifferent as
to what became Of his children, one child was
adopted, second was found a home where she is
being provided for financially by the Commission