Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1922-09-28
Report of the Red Cross meeting
Held at Dodgeville, Sept. %.


On Saturday afternoon, September
23rd, an interesting meeting of the
Iowa County Chapter of the Ameri-
can Red Cross was held in the Com
mercial Club Rooms at Dodgeville.
The object of the meeting was to dis
cuss the work of the Red Cross in
the county, the need of continuing
the work here, and ways and means
of providing for the necessary ex-
penses of the work. A financial re-
port was read by the Chapter Secre-
tary, Mrs. r. j. Pollard, which show
ed a small amount of funds now in
Iowa county.
Miss Cassie e. Lewis, Executive
Secretary of the Iowa County Chapt-
er, gave a report of her work during
the past year which was surprise to
many of those present who had not
realized how many and varied are
the services a Red Cross Secretary
must perform. The cases of IS ex-
service men have received attention
in the past year. Hospital care has
been secured for 25 disabled men,
and five have been assisted in receiv-
ing state compensation until the gov
ernment award was made. Three
have received state bonus who did
not know they were entitled to it un-
til Informed by the secretary.
Twelve disabled men have been as
sisted to file claims for compensation
and nine have been aided to secure a
reinstatement of compensation which
had been discontinued before these
men were fully able to be self-sup-
porting. Because of the period of
time which has elaped since the dis
charge of these men, it is sometimes
difficult to connect the disability
with service, and much time has to
be spent in securing the necessary
affidavits from friends, employers,
former comrads, physicians, etc. The
government hospitals frequently ask
for family and social history of the
men under their care, especially in
the hospitals for the tubercu1ous
and mental troubles where such his
tories are necessary for the proper
treatment of the patient. Fourteen
such histories have been secured by
the secretary the past year. Five
cases were cited in some detail by
Miss Lewis to show the exact nature
OF the amount and kind Of work in
volved in the adjustments in. the
work of the ex-service men and their
families. These cases have come
from all parts of the county, even
from townships where the represent
atives present at the meeting did not
know that any man in need of such
service was living in their commun-
ity, such is the confidential nature
of the work.
Seventy-five families, other than
ex-service men have been served by
the Red Cross Secretary in the past
year. These services have consisted
of finding proper homes for four de-
pendent children, Of securing the CO.
operation and aid Of relatives, relief
committees or other agencies in GER
tain needy cases, where otherwise
public funds would have had to be
called upon, obtaining nursing and
medical care, Including several ma
ternity cases. The cooperation of
town and county authorities in all
cases referred to them has been very
helpful and much appreciated. At
the request Of the chairman, day
was spent in one township where
county aid was being given to a
number of families. The Red Cross
| assisted in Investigating the needs of
! these families, and in gathering and
distributing clothing.
1900 school children have been
weighed and measured, and Red
Cross tags given to each child, show
ing his present weight and what the
| normal weight should be. Nutrition
work has been done in a number of
schools as a result. Home visits
have been made to the homes of
children found to be suffering from
physical defects. The secretary as
sisted physician from the State
Board of Health in making arrange
ments for health talks before three
parent teachers associations and one
commercial club. Two deaf child
rem have been referred to the State
School for the deaf, one of whom
was admitted.
In addition to this mention was
made of the work for the Govern
ment Cleanup Squad in October