Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-06-16
WEAK CHILD KING
IN COUNTRY HOME
Place for ConyaIescentS of
Poor Families Shows Vast
Improvement.

disease weakened and underfed off,
spring of INDECENT parents. three
quarters of whom are on relief, too
poor to provide for the children seri-
ously in need of care.
It was launched in 1888 and for
more than 40 years was only Sum-
mer retreat where convalescent I'M
derprivileged boys and girls of pre-
school age could go for few months
OF sunshine and proper attention.
Now children are brought IL months
A wear to its graceful, attractive build
ing at Eighteenth street and Bunker
Hill road northeast to be in truth
made fit for living"
The number who can benefit from
the homes work is severely limited.
It's capacity is AZ children. Last year
ia patients were admitted. The
waiting list is long, but only those
In dire distress can be cared for.
Limited as to Age.
The home is a convalescent institu-
ton for children from months to
6 years. The patients are brought
mainly from Children's Hospital.
MANY come direct from homes where
social service workers find them, and
the rest are sent by the citys other
hospitals.
1T is maintained by Board of Lady
Managers, headed by Mrs. Philip Cof-
I'm. and derives most of its financial
support from the Community Chest.
The Thrift Shop makes donations,
and part OF the Presidents Ball fund
was assigned to the home for the
care Of polio cases.
The children themselves pay very
little. Some parents, to buoy their
self-respect, pay 25 cents to 81 week
toward the expenses entailed in keep
ing their children at the home. The
father of one little girl now at the
institution pays SIS a week. This is
almost a record.
DR.. Frank Leech of Childrens Hos
pital heads the medical staff, with DR..
Montgomery Blair, DR.. H. Lynn Colvin
and DR.. John H. Mcleod aiding him.
THE home is built around the chill
dren" says Miss Edith Torklngton,
It's superintendent, and she is right.
Appropriate Furniture.
The whole organization is of size
to accommodate tiny folk The tables
basins are low. The beds are cribs,
varying in color from white to the
bright blue used by the boys and girls
from to 7. High chairs line one
wall of the dining room, and at meal
time their avidly hungry occupants
pound impatiently on the boards in
front of them.
A play room is piled high with toys,
dolls, fire trucks, wagons, blocks and
big books filled with pictures. Here
on rainy days Mrs. Geneva Warner
supervises the children-teaches them
games. sings songs with them, reads
to them.
Most of the time the boys and girls
play on a green lawn that slopes
away from the main building to
high fence. An area thick with peb-
bles is another play place.
The children are under constant
watch of three graduate nurses, all
from Children's Hospital. They are
weighed twice week and examined
by the doctors twice week. Their
temperature is taken twice a day.
Their life is strictly regimented and
supervised at all times.
The arriving patient is isolated for
TWO W66kS III oil ddllloc4OAA NASASAN'
where with five others he or she leads
a life apart, under the eye of special
nurse. At the end of this initial
period. If there Is no temperature or
symptom of contagious disease. the
child is placed in the nursery with the
other convalescentS.
Stay Not Limited.
There they are kept at least two
months, With no limit set on the time
they may stay.
The children wear no uniforms.
They are clothed IN cotton dresses
and play suits supplied by the home,
which permits the children to keep
only their shoes while at the institu-
ton.
A recent innovation is the two-day-
a-Week volunteer work of social
service expert, who contacts the child's
home before it leaves the Country
Home to determine What the condi-
tions are going to be, and then re-
checks three weeks after the child
has gone home to see if it is being
readjusted to its surroundings.
The whole atmosphere Of the place
Is one of great informality. The
property for the home was donated
by Col. and Mrs. Arthur O'Brien. The
low-lying, one-story building de-
signed by Nathan Wyeth, and its
decoration planned to some extent by
Mrs. John r. williams and Mrs. Harry
Kerr, was built with the proceeds
from the sale of the original homes
property ir Rock Greek Park, given
by Charles Glover, to whom the play
room is dedicated.
Mrs. williams hit upon painting
the babies room pink, the girls blue
and the boys green.
b Il like that green for the boys"
Mrs. williams exclaimed.
As we'll as fitting young children
for a better life, the home trains an
nually six nursery aides. young worr1-
en- taught to care for babies so that
they can help mothers in private
homes.
IT love the work" said Mrs. Coffin,
who has Just been chosen president
for a second term.
Greatly Improved.
give seen tremendous improve
nents made in the home during the
last few years. We've established an
adrnittance ward; we've had the home
insulated; we've increased the stan
Of doctors from one 10 four.
I'VE owe most of our advance to
Miss Matte Gibson, head OF Chill
dren's Hospital, who sends us her
best nurses and co-operates as far as
she can. like to feel we're almost
an annex to the Childrens Hospital.
IT would like it If we were able to
accommodate more children. The
hospitals can't possibly keep the con-
yalescent children, and we have space
for only few"
with Mrs. Coffin on the Board of
Lady Managers are:
Mrs. Kenna Elkins, vice president;
Mrs. Archibald H. Davis. secretary;
Mrs McKeldin Tucker, assistant Sec