Evening star., 1945-05-13
Just Between
Ourselves
BY Philip Fl. Love .

Somewhere in the flood of news
that has poured out of Germany in
recent weeks, there was a paragraph
or so abous Polish boy of about
IA who had been a prisoner of the
Nazis since the beginning of the
war. His parents had been killed in
the invasion Of Poland in Septem-
ber, 1899, and from then until April,
l945, he'd known no home but q
concentration camp. If the Ger
mans had not been crushed by the
Allies, the remainder of his life
would have been spent in slavery.
Now he is free. But he has no
home to which to return, no mother
or father with whom to establish a
new one. He has nothing, really,
but the shabby clothes on his back
and the food and shelter provided
by the strangers who gave him the
only liberty he has known in more
than five and a half years.
All through Europe, countless
boys and girls are in the same
tragic situation as this young Pole
their families gone, homes de-
stroyed, dependent on the charity
OF their liberators for something to
eat and place to sleep. The pic
ture staggers the IMAGINATION
which is a good thing, because the
human heart can hold only so much
pity.
Compared with those European
youngsters even the poorest Ameri-
can boys and girls are well off, in
deed. They may not get all the
things they'd like to have, but, at
least, most of them are blessed with
mothers and fathers and homes
And Mothers Day is, I think, a good
time to do a little thinking along
that line.
Like the houses we live in, the
food we eat, the clothes we wear
like our very freedom as Americans
our mothers are taken for granted.
But they shouldn't be. None of
our many blessings should be. That
Polish boy no doubt could tell us a
lot about that.
II ~
The Girls Auxiliary of the Trini-
dad Boys Club (see picture at top
OF page) represents an unusual ap-
proach to the problem of providing
wholesome and inexpensive recrea-
ton for young people.
The Trinidad Boys Club was or
ganized last August by Fred Nalley,
Jr., young businessman, in a build
ing at the rear of 816 Twelfth street
NE. "a story about the group. by
Morton Freedman, IA, of Eliot Junior
High School, appeared in The Junior
Star of February 49, When Mrs
Karl Winfield saw how much the
boys enjoyed their club, she decided
TO let the girls of the Trinidad Sec
tlon set up an auxiliary in the base
ment Of her home, l108 I street NE.
Mrs. Winfeld's recipe for a sue
cessful girls organization was
simple: Take group from 8 to lS.
Give them meeting place and
something to do Let them elect
SAA@N>to q oAAS 0A q " up lliClI ONII Iul6S.
Then be on hand to give advice and
help-but stay in the background
That recipe has produced a club
which has grown from IS original
members in late January to an en-
rollment Of more than so. And this
summer the girls, who represent a
half-dozen schools, plan an ex-
panded program of cooking classes
and war service work.
The auxiliary meets from 7 to 9
pm each Tuesday and Thursday in
Mrs. Winfeld's basement. It's hand
work groups keep busy crocheting
and embroidering and there are
periods devoted to the writing of
letters to relatives and friends in
the service. On Wednesday nights
the girls have gym classes in the
Boys Club and on Saturdays the
two groups have joint dances there
Mrs. Winfield is assisted by board
which includes mothers of the COM
munity and a 17-year-old member
Edna Bradley, who directs the gym
classes.