COLUMN: Carillon Flashback April 28, 1966 – “Flowers of Hope” An appeal for understanding
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At the Kindale School on Elmdale Drive, many of the students have been busy assembling small packages of flower seeds to be mailed out to the community as a symbol of hope and achievement.
Hope is that soon medical science will discover what makes these youngsters “tick” so much differently than the rest. Hope is that the community at large will not forget them, and hope is that the community will continue to support the school that teaches them so many things.
The little packages are also a symbol of achievement, showing that the students at the Kindale School have learned to do real things, even if they can’t do them as fast, or as fluently, as other children.
The little folder with the Flowers of Hope is one of more than two million packages, sent to householders across the country as part of an international public education program, during the week of May 8-15.
The little folders, assembled by the intellectually disabled, are for planting by those who receive them, hoping they will give thought to the children in their own community.
The children, like those at Kindale, learn much more than packaging seeds. At Steinbach’s Kindale School, which incidentally was the first school for intellectually challenged when it opened nearly a decade ago, the youngsters seem to be as busy as bees, doing things they like to do.
About half the students like to sing, according to the principal, and sing they do. Teacher Mrs. Art Baerg sings with the group all through most every afternoon with hardly a break.
This group will again put on an “Operetta” like the one which drew so much favourable attention last year. The Steinbach Collegiate auditorium was filled to capacity twice in one day.
Students at Kindale also learn to shine shoes or make coat hangers. There is also a woodworking shop, where John Barkman, who doubles as school bus driver and shop instructor, helps some of the bigger boys make packing boxes. He supervises the boys who operate an electric saw and other tools.
Some girls sew and iron, and some boys have learned to drive nails and use a paint brush. One student has learned to operate a typewriter.
Five teachers and a shop teacher make up the staff at Kindale School. They have a big job and a big responsibility but all agree emphatically that the work is not without its rewards.
The current staff is comprised of Principal Elfrieda Neufeld, staff teachers Mrs. Isaac Mooney, Mrs. Neil Wiebe, Mrs. Art Baerg, Bill Giesbrecht, and John Barkman.
The money raised through the Flowers of Hope campaign provides the local Association for Community Living with the operating funds to carry on their vital work on behalf of the intellectually challenged in the area.