As the Rotary Club of World Disability Advocacy is focused on human rights for people with disabilities worldwide, it is amazing to discover that more than 100 years ago, Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary International also focused on helping children with disabilities. 

ROTARY AND CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES 

By Eduardo Muniz Werneck

Member The Rotary Club of World Disability Advocacy

On May 28th, 1907, the Chamber of Commerce of the small town of Elyria, Ohio, met to decide on the construction of a larger and more modern hospital to replace the existing one, with few resources and only one nurse, and whose administrator had just resigned. Edgar F. Allen, a successful merchant from the city, was among those present.

Two days later, a collision between two crowded trams in the city left dozens of people injured and nine dead, including Edgar's eldest son, aged eighteen. Doctors later claimed that the deaths were due to delays in care, as the wounded had to be taken to neighboring towns, as the local hospital was unable to treat them.

A little over a year later, a new, modern hospital with a team of efficient doctors opened its doors in the small community, thanks mainly to the effort and dedication of Edgar Allen, who took over the project, seeking resources among the entrepreneurs of the city.

In 1911, an 11-year-old boy with infantile paralysis (polio), Jimmy Bodak, is brought to the hospital for treatment. Edgar ends up getting attached to Jimmy, who calls him "Daddy." Four years later, following a suggestion by Dr. Baldwin, the doctor who had brought Jimmy to the hospital, Edgar opened a new hospital, with the sole purpose of treating children with physical disabilities.

Due to the low influx of patients, which Edgar knew existed in the region, he asks for help from civil organizations and the Rotary Club of Toledo, a city neighboring Elyria, ends up getting involved in the project. A committee is created within the club to deal with the program, and little by little other clubs in the state joined the cause. In 1919 the Ohio Society for Children with Disabilities is founded. When Arch Klumph, of the RC of Cleveland, Ohio, becomes president of RI, he suggests that all Rotary Clubs develop projects around the theme.

Clubs across the country seek Edgar Allen to learn about his work, and eventually, Paul Harris himself becomes so involved that he ends up chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Society for Children with Disabilities, created in 1921 by Rotarians from various states and Canada.

With the end of the emphasis on commercial exchange among Rotarians, the cause came to offer an alternative to clubs that were looking for a new objective to dedicate themselves, and this represented perhaps the biggest project of Rotary until the appearance of Polio Plus. And the cause of Children with Disabilities almost became an official RI program at the 1923 Convention

About the Author

Edwardo, who has been in Rotary for more than 40 years, is a former District Governor and is a member of the Sao Leopoldo Leste Rotary in Brazil, D 4670.  He is a Rotary Historian and  is also an honorary member of The Rotary Club of World Disability Advocacy