GLYN MORRIS TALKS 1939 Harlan Kiwanis Club Talk

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 07: DIRECTORS
Glyn Morris
Talks 1939
Kiwanis Club Talk

GLYN MORRIS TALKS Harlan Kiwanis Club

05a Nurse Grace Rood and community family [ at the Infirmary ?] at Pine Mountain Settlement School. [62_life_work_gen_health_005a]


TAGS: Glyn Morris, talks, Harlan County Kiwanis Club, 1939, Dr. Clark Bailey, Harlan County, Letcher County, Nurse Aid Group, Grace M. Rood, visiting nurses, rural communities, teachers, James A. Cawood, school superintendents, woodworking, elementary school students, physical examinations, dental clinics, tonsil clinics, Dr. Mullens, Dr. Kilbourne, Dr. Gunn, typhoid shots,  fundraising, cod liver oil, vision examinations, tuberculosis


GLYN MORRIS TALKS Harlan Kiwanis Club 1939

Both the date of this talk and the speaker are not fully known. Most likely the speaker was the Glyn Morris, Director of Pine Mountain Settlement School from 1931 until 1942. He was most likely invited to speak by  Dr. Clark Bailey, a member of the Harlan County (Kentucky) Kiwanis Club, who served on the Board of Trustees at Pine Mountain Settlement School.


TRANSCRIPTION:

GLYN MORRIS TALK – Harlan Kiwanis Club [untitled]

01

The area ministered to directly by the Pine Mountain Settlement School begins, roughly, at Incline and goes east about as far as Gordon, in Letcher County [Kentucky]. This includes the area as far down as Napier, on Greasy Creek, and all that would be included from there to other points indicated, or approximately an area of about 160 sq.mi. It touches part of three counties, but most of the area to which we minister is in Harlan County, along Big Laurel and Little Laurel Creeks.

During the past year the school has organized some of its older girls into what we call a “Nurse Aid Group.” These girls are our best scholastically. Their entire work at the school is built around their work in the community. Two days a week under the nurse’s direction each girl calls regularly on a certain number of families. They are trained to observe the needs of the family and in methods of aiding wherever possible. Two days each week they spend their time studying, under guidance, the problems which they have encountered. One day a week they spend helping the elementary school teachers in the area. In this respect, through the cooperation of Mr. James A. Cawood, County School Superintendent of Harlan County, they have carried on classes in elementary woodworking. The reports from the teachers and students about this work have been most gratifying and we believe that much has been done in adding pleasure and instruction to the course of study prescribed for the elementary school children.

So far this yeаr this group of older girls have made it possible for 130 elementary school children in this area to receive physical examinations; they have organized 4 dental clinics for elementary school children; they arranged 1 tonsil clinic, through Dr. Mullens [of] Newdrop, and Kilbourne of Benham, and have secured promise of another through Dr. Gunn; they have made possible the giving of typhoid shots to many children and adults who were in need of them, besides…

02

…the enumerable and intangible ways by which they have brightened up many homes which they have visited regularly. They act as scouts for the nurse and under her direction do the work of visiting nurses, spending entire days with families who are in particular need of help.

This is a brief summary of what this group of girls is doing. We believe that educationally it is of great value to them and that it offers one possible solution to bringing help to a very rural and needy area.

Now as to what needs to be done: These girls have operated on a very meager budget. They have been greatly encouraged by the assistance which has been given them by the County School Superintendent, Dr. Clark Bailey, and the several dentists of Harlan. Aside from the actual help that has been given they are learning how to seek aid from agencies which are available and they have been inspired, as we have also, by the kindness and good will shown by the men previously mentioned. However, there is much more that is crying to be done. Briefly, the dental work so far done in this area is just the beginning of what needs to be done. At least 150 school children need fillings and further care of their teeth. We have at Pine Mountain the equipment necessary for dental work but we do not have the money necessary to buy the necessary materials. There is a great need for cod liver oil, to fill in the gap created by faulty diet and lack of vitamins. Practically no work at all is done on vision of the elementary school children in this area, and probably many of them need glasses, which they could not pay for. There are many cases of tuberculosis which need treatment and none of this is in sight. It might be possible to set up methods whereby the very extreme cases could be isolated. Then, too, we are hoping that the Nurse Aides’ Project will grow and establish itself in a firm financial basis which would enable some of the girls to stay…

03

…on at Pine Mountain for a year or two after graduation to continue in this area the work which they began in their school life. We have hoped that Pine Mountain some day may train many of these young girls available for service, for service in scattered rural communities which cannot afford medical service. We would like to pay these girls $25.00 a month, which comes to $300.00 a year.

I hope that this brief outline is not too staggering. In any case, I know that the girls who are now at work will be gratified by the interest which it is possible that the Kiwanis Club might show in their project.


GALLERY: GLYN MORRIS TALKS for Harlan Kiwanis Club


Return to: GLYN MORRIS 1931-1977 Guide to Talks, Writing, and Publications
See Also: GLYN MORRIS Director – Biography