Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 18: PUBLICATIONS RELATED
 Lillian Hussey, Author 
Three Fundraising Articles About PMSS
In URN, the Beta Sigma Omicron Magazine
1951 and 1952

PUBLICATIONS RELATED Lillian Hussey Fundraising Articles

Published in the URN, a Beta Sigma Omicron Magazine
December 1951 and 1952

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TAGS: Publications related to PMSS, Lillian Hussey, Mrs. Wilbur G. Hussey, fundraising articles, the URN, Beta Sigma Omicron, Erna Berry Watson Memorial Fund, PMSS medical service, William Creech, Ethel de Long Zande, Katherine Pettit, Burton Rogers

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Lillian Hussey, the author of the following three fundraising articles featuring Pine Mountain Settlement School, was the national director of the Beta Sigma Omicron sorority. Published in the December of 1951 and 1952 issues of URN, Beta Sigma Omicron’s magazine, the articles were titled: “Icy End of the Plank,” “Have Heart and Cravin’,” and “What is Pine Mountain?”

Beta Sigma Omicron (ΒΣΟ) is now a defunct national sorority. It was founded on December 12, 1888, and merged with Zeta Tau Alpha on August 7, 1964. (Source: Wikipedia). The sorority was a primary contributor to Pine Mountain Settlement School for many years, often through their Erna Berry Watson Memorial Fund.

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TRANSCRIPTION

[001]

(Handwritten notation: Dec. 1952)

Icy End of the Plank
By Lillian Hussey

Photograph caption: “The Maternity Ward at Pine Mountain Settlement School”

RECENTLY, I read a story in a booklet entitled “With Jesus on the Scout Trail” by Walter Dudley Cavert. The story tells of a group of young people who were skating on a river when a boy ventured out toward the current and the ice gave way beneath him. His efforts to climb out were in vain, for the thin ice broke beneath his hands. One of the other skaters hurriedly tore a plank from the frozen snow on the bank and carefully shoved it out to the boy, but he made the mistake of giving him the icy end. The numb fingers were unable to grasp the slippery wood, and the boy slid back beneath the water and disappeared.

Very soon the annual request for contributions to the Erna Berry Watson Memorial Fund will go out to Betas everywhere. Do not give the “Icy End of the Plank” to these boys and girls in a remote mountain section of our country. The Pine Mountain School needs our financial help to maintain the only medical service in this area; to provide, in cooperation with

[002] 

(Page) 36 The Urn

Photograph caption: “Happy school children and dining room at Pine Mountain Settlement School”

the county board of education, a modern consolidated school; to further the agricultural development of the community through the operation of a demonstration farm and to bring to the community a fuller life and a more united Christian fellowship.

Individual Betas who are not at present affiliated with an active or alumnæ chapter may help to remove the ice from the end of the plank by sending their contributions direct to:

Mrs. Wilbur G. Hussey
….
Floral Park, New York

These contributions will be credited to a chapter if one is indicated.

….

[003]

Photograph captions:
“ΒΣΟ MONEY HELPS SUPPLY HOSPITAL NEEDS”
“PINE MOUNTAIN SCHOOL CHILD”

Have Heart and Cravin’
By Lillian Hussey, National Director

VVILLIAM CREECH, SR., said, “I have heart and cravin’ that our people may grow better. I have deeded my land to the Pine Mountain Settlement School to be used for school purposes as long as the Constitution of the United States stands. Hopin’ it may make a bright and intelligent people after I’m dead and gone.”

Katherine Pettit and Ethel de Long Zande, the co-founders, were first in a long line of people dedicated to service at Pine Mountain. They did all “have heart and cravin'” to see the school expand and the program change to fit the growing needs of the mountain community. How it can best serve in the future remains to be seen, but one thing seems certain: the school will be needed not less but more in the years to come. We, too, should commit ourselves to the fulfillment of Uncle William’s cravin.’ How can we do this? By following the advice found in Proverbs 3:27 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” We who are geographically remote from Pine Mountain cannot offer services to the school but it is within our power to provide the money needed in ever increasing amounts to make it possible for those near at hand to do more and more good. When the request for donations to the Erna Berry Watson Memorial fund goes out to active and alumnæ chapters may each Beta Sig “have heart and cravin'” to do all in her power to encourage every chapter to make a donation, larger than they have ever made before.

The work at Pine Mountain has been made possible for forty years because of gifts both large and small. Burton Rogers, the director, said, “This school is a product of faith … faith of the workers in their task, and your faith in us and the cause we serve together.” We are co-partners in this work. Let us not shirk our responsibility. Donations to the Erna Berry Watson Memorial Fund to help in the good work done at Pine Mountain School may be sent to Mrs. Wilbur G. Hussey, … Floral Park, N.Y.

[004]

(Handwritten notation: “Dec 51”)

What is Pine Mountain?
By Lillian Hussey, Chairman, Erna Berry Watson Memorial Fund

There are a variety of answers dependent upon the person to whom the question is addressed

To the boys and girls of the community it is an opportunity to attend a school far superior in staff, equipment and program to the five one room schools which it replaces –a school which provides experiences which will make them better present and future citizens of their community, their country and their world. To seniors at Berea College who are majoring in education it is an opportunity for practical experience. As assistant teachers they are helping in a most practical way. To the farmer it is an incentive to further the agricultural and economic development of the community. It is a demonstration of what can be done with a few acres of cultivated land. To all who live in this remote mountain region it is the only medical service in the area. This service includes a 16 bed hospital staffed by a doctor and three nurses. A fourth nurse serves the school families in a unique school and public health program. Working as a Christian non-sectarian institution it offers a fuller life and a more united Christian fellowship throughout the community.

To Beta Sigs it is an opportunity to offer help where help is needed. Because we are geographically remote from the school it is not always possible to offer our services but we can give financial aid. The amount need not be large. When Jesus fed the multitude, he did it by using the small amount of food offered by a boy who was willing to divide it with other people. Jesus gave thanks for even so little, then blessed it and distributed it to meet a great human need.

“When thou lookest on the woes of man
Be not disheartened by thy little means,
Or ask, “How, Lord, can I do aught to aid?”
Offer thy loaf, and God shall multiply
To them and thee thy gift of ready love.

….

GALLERY

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See Also;
PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO PMSS

Return To:
PUBLICATIONS RELATED Guide

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