Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 17: PMSS Publications (Published by the School)
Dear Friend Letter 1941
Dear Friend Letter 1941 April 30
TAGS: fundraising letter from Glyn Morris,building of rock wall,WWII,learning by doing,student achievements,war-time Boarding School years,hands-on education
CONTENTS
Dear Friend Letter 1941 consists of a 2-page letter that includes the following subjects:
Letterhead lists names of director and treasurer; Director Glyn Morris describes building a rock wall at the school; describes pride in work as a simple virtue; describes how the School has prepared the students to face the new world, whether at war or at home ; feels thankful for the students’ hardiness and courage and for donors ; asks for donors’ continued help ; signed by Glyn A. Morris ;
GALLERY: Dear Friend Letters 1941
Dear Friend Letter from Glyn Morris 1941, p. 1. 
Dear Friend Letter from Glyn Morris 1941, p. 2.
In this war-time letter to Friends, Glyn Morris describes the hands-on education that Pine Mountain provided in war-time Boarding School years
“Now in these troubled times, when so much is happening that we should not have thought possible a short time ago, we reach more strongly for the simple but eternal virtues on which right living depend,”
He goes on to say
“In the midst of a rapidly changing and complex world Pine Mountain tries to live the ideal that the best kind of training for boys and girls is to let them share in maintaining and recreating the world in which they live. Here in this valley, cupped in by rugged mountains, with earth and sky quite real and with a sense of the eternal ever present, we work with our hands as did the pioneers — on farm and in shop — in sun and rain and wind. We see and share in the results of our own work.
“Each year adds to the justification of what is done at Pine Mountain as more and more boys and girls leave to take their places elsewhere. I think especially of the five most recent girls to go into nurse’s training. From the limitations of cabins on lonely creeks or of crowded coal camps, they pass through Pine Mountain with its emphasis on learning by doing and go out — to be not mediocre, but outstanding. Of one I read, ‘She is so different from the majority of girls and will be a nurse you will be proud of.’ Another ranks next to the top in her class in a far-away city hospital. One of them maintains in some things the highest standing in her class where nearly one out of two have either dropped out or failed. Another has won the science prize in the school she attended and was publicly commended for her excellent attitude. In gratitude, she wrote to us, “There is something at Pine Mountain we can’t put our fingers on but when we come out into the world we know it’s there.”
“Truly enough, Pine Mountain makes its contribution to the life of each individual boy and girl by the opportunity it offers, but it is in the intangible qualities of which Mary Sue writes that its greatest value lies. ‘Pride in work well done,’ willingness to work, to take an active hand in remaking the community as our boys and girls do, to work in kitchen, dairy, shop and hospital as part of school; from these and many other things grow the intangible qualities that America can’t afford to lose.
“As the bell on top of new Laurel House rings each day we like to think its tones, calling us to its table after hard work, are a symbol of a quality of life, and that from our narrow valley here in Kentucky, you, who in a sense belong to Pine Mountain too, even now can hear its cheery tones.
“We can take only one of each five who ask to come, but for each one who comes, we need some gift from you so that these boys and girls may certainly have the opportunity to be useful and creative citizens. Won’t you help us, no matter how small the gift?
“Faithfully yours,
Glyn A. Morris [Director]”
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