Ida Kennard was one of my mother's close friends. I remember Ida and remember Mama talking about working with Ida "over the years" - "making a difference - doing good".
I found a little yellow booklet i Mama's files called "The History of Human Service in Clermont County" by Ida Kennard - published in 1982 by the Clermont County Mental Health Association (a United Appeal Agency). I am sharing it here, with you and hope you will share it with others, too.
Introduction
We believe in Emerson's truth, "that all things can be bought with money ... but the warm impulses of the human heart they are priceless."
It is fitting in Clermont to celebrate the efforts of volunteers not only in the field of mental health, but in all areas of human service. It is our aim to suggest briefly the origins of only a few of many which have flourished in the life of Clermont villages. These have been county-wide in scope, ones we now tresure and take for granted. The brightest flowers bloom in the desert, in the fifties, many felt Clermont was a desert, frustrated by the lack of social services which had been familiar in uban areas whnce they had come.
The first county wide "think tank", the League of Woman Voters, was organized in 1959 with Lois Brown Dale (loisbrowndale.blogspot.com) as president. Its local studies revealed considerable unmet need, especially in the ares of health, children's services, and mental health. The Board of Health was determined, as now, to limit itself to sanitary and nursing services.
The nurses were of high qulaity and along with Harvey Hines, the sanitarian, they responded to every community effort. A Clermont County Health Conference was organized by a committee of the Medical Society under Dr. James McMillan with nurses and volunteers to innoculate poor children in the Batavia Armory. Later it was held at Mt. Moriah Church and continues as a free monthly immunization clinic in the Service Center.
Community Chest
In 1955 the Community Chest area was enlarged to include Clermont. In 1959 volunteers organized the Health & Welfare Council to study needs and plan solutions. Robert Crowe chaired a forty member committee with Ida Kennard as volunteer staff. At monthly meetings, professionals from the Welfare Department, Soldiers and Sailors Relief, and Nursing and Red Cross became acquainted with each other, and with citizens, meeting in the Batavia Presbyterian Chruch.
They secured an extension of service to the County by Children's Protective and in 1961 assuarance of seventy five places for Clermont Citizens in General Hospital's Psychiatric Clinic. In 1961, funds were commited for extension of Family Services of the Cincinnati Area and Cincinnati Legal Aid Society to Clermont. Marquhet Jamison chaired the first Family Service Board, and along with other volunteers did the secretarial work in the office.
Association for Retarded Citizens
For ten years, period longer than any other agency, the training of retarded childred was solely dependent upon volunteers and upon funs raised by benefits. Many supporteres were parents and foster parents of handicapped children. Ohio did not entrust their training to the educational system as did many states and therefore program development was slow. Some programs, however, were of quality, dut to the deication of friends. In the fifties the Tri-County Council was organized under the leadership of Francis Reese, Executive Director of the Clermont County Child Welfare Board, who opened a class in Warren County.
Unfortunately, because of the poor facilities the children regularly ran around the room in the winter to keep warm.
The Clermont County Council for Retarded Children was a sequel which opened one class in Lindale Baptist Church in 1959. Teachers prepared themselves in night classes which were developing in the universities. The Health and Welfare Council joined with parents, churches and civic groups in urging the County Commission to fund the classes. This was done by adding $4600.00 to the Children's Services budget in 1960.
Agnella De Felice, R.N. was hired by Wayne Oney, Director of Welfare, to supervise the four classes which were moved to the basement of the Service Center. In 1960 the Community Chest Board approved an $8400 grant to the Council for Retarded Children, enability it to provide workshop sercie in addition to advocacy.
The shop opened in Amelia under the direction of Robert Hall on July 2, 1964. Mr. Warren Holden and Mr. Hall provided transportation in their cars to the six workers. The shop was subsequently located at three sites in Batavia and Lindale.
It grew to serve twenty-five workers. The County Board of Mental Retardation was formed in 1967 as mandated by the Ohio House Bill 169. The first Chairman of the Board was Don Collins, who presently directs the County program. in 1970 the workshop was contracted to the Council and in 1971 was absorbed by the Board and called Clerco. The passage of the County levies in 1973 made possible the building of the Training Center and the Residential Care program. Chest funding continues for Clermont County Association for Retarded Citizens.
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