Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on February 6, 1956.
Event Is Thursday
Kiwanis Project To Aid Handicapped Children
Valparaio’s Kiwanians will don their aprons again this Thursday, Feb. 9, to provide recreation enjoyment this summer for some local handicapped children.
The occasion is the annual Pancake Day.
It will be held at the Moose hall on Indiana street with service being continually from 6 a.m., to 8 p.m.
Members of the club will do the preparing and serving.
The menu will include pancakes, sausage, orange juice, coffee and milk, with no limit placed on the number of portions served to those who attend.
“We hope that with the help of the people of this region, that this will be the greatest Pancake Day event we have ever managed,” Carl Nellans said today when queried concerning the annual Kiwanis money raising project.
Nellans is vice president of the local service club and is in charge of the Pancake Day arrangements.
“We know that we have done a lot of good for area youngsters in the past and we hope to do even more in the future, Nellans continued.
“Last year we sent six handicapped children to a special camp at Twin Lakes, near Plymouth, for four weeks. We paid $100 for each child but that is not too much when you consider the number of specially trained people who are required to be in attendance on these children.
“They received wonderful care and enjoyed themselves in surroundings far removed from their everyday life. It would be a shame if we could not continue this part of our program.”
Camp Provides Services
Nellans further explained that the children were transported to the camp in a special railroad car which left Chicago with other campers and picked up the local group here.
The camp provides medical services and therapy for children who need special attention. The camp’s activities include swimming, handicrafts and similar pastimes engaged in at other summer camps for children.
In addition to its program for handicapped children, the Kiwanis club in the last year also donated money to the Mooseheart home for boys and girls and gave help to other children who needed aid which was not available from public funds.
Assistance given by the club is without publicity and the names of those aided are known only to the committee which handles aid matters for the club, Nellans stated.
Kiwanians To stage Annual Fund Raising Drive
VALPARAISO KIWANIS members Ben Kemp, Lee Salberg and Carl Nellans fill syrup pitchers in preparation for annual fund-raising Pancake Day to be held all day Thursday at Moose hall. Money raised by the event is used for aid to handicapped children.
