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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-06-29, Page 21sykes Communication from the top of this page seems to have worn to a frazzle. Some readers mistook, the few garbled sentences produced from this typewriter that I refer to lovingly as a column, as gospel. Understandably, readers of this weekly have come to respect the words on these pages as accurate and prepared in a professional manner, And naturally you expect the same professionalism from this corner. But as my journalism professor was wont to say, in drilling eager students on the finer aspects of reporting, never assume anything. Readers who scan a few lines of this column on a regular or irregular basis should never assume that anything serious or profound would flow from the typewriter of this insensitive personality. The columns on Page Five were Debbie Raivii of Seaforth pushes Patt Jones of Windsor to a workshop on physically handicapped children at a leadership camp held for those who wprk .with the disabled. Patti is an assistant coach with a group of wheelchair athletes in Windsor called The Wheeler Dealers. Both women hope to go back to their communities better equipped to work with disabled people after having been at the camp. (Photo by Joanne Walters) • Debbie Matheson takes part in an obstacle course designed for people in wheelchairs. Debbie was attending a leadership training camp held at Camp Menesetung last week for leaders who work with disabled people. She was finding out for the first time what it is like to be confined to a wheelchair and can now appreciate the problems more as well as adapting games to the disability. (Photo by Joanne Walters) eliminated partly due to a lack of peak interest but also to make room for a full page of sports coverage in the first section of the newspaper. Many people undoubtedly have difficulty digesting what was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek approach to news and often failed to find substance in the content of these columns. Last week's column was so con- vincing that several subscribers were convinced that my labors on these pages was suspect. But while they may have muttered" a few symlt athetic remarks under their breath (others I understand, performed a few cart- wheels around the living room) there was nary a note of sympathy or a deluge of flowers offered my way. Which gives a clear indica*ion of the impact of this scribe's work. Since this column began to appear on r regular basis, readers, in their usual } thederich spirit of co-operation, have helpfully suggested what I might do with this weekly offering. In response to those fine literary critiques, I think it only fair that I should propose what the readers can do with this column. Folded neatly this page of your favorite weekly can be slipped under the dog dish or in the bird cage to make an excellent catch-all for slops, drips or doggie -do. While waiting fora bus on a rainy dpy this page can be used as a rainhat to protect the coiffure from unwanted raindrops. Those of a more inventive nature could fold this page into a neat fitting party hat to be used for weddings, anniversaries, house warmings or impromptu birthday parties at the office. Immediately after reading the• contents on this page it can be placed by the front or back door for use as a boot tray. This page has also been known as a handy tool for the homemaker to rap up potato peelings, cucumber peelings, fish innards, left -over chili that had to be pried from the pot or other un- wanted, messy scraps. This page of your newspaper, it has been reported, has been responsible for many romantic evenings around the fireplace on cold winter evenings. Or in some cases has provided incentive for people to use their fireplaces. This page of the newspaper, when stacked up along with the other newspapers you haven't read, makes a worthy contribution to the boy scout paper drive. And finally this page of the newspaper was prepared with all those useful hints in mind in our continuous spirit of public service. SIGNAL—STAR 131 YEAR -26 THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1978 SECOND SECTION Abilities emphasized Simulated.disabilities prove point BY JOANNE WALTERS It was quite a sight at Camp Menesetung last week. People in wheelchairs were getting up and walking while others were discarding confining bandages and regaining full use of their legs, arms and eyes! But no, it wasn't a miracle site like the famous one in Lourdes, France nor was it even the site of a faith healing. It was simply a leadership training camp designed for those "Hey, this is no fun. I want to see," says Loretta Buckner as she pushes her partner in a game of "murder tube". The two women were taking part in a leadership camp for leaders working with disabled people and by simulation they were finding our what it is like to have certain disabilities. (Photo by Joanne Walters) leaders who work with disabled or special needs people in various in- stitutions, municipalities and senior citizens' homes. And no, the people at „ the camp were not really blind or crippled or ar- thritic. But they were certainly finding out first hand what it is like to be all of these,,.things by using simulation and confining the.mseWes to wheelchairs or binding themselves with elastic - bandages so as to hamper their mobility. Experiencing what it was really like, gave them special insight into problems and solutions. Some of the people there cheated a wee bit. "Hey, you can't do that! A paraplegic can't heal himself like that!",' joked Jim Hunsberger, a resource person for the physically handicapped, with the Ontario March of Dimes. "But I was so,hot. I had to take a shower and I had to take the bandages off," the "paraplegic" defended herself. The purpose of the three day ; leadership training camp was to give those taking part an orientation to various disabilities so that they .could go hack into their communities and work more effectively with special needs - people emphasizing their abilities over their disabilities. The more than 60 people taking part ranged in age from 16 to 50 and came from Kent, Essex, Lambton, Elgin, Oxford, Middlesex, Perth, Huron Bruce and Grey Counties. They atte 'ded intensive learning sessions from 9 in the morning until 10 at night. These sessions included simulation, films, role playing and discussions with group leaders on such things as how to develop special types of programs for the disabled. One interesting feature of the.. camp was a Lesson in adaptive aquatics. Those taking part in this session learned what it is like to swim without the use of legs by having their ankles and knees bound in such a way as to limit movement. They also learned direction in the water by wearing goggles which completely blacked out their vision. And they practised lifting a person in a wheelchair in and out of the water properly. rc> RESOURCE PEOPLE The camp was co- sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and. Recreation and a number of agencies like the Ontario Society for Crippled Children, the March of Dimes, the Ontario Association for the Mentally Retarded, ,the Midwestern Regional Centre for Mentally Retarded Children, the Ontario . Federation of Cerebral Palsy and the. Canadian Red,Cross' Adapted Auatics division. A resource person was present from each of these agencies and the, leaders taking part were divided into groups under these resource people adv cording to Which kind of disability they en- countered most often in their line of work. There were also two relatively local resource persons. They were Janet Bannerman from Kin- cardine who taught a session on learning how to run recreation programs for the lear- ning disabled and Anne Saint-Jean from Auburn who taught a session on programs for senior citizens. Two other resource people were actually disabled themselves. Jim Hunsberger with the Ontario March of Dimes was one and Lyle Kersey with the Ontario Federation for Cerebral Palsy was the other. These two men led in- teresting workshops and discussions. "What was it like looking after Loretta," Hunsberger asked a girl referring to her friend who had bandages over her eyes to produce Turn to page 4A Easy does it! These women were learning how to properly lift someone confined to a wheelchair in and out of the water. They were studying adapted aquatics as part of a leadership training camp held at Camp Menesetung for three days last week. (Photo by Joanne Wars) If you haven't seen my smjjing face peering from behind light standards as 1 fearlessly scour Goderich for news ifs because I've had my face behind light standards in Mitchell for the past week. I was awarded a two week sabbatical at the, Mitchell Advocate to relieve vacationing news editor Jim Hagarty. Jim will be returning Monday and so will I. . I'll bet by now you're figuring I'm going to write about my experience in Mitchell but I'll save that until later. I'm doing a piece on something far more serious. The emotional state of my fellow e'm'ployee, Scoop. ' Scoop is my neighbor in the pulsating newsroom here at the Signal and 'in my absence her mind seems to have wandered into a depressed state. I walked into the newsroom Monday night to tidy up some material for the Advocate and offered my usual greeting of "how are you now Scoop". Instead of.the normal "not so bad" Scoop ignores me, Assuming she hadn't heard me I repeated the greeting and Scoop snaps "not very good,don't hug me or I'rn liable to bite your head off". Mild mannered Scoop had finally faltered I thought. This is really the big one. She's going off the deep end. "What's wrong," I asked risking physical injury. "I'm depressed. I've got too much work to do. I don't know of any other job where you work all day and have to work at night too. Doctors are on call 24 hours a day but they get paid a lot more than I do. I don't even know what shows are on television any more. I can't remember the last time I just sat down and relaxed for an evening of televisj„on," she said without taking a breath. Hoping to avoid a second tirade I asked her what she had to do that was.„,. so time consuming. She rattled off a cbuple of feature stories she was working on. She spent half a day in the dark room and her pictures were ruined because "some fool" tampered with the darkroom processor. Even with all that ap- parently she had her schedule all lined up for her week's work and a couple of phone calls later and it was in the garbage. After relating a few close calls some unsuspecting readers had Monday because they held her upfrom getting her work done she went back to work on her story. A curse from the corner of the newsroom half an hour later attracted my attention., Scoop had to stop her story because she discovered she had forgotten to ask an obvious question and needed the information for it. "That's it," she said. "I'm going home." "Don't leave," I pleaded. "I have to write two columns and I don't have any ideas what to write about." "Write about the hardships of reporting,' she said. "Tell people that we're only human. Tell them how depressed we are." ' I► I "I'm not going to write about me I'll do it about you." "I don't care," she said and walked out with her pens, notebook and purse. "13e easy on her, she'll be different in the morning," said a .typesetter who knows Scoop. "She'll bounce right back." "I hope so," I said walking back to my desk. "The office won't be the same without her. No one will be writing notes about phone calls we weren't there to take. (Scoop's notes have become collector's items in the of- fice)No one will be there to offer lengthy speeches on the nasty little tasks the job entails. Nobody will be there to be embarrassed over the off- colour jokes that Spike's always telling. Scoop come on back and tell as it's not so bad when we ask you how you are today. You've only been gone 10 minutes and I'm already looking for someone to tell me again how hard we work at our job. jeff. don