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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-05-31, Page 21dave sks Inside this section: r Dentists. The very word can strike fear into people and often turns otherwise stable and sensible adults into drooling idiots. I have nothing against the deans of dentures myself. As long as I don't have to go see them on a regular basis they're fine fellows. Unfortuneately, I haven't been able to avoid to the drill' and will soon succumb to the pliers while under sedation. Over the past couple years this correspondent has had his teeth probed picked, pulled, drilled and filled. • I wouldn't admit to being afraid of going to the dentist, but there is that hint of anxiety that builds up in the morning of a visit. The only visible signs of these numerous visits is on my dental plan card that is now torn and frayed. I'm expecting the company to issue a non - destructible card for personal use. The' dental card may have taken a beating but it wasn't quite as painfull Two local women crowned "Queen" at Sorority May Ball Page 2A Dr. Bruce Thomson speaks out on the fight to control cancer Page 3A The names of the young people who will play the Trapp children this summer Page 4A Bishop T.J. McCarthy came home for his golden anniversary Page 7A How many GDCI students can you get into a Beetle?Page 8A as that inflicted upon this columnist's bicuspids. I am sure that every area .of my mouth has been probed and worked upon with an impressive array of backhoes, post hole augers and whatever other instruments my dentist needed to get the job done. I knew 1 was in trouble when he asked the nurse to hold me down because he had to stand on my,'face for leverage. Anyway despite the countless visits my dentist kept hinting that one Wisdom tooth in the back should he pulled. I protested that the wisdom tooth in question had never bothered Me in the least so there was no sense in having it removed. I mean I don't go looking for pain. I would rather take a pleasure flight on a DC 10 than go to the dentist for something that doesn't bother me. • Finally I succumbed and made an appointment with a dentist in London. Now as soon as you phone the office you know there's trouble. Good morning, oral sur ery. Oral surgery! What the hell..oh must be a wrong number I was looking for a dentist. The receptionist assured me I had the .correct office and made an ap- pointment for exploration. She said they would x-ray all the wisdom teeth since it would be easier to have them all removed at one time. Now wait a minute lady. First, you aren't going to send a man into my mouth for exploration and second all my teeth will not, repeat, will not be removed. M_y doc in Goderich said one had to go and thats it. So last Thur- sday I drove to London to meet my explorer. Have you ever noticed how cheerfull everyone is in the dentist's office. They all smile and offer cheery salutations. I don't think they ever go the dentist themselves. After filling out a lengthy questionnaire about my allergies, diseases and underwear size my teeth were x-rayed. Invariably, the dentist always consults with the nurse when view the x-ray within earshot of the poor patient. "Never seen a ease like that before what do you think we should do?" they ask one another in bewildered tones. "Act like nothing is wrong." Then aslI'sit anxiously in the chair, this dentist or explorer, stares at the x- ray shaking his head. He's young and obviously whatever is wrong with my tooth was never covered in dental college. Or with my luck he skipped class the day that material was discussed.. "Well Mr, Sykes nothing to be con- cerned about I am just not sure whether to go through the top of your head or up through the neck to get that baby out of there. Will you want a needle?" A new dentist is what I want. Can I drink for a few days before. Ironically I will return to London on Friday July 13 to have the wisdom toah removed. I am praying for an out- of-town assignment. thederich SIGNAL -STAR 132 YEAR -22 GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1979 SECOND SECTION Blue ribbon babies not _Helen's business BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Somewhere there are parents for every child who needs parents. That is a strong con- viction held by Helen Allen, the originator of Today's Child and Family Finder. And her conviction has been upheld by the tremendous success of both these ventures. Today's Child is a newspaper column which appears in 22 daily and 155 weekly newspapers across this province. In 1969, the now defunct Toronto Telegram was asked by the government to promote adoption in some kind of newspaper form. Helen Allen, a reporter with the Telegram, was assigned to develop whatever format was chosen. She was quite unaware at the time that this assignment would later become her full-time job. The format chosen was the Today's Child column which included ' short write-ups and pictures of those children who were difficult to place by the Children's Aid for various reasons. The purpose behind Today's Child was to try to , get those children who couldn't find families out into public view so they would have a better chance. In 1971 when the Toronto Telegram folded, it was feared that Today's Child would also end. However, the Ministry of Community and Social Services asked Miss Allen to continue her work on the column which was now syn- dicated. Today's Child has led to the ,adoption of ap- proximately 10,000 children to date and has about an 80 per cent success rate. Family Finder, `a different children who television show featuring had appeared in her children for adoption, column. The first picture became an off shoot of was of a beautiful baby Today's Child. It just who hadn't been adopted finished its tenth season up until that point and can be seen on about because she had a 12 different stations. crooked ear. Once • she Miss Allen spoke this was seen in the week about her work, newspaper, she was adoption, the rights of adopted quickly. The children and the Inter- second picture was of a national Year of the Child child considered too old to at the Huron West adopt --an eight month old District Women's boy. But when he was Institute annual meeting seen in the paper, he too in Holmesville United , was adopted quickly. Church. Childless couples A charter of children's "usually want to adopt rights was drawn up by healthy newborn babies. the United Nations in ]958 In some areas there are but most children in 1979 waiting lists of file years still don't have 'all of for such children. these rights,. Miss Allen Today's Child doesn't told her audience. She feature any newborn added that if anything babies unless they have was going to be done for medical problems. children, it should be Those people who adopt done today because children with problems or tomorrow could be too handicaps of some 'kind, late. usually already have one She told her audience of or two children of their a case in 1976 where a 17- own. Because of the year-old boy was suing an world population, they adoption agency for half don't want to bring any a million dollars for not more of their own getting him adopted. He children into the world claimed that if he and so they. choose the married, he would make option of adopting. Some poor husband material people adopt children and that if he became a with handicaps because father, he would probably they may have some not make a good father specific knowledge of the either because he had handicap. never had one to model. Those who do adopt Miss Allen never -heard handicapped ,children how that case turned out have to think of the but she said just -the fact children as people first that the boy was suing and place the handicap showed the value he second. They have to like placed on a family. • the child or children they If children are unable are adopting, says Miss to put down roots Allen. anywhere, they become All adoptive parents in insecure and unstable general should enjoy adults later. The first children as well as love right of each child, as laid them, says Miss Allen. down by the UN, is the She feels that these right to affection, love parents must have a high and understanding. And • frustration level and a that is the whole idea sense of humor as well. behind adoption. However, she emphasizes While Miss Allen that she does not have talked, she showed anything to do with the enlarged photographs of selection process when it I discovered recently that I'm an aspiring artist of sorts and as such I'm scratching out a living as I pour my thoughts to paper. That shocking discovery was made last week when I read an article on huge problems Canadian authors face. The problems of our writers are many. The world of publishing is highly competitive, economics dictate that large royalties are only paid for very large successes and American control of the world of books means Canadian writers have to sell themselves in American literary circles. To illustrate the suffering an author must go through before he realizes success the writer visited an aspirin novelist in the Ki : , area. T e novelist makes his home in e se wilderness living in a prefabrica rd 1 g home with no conventional heat, no electricity and no running water, Apparently the guy chooses to live like Nommiummommessiiimminv M comes to matching the countries are not living; children in her column they are merely existing, with parents. That As- left she says. up to the various agencies Children with serious in charge of the children. medical problems can The selection process is only be adopted by those done through home people who truly feel studies which include prepared to accept those interviews with the medical problems, says prospective parents .and Miss . Allen. Twelve dif- other children in the ferent children with family and pre placement cystic fibrosis have visits for those children appeared in Today's one year of age and up to Child and all have been see how well they adjust adopted l pa`i`ents who to their prospective fully reaf%ize that these parents and vice versa. children will not have a Abandoned children normal life expectancy. are hard to find parents One of the. CF children for, explains Miss Allen. had medical bills Most adopting parents totalling $500 a month. want to know something However, he was not of the child's background, adopted by rich people. especially the medical His medical costs were background for a history subsidized by the Ontario of inherited diseases, 'etc. government. However, it is impossible to find out the Miss Allen showed her background of abandoned audience a picture of a children and they must be four-year-old blind girl adopted on faith. who appeared in Today's Many children. from Child. This little girl was Korea, ` Bangladesh and considered retarded. She India are now being was adopted by a adopted on faith by bilingual family and soon Canadians, says Miss after she began talking in Allen. She has acted as a two languages. She was volunteer escort for not retarded at all! In children brought to fact she has done so. well Canada from other that the CNIB has countries for adoption. recruited her adoptive She has been to Korea mothe.ryas a volunteer to once and Viet Nam twice work with the mothers of. on such missions. There other blind children. are many children in Viet Nam who have had polio. MARK It breaks one's heart to see their twisted limbs, Miss Allen then showed saySMiss Allen. And it's a picture of one of her difficult to understand 'favorite• children, a boy because that disease has named Mark. He ap- been (virtually wiped out peared in Today's Child in this country. In Korea ;and on Family Finder there are many aban- three times. He has no doned babies because legs or arms. The third parents cannot afford to time he appeared in the feed them. However, paper, there were when the parents do inquiries from 50 families abandon their babies, 'wanting to adopt him. Of they leave. them in busy these 50 families, 35 places where they are adopted other children sure to be rescued. This is with h.andicaps after their last loving act, Mark was adopted. Miss explains Miss Allen. Allen feels that Mark Many children in other really opened up a lot of that, partly because he likes it and partly because he has to according to his standards. He was careful not to say that all he could afford was a luxurious log cabin but hinted that if things were better in the publishing business he would buy a new truck. As I read the piece I began to feel glad I had chosen to write news and never aspired to be the next Pierre Berton of Canada. ' As a matter of fact I had never considered myself a writer at ally preferring to be known as a reporter. I ways felt that because I was writing accounts of activities I did not imagine or create that I could never class myself as an author. But some of the problems affecting authors I could relate to as a columnist. The space I fill on a weekly basis with this sdrt of material sometime§ ap- pears to be monstrotds when the clock is fast approaching deadline and my mind refuses to co-operate with my fingers. But the hurdles up and coming authors face are similar to the hurdles up and coming columnists face. All I need do is compare my lifestyle to Charles Lynch, Dick Beddoes and Gordon Sinclair and I'm in the same ballpark as the guy living in the log cabin near Kingston. No one from the Globe has called yet and told me they've read my stuff and would like to give me a shot at -the big time. Front Page Challenge has not invited me to fill in for Sinclair to ask people how much they make. And the May 22 federal election came and went and not once did a rlet'aiork program director call me and ask me to say something profound In the election coverage program tjh�at was aired election night. But. then I am not drilven by a lifelong hearts for handicapped children. Mark has artificial limbs and Miss Allen likes to tell about the time he was playing in some leaves outside his parents' home. Another child rode by on a bicylce and stopped to stare. "Don't you have any arms," he asked Mark. "Of course I do. They're in the house," Mark replied, Miss Allen told her audience of one couple with two children of their own who adopted a little girl with Downs Syn- drome. They then adopted an Indian boy of above average in- telligence and then another girl with Downs Syndrome as a com- panion for the first little girl in later years. They recently adopted a fourth child as well. Miss Allen says there Turn to page 2A • Helen Allen, the originator of. Today's Child and Family Finder, spoke on adoption and children's rights at the Huron West District Women's Institute annual meeting in Holmesville on Monday. She showed several enlarged photographs of children dream to be a major success in writing. I only agreed to write this stuff because I cracked a couple of jokes around the office and told the editor that I'd take a shot at working any sense of humour I had into a few paragraphs each week. Little did I know that week after week would pass when a sense of humour was something everyone else seemed to have. But while the huge successes have escaped me it has not been without some reward. When the ,columns seemed to be a their worst several people took the trouble to say they enjoyed them. One lady even wrote me a letter saying she read my piece first. I'm really glad I've been able to make someone smile or think with this material but I don't know if I'd let that success go to my head so that when the network calls I tell them I don't need the aggravation or the money, who have been adopted through her column to illustrate her talk. On the left is a family of three brothers who were adopted together and on the right is Mark, an engaging little boy who was adopted despite the fact that he has no arms or legs. Jeff seddon r�