JAMES JENKINS, JR., _Executive Secretary, Brooklyn Committee on
Tuberculosis_.
The money made by the Red Cross Christmas Seal has done a very definite
and practical piece of work for Brooklyn, New York. About a year before
the seals were issued, there had been formed in Brooklyn a Tuberculosis
Committee, that had at that time limited funds but was struggling to
carry on various pieces of important and rather expensive work. One of
the needs of the community was more adequate hospital facilities and a
day camp for tubercular patients. The camp was to be established for
mothers and children, and it was hoped at that time that a class might be
formed for children, who could go on with their school duties.
As a result of the first year’s sales about $5,000 was made, and through
the help of the Erie Railroad an old ferryboat was made into a city day
camp and attached to one of the piers of North River, where the air is as
fresh as possible, in such a large city. The first day the camp opened
there were thirty-five cases on the boat and the number has increased,
sometimes slowly but always steadily, until now the capacity of the boat
is 100 patients. The first summer a kindergarten teacher was privately
employed, who entertained the children, but early in the fall a regular
class was established, as an annex to one of the public schools, and it
was the only school in Brooklyn for tubercular children. Now the boat has
three classes, of nearly thirty children each, besides fifteen adults.
When the day camp was established and known as the Red Cross Day Camp,
it was planned by the Tuberculosis Committee to have the city take it
over or share the expenses, if the experiment should prove worth while.
The city very soon recognized the value of the work at the Red Cross
Day Camp and the children were admitted through the city tubercular
clinics. Gradually the city has taken over more and more of the expenses
of the camp, but the boat is still known as the Red Cross Day Camp,
and the money made by the sale of the seals pays the remarkably good
superintendent of the boat, furnishes carfare to and from the camp, for
those patients who cannot afford to pay, and also pays for any special
training which the committee deems valuable to the patients. This year a
cobbling teacher has been employed to teach the boys how to mend their
own shoes; an expert course of corrective exercises was given by a
trained man; chair caning was taught and the adults and older girls are
taught to sew and mend.
The total number of cases admitted to the boat since the beginning is
965. The curative results have been excellent, especially with the
children. At the beginning of the second semester of the school year this
session about one-third of the children were pronounced cured and sent
back to their regular schools.
[Illustration: OPEN AIR SCHOOL FOR TUBERCULAR CHILDREN, BROOKLYN. N. Y.
PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS CHILDREN SLEEPING AFTER LUNCHEON]
In addition to the work of the day camp this year the funds raised by
the Red Cross Christmas Seals will be devoted to the open-air classes
for anemic children in the public schools. There are open-air classes in
eight of the public schools now in Brooklyn. About 300 children attend
these classes and all of them are given some extra nourishment in the
morning and afternoon and a warm lunch at noon, and some extra clothing
was provided by the Board of Education. Special examinations by private
physicians, visits to homes, employment of cooks, supervisor, etc., come
out of the Red Cross money.
The plan adopted in Brooklyn has been to keep the Red Cross money in a
special fund and devote it to some specific work, which interests the
thousands of people who buy seals at Christmas time. Without the help of
the sale of the seals it would have been impossible to have done some of
the most valuable work which has been done for tubercular patients in
Brooklyn.
[Illustration: “FERRY BOAT CAMP.” THE SCHOOL AT PLAY.]