During the next four years Mr. and Mrs. Layton were actively engaged as treasurer and secretary of the society in collecting funds for the erection of a school for the English-speaking blind and a sum sufficient for the purpose was raised. A piece of land 8½ acres in extent was purchased at Sherbrooke Street, at the corner of Notre Dame de Grâce, in 1910, and in 1912 the school was built and opened for the admission of pupils in October of that year. It was almost entirely furnished by donations of friends. The official opening by the Premier of the Province, Sir Lomer Gouin, took place in October, 1913. Thirty-two pupils have been enrolled since that date. Funds have been raised during the present year, 1914, for the erection on the school grounds of an industrial home for the adult blind, and the building is now in progress and will be ready for occupation on March 1, 1915. This building will accommodate about twenty-five to thirty adults. Various trades will be taught and the boarding accommodations will be a great boon to the sightless workmen.
THE SCHOOL FOR CRIPPLES
(Children’s Memorial Hospital)
The Montreal movement for a school for cripples is of especial sociological interest as a further instance of the trend of modern educational impulse.
Less than a year after the founding of the Children’s Memorial Hospital, in 1904, the members of the committee of that institution realized the dire ignorance of most of the little patients who were brought to the hospital for treatment, some having never attended school, others having attended school during but short and broken periods of their young lives.
A school was shortly organized in connection with the hospital for the young patients in the temporary quarters, 500 Guy Street. The scholars studied reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar and geography; in one or two instances shorthand, typewriting and music have been commenced. Some of these pupils could sew, knit, crochet embroidery and make bead chains.
The aim of the committee of the Children’s Memorial Hospital after the removal of the patients in 1909 to the new hospital has been to have a separate school building on its grounds on Cedar Avenue, which school would be not only the school for the resident patients but also the school to which the crippled and deformed children of Montreal and the surrounding vicinities would be brought every morning in special conveyances, and there receive instruction which would fit them to become independent and useful citizens as they grew to manhood and womanhood. The children would receive their mid-day lunch at the school and later in the afternoon be conveyed to their respective homes.
The first step taken was in approaching the Protestant School Commissioners, who gave permission for a collection to be taken by children in their schools for the School for Cripples.
The second step was that of forming a committee and having collecting cards printed. After the gracious permission was accorded by the Protestant School Board of Montreal, and that of Westmount, upwards of twenty thousand of these collecting cards were distributed to the scholars attending the schools under the control of these respective boards. The school inspectors of the Province of Quebec rendered valuable assistance, also supplying lists with the names of the schools and the teachers under their inspectorates. These schools were supplied with collecting cards also, together with a number of private schools and academies in Montreal and the surrounding districts. As a result of the efforts of the school children of the province and the kind supervision of the principals and teachers, a very large sum was collected.
The committee for the organization of the School for Cripples held its first meeting in February, 1910. At the last meeting which was held in May, a deputation, composed of the following members of the committee: Mr. C.J. Binmore, Mr. W.D. Lighthall, His Honor Mr. Recorder Weir, D.C.L., Doctor Rexford,—was appointed to attend a meeting of the committee of the Children’s Memorial Hospital, which was held the week after. At this meeting the following report, read by Mr. C.J. Binmore, recommended that provision should be made for three distinct divisions of children.