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Denton Center Evaluates
Students' Work Abilities
Denton State School's Pre-
Vocational Evaluation Center provides
students with an important link between
campus environment and the job setting.
Approximately 160 students have
been evaluated since the program began
on Sept. 1, 1968. Forty students are now
enrolled at the center on a half-day basis.
The center staff uses a series of skill
and dexterity exercises and actual as-
sembly line production tasks to evaluate
residents' present vocational status and
their work potential. Students also re-
Rusk Open House
Features Musical;
Employees Honored
Traditional entertainment and new
features attracted several hundred visitors
to Rusk State Hospital's 18th annual
open house, May 1-2.
The yearly all-patient musical
revue-with a theme of "Love, Sweet
Love"-was presented in the All-Faith
chapel on the hospital grounds.
For the first time, a style show was
part of the scheduled entertainment.
Patients from the hospital's maxi-
mum security unit entertained with musi-
cal combos and a marionette show,
"Ferdinand the Bull."
Guided tours of wards,' the day
treatment center and other facilities were
provided for visitors.
In conjunction with open house,
the Rusk Chamber of Commerce honored
hospital employees with the first annual
"Employee Apprecation Day" at the hos-
pital. More than 200 employees registered
for door prizes and were served refresh-
ments.
AT BIG SPRING
ceive instruction in various jobs such as
maid service, custodial work, nursing ser-
vice and yard work.
The basic 12-week program may be
increased or shortened, depending on the
student's progress.
After students complete the testing
phase of the program, they enter the
simulated workshop where coat hangers
and rubber door mats are assembled on a
sub-contract basis from area industries.
Workshop students are evaluated
for custodial, maid service, yard work and
nursing service unit work and are con.
sidered for training and job assignments
most beneficial to their individual pro-
gress.
Texas Special Olympics
Will Emphasize Skills
Of Retarded Athletes
Mentally retarded athletes from all
areas of the state will compete in the
second annual Texas Special Olympics,
June 3-6, at Baylor University, Waco.
Gov. Preston Smith, honorary
chairman of the event, and Travis DuBois,
Waco mayor, have issued official procla-
mations designating June 1-6 as Texas
Special Olympics Week.
"Ultimate goal of the project is to
provide the mentally retarded with an
athletic competition which will demon-
strate to them, their families and their
communities that they can succeed," said
Edward M. Yarmac of Waco, executive
director of the special olympics.
The four-day state meet will in-
clude recreation, special entertainment, a
dance, parade, victory banquet and com-
petition for the mentally retarded ath-
letes. Sponsors and organizers will attend
training clinics during the meet.
The Texas Special Olympics is
sponsored by the Texas Department of
Mental Health and Mental Retardation,
Texas Junior Chamber of Commerce,
Texas Education Agency, Texas Associa-
tion for Retarded Children and Texas
Teens-Aid-Retarded (TARS).
When the evaluation program is
completed, a student may receive ad-
vanced training and work experience in
the school's sheltered workshop. If he
does not need or will not benefit from
further training, he may be placed in an
on-campus job. In rare instances, students
are placed in off-campus job settings.
DEXTERITY EXERCISE helpsdetermine work
potential of students at Denton State School.
Chapel Fund Gets $75,000
Early construction of an all-faith
chapel on the campus of Big Spring State
Hospital has been virtually assured by a
$75,000 donation to the building fund.
The major gift came from the Sib-
lings Foundation, a philanthropic organi-
zation created 15 years ago by the late
R.L. Tollett, Big Spring oil executive.
His widow and other trustees, Joe
Moss and C.W. Guthrie, recently voted to
dissolve the foundation and turn over all
its assets-reliably estimated at
$75,000-to the all-faith chapel fund.
Guthrie also announced another gift of
$5,000 cash to the chapel fund.
Before the new gifts, the chapel
fund amounted to about $107,000 of the
ultimate goal of $200,000. Planners had
estimated that some $150,000 cash
would be required to take bids on the
building.
The project requires private sub-
scriptions since the state cannot appro-
priate monies for religious facilities.
Amarillo Workshop
Stresses Retardate
Recreation Program
Amarillo State Center for Human
Development recently sponsored a three-
-day workshop for representatives of
Amarillo recreation agencies emphasizing
the value of recreation for the mentally
retarded.
Sessions were held at the Center
and also at North Heights School, special
education unit of Amarillo public
schools.
Workshop director was Dick Smith,
recreation program developer at Beau-
mont State Center.
Participating staff members from
Amarillo State Center included Frank
Davis, psychologist; Betty Tilley, R.N.,
director of nursing and day care; Charles
Walford, program developer; and Ernest
Kanemura, director of education and
training.
