Easter Seals and Rotary abusing children with disabilities Part 2

By Stephen Pate
PEI Disability Alert
January 20, 2009

The annual Rotary Easter Seals fund raiser needs to be fixed to stop the abuse of children. However, Rotary will do everything in its power to discredit this report and me. It has already started but you are reading the truth here. It's ironic to be discussing this on the inauguration of US President Obama. Yesterday the Charlottetown, Montague and Summerside Rotary Clubs announced their joint, annual Easter Seals campaign. In an article last week, Rotary Easter Seals abuses children with disabilities, we discussed in general terms our concerns about this campaign. I know the deal as a Rotarian for almost 20 years, a fund raiser for Easter Seals / March of Dimes and a child with a disability used in fund raisers.

As an Easter Seals Ambassador, the child is objectified as a photogenic model of disabilities suitable for TV, newspaper promotion and fund raising. That has been going on for decades but is really out of touch with a more humane understanding of the child's emotions. Would we allow an 11 year old girl to be used to promote women's rights or an 11 year old photogenic boy to promote Gay Rights? Not likely.

A child with a disability fights every day to get past the pain, the barriers and to feel "normal". The children are emotionally abused in this process. Rotary picks them up for three months and then drops them. Most children respond positively to attention, especially from adult role models. The Easter Seal's ambassador thrives on it. He or she will work tireless passed the point of exhaustion to do whatever the adults ask. It's both cute and sick all at once when you realize that a few months later they will be dropped like a stone.

Rotary doesn't invite the child back for meetings a year later, two years later. In fact it was a struggle to get Charlottetown Rotary to invite them for the 25th anniversary. Montague Rotary and Summerside Rotary Clubs do keep in closer contact but the Charlottetown Club hands off most contact to groups like Camp Gencheff.

Does this matter? During the 25th Anniversary year I interviewed the former Ambassadors. Instead of getting the expected positive comments about Easter Seals, the consensus was "Rotary used us and then threw us aside." At first this was hard for me to understand since it was not my experience but more about that later. I took those comments back to Rotary but met resistance.

When I was on the Easter Seals committee, I lobbied to have past Ambassadors, or Timmy's as they were called, included in other Rotary events. More than 10 of the children expressed the feeling they were used and dropped by Rotary after the money was raised. Other Rotarians argued to exclude past ambassadors from meetings. Cost was the consideration.

The argument seemed petty and selfish considering the children had helped Rotary raise more than $1 million dollars. Besides, the children are not models or objects. They are children with disabilities and are probably more sensitive than most due to their problems integrating into society.

It wasn't always this way. As a child I had volunteered for Easter Seals and March of Dimes. These groups were my friends and benefactors. They would pick me up regularly to drop the puck at hockey games, throw the first ball at a baseball game or participate in some small way in a community event. It was fun and I felt included in things. Rotary, Easter Seals and March of Dimes made me feel special when my disability made me feel different.

I knew they paid my medical bills and provided me with leg braces and shoes. There was no medicare back then. Rotary in Halifax kept in contact with me until I was a mid-teenager. Rotarians acted as mentors to me. I was always available whenever they needed me. I can remember fondly my mother grumbling about last minute calls when she had to get me dressed in a hurry. That could happen if another young person got sick since there were many children doing the same thing. This relationship encouraged me to become a Rotarian and to volunteer.

The children are used and discarded

While the Easter Seals campaign is underway, any attempt to receive extra help for the child will be rigidly refused by Rotary. Rotary doesn't want to set a precedent and provide only a small bursary which was raised to $800 when we pointed out tuition was more than $4,000.

One of the mothers asked if Rotary could help the boy get a computer for his homework. A Rotarian donated $500 to buy the child a computer but the committee argued strenuously not to accept it. I was at meetings when the Rotary committee squabbled over providing help that was already funded in case the next child with a disability asked for more.

That was the day I decided to quit working for Easter Seals and Rotary on PEI. It was a group of mean businessmen using children to enhance their public stature, without a heartfelt love for the children.

Rotary can change the way it treats these children. It probably should stop using them outside their peer groups in any event. The reality is teenage children are not motivated by a sub-teen ambassador. If a child role model is used, it would be better to use the 10-11 year old for elementary school tours and a teenage role-model for the junior high and high schools. They should stop using them in pubic, that is outside their peer groups. Rotary should get over it's relationship issues and maintain closer ties with former ambassadors and it should compensate the child on the basis of today's cost of education not some pittance from the past.

Up until now, Rotary has been stubbornly refusing to change its way which is why I'm no longer a Rotarian. If you want to help the disabled, using them for fund raising isn't enough anymore. We're not going to stay on the farm. We have rights under the Charter and we will achieve those rights in Society. Rotary could be a force for change in the process but so far they are resisting strenuously.

The Media role in this hypocrisy is the topic of the Part Three.