For 23 years, Danny, who is severely handicapped with cerebral palsy and mental retardation, lived at home with his parents in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood. He attended classes at Park Lawn, a nonprofit agency that serves children and adults with developmental disabilities. After graduating from Park Lawn’s school program, he entered its adult developmental training program and in January moved into one of its residential facilities. While in school, he was wheelchair bound; now he is walking.
Danny walks haltingly, holding a staff member’s hand; leaving his wheelchair added not only to his independence but also to his health and self-esteem.
“I believe the reason that Danny is walking is the dedicated care of the people who work at the residential facility,” says his father, who asked that he not be identified. “The uneasiness I have, knowing that (eventually) I may not be around when he needs me, is beginning to lift as I see the progress he’s making and the care he receives at Park Lawn.”
That agency was founded in 1955 by a small group of parents, including Marie Berthold of Oak Lawn, who remains involved; her children, Linda, 49, and Steven, 38, are still Park Lawn clients.
“A bunch of parents who had handicapped children were looking for facilities. . . . We had a lot of trouble raising money, but we had lots of cake sales and rummage sales and finally were able to rent quarters in church facilities for the first few years,” she explains.
In the beginning, parents provided the instruction. Other families joined, and by 1968 the group had raised enough money to build a school and hire professional staff. They named the facility for Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn, the two major communities it served.
Park Lawn has grown from serving the children of those first 10 families to assisting about 170 participants from 30 communities on Chicago’s Southwest Side and south suburbs. Outgrowing its original quarters in rented space at the First United Methodist Church of Evergreen Park, it now includes a school and adult developmental training site at 10833 S. LaPorte in Oak Lawn, a vocational services facility at 5040 W. 111th St. in Oak Lawn and residences in Alsip, Worth, Chicago Ridge, Oak Lawn and Tinley Park.
“We never expected to get as big as we are today,” Berthold says. “In the beginning, the school districts told us there would never be enough children to make it worthwhile. That’s how little they knew.”
Programs include schooling for children ages 3 to 21, who are referred and funded through their local boards of education. Funding for adult clients comes from the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois Office of Education. Participants can remain in the program’s workshop and supported employment programs indefinitely; the oldest worker is about 60.
Park Lawn offers residential care and self-help skills training, a sheltered workshop and supported employment for adults over 18. About 75 individuals live in a variety of the agency’s group homes, some in preparation for independent living.
Doris Marks, director of development, stresses that Park Lawn’s school is vocationally oriented so that when students reach 21, they will have skills necessary for employment, such as the ability to sort shapes and color and match items.
After completing school, some students go directly to the agency’s vocational services. Those with more serious handicaps attend adult developmental training classes to establish skill levels for production line work. Then they too can join Park Lawn’s workshop, which accommodates all skill levels, from simple tasks to complicated procedures, including such responsible jobs as computer-based inventory.
Some workers may advance to the agency’s supported employment program, in which they hold real jobs, supervised by job coaches and interacting with regular staff. Here they earn minimum wages and gain work and life experience, enhancing their self-confidence and independence.
Those who participate in Park Lawn’s 52,000-square-foot workshop are paid a piecework rate, based on minimum wage. Workers who do maintenance and janitorial tasks receive hourly wages. Among the agency’s vocational service accounts are Dairy Management Inc. in Rosemont and Nordstrom’s in Oak Brook.
Karen Lanham, purchasing coordinator for Nordstrom’s, said Park Lawn’s workers have prepared holiday gift boxes in November and December for the last seven years.
“A group of them come into the store and set up in the lunchroom,” she explains. “They prepare the gift boxes by taking them from flat to ready-made. There are 10 to 15 people on site. They also make boxes for us at their own facility. We have boxes delivered to Park Lawn, and they assemble them and ship them directly to the store.
“The salespeople really appreciate what they do. They become friends with them and look forward to having them come back every year. During the holiday season, we have an employee lunch. They’re invited, and they look forward to going to it with all the employees of the store. They actually become like members of our team.”
Another supported employment worker, 46-year-old Joyce Oleksy, works at First National Bank of Evergreen in Oak Lawn while living in a Community Integrated Living Arrangement, a form of independent living with some supervision, with two other Park Lawn residents. Oleksy is one of four Park Lawn clients who work at the bank, according to Diane McClean, operations officer at First National Bank. “They count the checks and put them into statements for mailing,” McClean explains. “One man works in the mail room, picking up statements after they are prepared.
“Joyce is full time. She was the first one who started with us. She began by shredding documents. Now she works in the kitchen, cleaning tables, arranging salt and sugar. She makes the iced tea and clears the tables. We think it’s great.”
Equally important, Oleksy has evolved from a shy beginner who seldom made eye contact with others to an outgoing woman who joins in 80 percent of the bank’s social events as well as monthly outings with peers sponsored by Park Lawn Job Club, according to Marks.
Other Park Lawn clients work in the agency workshop, sitting or standing at long tables performing repetitive tasks, often using templates and jigs that help them compare sizes and shapes. Like other factory workers, they keep track of their production numbers and will proudly recite them.
From March until August each year, the workshop processes 85,000 bags for the disposal of Christmas for Bio Industries in Addison. Workers unroll and fold the bags, place them into packages and prepare them for shipment nationwide. Thirty-one-year-old Scott works on the Christmas bags, as well as in box assembly at Nordstrom’s.
“I like that job best because it pays more,” says Scott, who saves his earnings for trips to Las Vegas with his family. He writes a sports column for “Update,” the agency’s newsletter. “I keep track of the teams; I’m a sports whiz,” he explains. “The Cubs might go all the way this year.”
Although about 90 percent of its funding comes from government agencies, with a $6 million annual budget, Park Lawn must raise another $600,000 in private funds. There are the traditional golf outings, phone-a-thons and tag days. And on May 17, a motorcycle group held a 100-mile poker run, in which bikers received a poker card at each of five stops, with the best hand winning.
“These bikers are (business) professionals who ride on the weekends,” notes Jim Weise, Park Lawn’s executive director. “Their leather is new, and you’ll often see them talking on cell phones. They raised $3,000 for Park Lawn, and more importantly, we made 170 new friends.”
“We named the run `Big Bikes, Big Hearts,’ because they are so kind and generous,” Marks says. “They’re mentioning Park Lawn in their various newsletters to raise funds for us. We’re thrilled.”
The greatest challenge the agency faces is how to create new programs and modify existing ones to serve the changing needs of its population, many of whom are entering midlife and beyond.
Said founding member Berthold, “My daughter, Linda, will be 50 in August. The grammar school dropped its responsibility (when she turned 16). The high school wouldn’t help us with her tuition because she wasn’t what they considered educable, but now they have classes for kids. People became educated and realized that these children could learn and that the parents couldn’t do it all, that we had to have help because there were so many.
“My son, Steven, is 38 and also in the workshop. It’s wonderful because instead of just sitting at home with nothing to do, they get to have a sense of accomplishment. That’s what we were looking for.”
In May, a 47-year-old Park Lawn resident died of lung cancer after receiving hospice care in the facility. Marks feels that other residents and staff as well as the dying woman’s parents gained from the experience.
“This is what the parents have been working for, a place for their children to grow up, live a full life, and die with dignity when the time comes,” says residential coordinator Ellie Crumback.
———-
For more information about Park Lawn, call Doris Marks at 708-425-6867.
