ROTARY AID TO HANDICAPPED

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30215, 21 August 1963, Page 7

ROTARY AID TO HANDICAPPED

Miss June Opie’s Tribute A scheme for the employment of “compulsory quotas” of handicapped persons had been made unnecessary in New Zealand largely because of the good work of the Rotary movement, said Miss June Opie, addressing the Christchurch Rotary Club yesterday. Miss Opie. authoress and psychologist, said that the strong bond between the Rotary movement and the Crippled Children Society had made it unnecessary <to adopt in New Zealand this overseas practice. Miss Opie spoke on aspects of her association with the Rotary movement. It was almost 18 years since she first addressed a Rotary club, and since then she had given hundreds of such addresses around the world, she said. Rotary had been a great source of inspiration to her. It had helped her to realise just what a life of service before self really meant. In the early days of her misfortune, she said, Rotary had relieved her of the financial burden of hospital treatment. She was still the adopted daughter of the London Rotary Club. Rotary had helped her immensely in her personal life and in her work of placing handicapped persons in employment. Sometimes, said Miss Opie, wealth and money could be the most damning heritage parents could pass on to children. The ideal of service to others was much better for the moulding of character. This work could start where one’s feet were and could spread outwards.