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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1987)
Phila. College Students Rock For Miller Family BY SHARON PRYOR LANE Philadelphia college students rocked in rocking chairs for 24 hours last month to help fund an addition onto the Atlanta home of Dorothy Miller and her 11 adopted children. Ms. Miller, who is mother to a household of children with a variety of physical and learning handicaps, is a native of Philadelphia and her sister, Sister Katherine Miller, is academic dean at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. Beginning at 4 p.m. Jan. 23, about 20 Chestnut Hill students took part in the rocking chair “rock-a-thon” to raise money for the construction project. It was the fifth annual fund-raiser at the college for the Miller family. The addition, which was a family and community project, includes a new bedroom and specially equipped bath to accommodate wheelchairs for two of the Miller boys, Aaron and Andy. Another boy, Phillip, was hired by the builder to work on the construction project. And members of SCIONS, the singles group of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, donated their time on Saturdays to help with the work. Always drawn to work with children, and especially with children with special needs, Ms. Miller came to Atlanta in 1962 to teach first grade at the Cathedral of Christ the King. A Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart, she moved in 1965 to Immaculate Heart of Mary School where she later founded and directed the Elaine Clark Center for the education of handicapped children. By 1974 she had become very aware of the difficulties involved in finding homes for handicapped children who could not remain with their original families. Leaving the religious order, she adopted Shawnee, her first child. That began the story of the family that now includes eleven. Phillip is the oldest of the Miller children. He is 19 and attends special classes at Chamblee High School. He came to the family when he was 12 years old and has neurological problems and learning disabilities. Andy is also 19 and has been with them for three years. He has degenerative disease and retinitis pigmentosa. Ms. Miller says his special gift is a wonderful sense of humor. Tonya will be 19 in May. She was the second child to join the family and was seven years old then. She is brain damaged and has language and speech problems. Her biggest love is babies and she would like to work in a nursery. Tmeeka will be 18 in April. She returned to the family recently after a six-year absence to live with another family. She is now in the process of being adopted by Ms. Miller. Tmeeka is deaf and mentally retarded and attends the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf. Chris has Down’s Syndrome with learn ing and vision problems. He is 17 years old and has been a member of the family for five years. Ms. Miller says Chris is at a high functional level and can do anything to help at home. Peter is 17 years old and came to the family when he was 12. He has neurological and behavior problems but is progressing well. He attends Henderson High School where he participates in track and cross-country running. He was recent ly named “Most Valuable Runner. " Aaron, also 17, joined the family in March 1979, when he came for a weekend visit that didn’t end. He has spina bifida, an opening in the spine which was closed by surgery but which left him paralyzed. Aaron attends special education classes at Chamblee High School. Shawnee was 16 in January. When she came to the Millers at age four, she weighed only 16 pounds and was not expected to live. She is wheelchair bound and cannot speak, but is bright and alert. The Millers say Shawnee is the “heart of the family” around whom the rest of the family was formed. Jody, who was 14 in January, is hyperactive and has learning, speech and language problems. He has progressed a great deal in the past three years due in part to medication and a special diet. Carrie Ann weighed only nine pounds when she came to the Millers at 18 months. Due to neglect, she had been hospitalized 31 times for malnutrition. She has mental retardation with speech and language problems. Mary Beth, now three and a half years old, joined the Millers when she was only five days old, the only one to enter the family as an infant. Ms. Miller says, “It was exciting to get her so early so that she could start with a clean slate.” Mary Beth has Down’s Syndrome and is developing well. Ms. Miller thinks she may begin to talk soon and hopes to enroll her at North- woods Montessori School next year. Each of the Miller children is actively in volved in the life of the family and of the community. Several are able to help each other with daily tasks and personal care. They attend church together each Sunday at Holy Cross Church, and on Saturdays they help prepare lunches for a shelter for the homeless. Ms. Miller says the children are learning not only to accept help when it is needed, but also to give help when they can. “The more you expect of a child, the more that child will achieve,” she said. ROCK-A-THON — Students at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia participate in a 24-hour rock-a-thon to raise money for the Miller fami ly. (NC photo by Robert S. Halvey) J School Fair Looks At World Health “Steps To A Healthy World” is the theme of the annual Health Fair to be held Wednesday, Feb. 25 at St. Pius X High School, in Atlanta. Hours will be 8:20 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The goal of the fair is to help students increase their awareness of health problems at home and around the world. It is sponsored by the school health department under the direction of Sister Mary Kay Finneran, RN, a Sister of Charity, and will be staged by students for the students. Announcements were sent to Immaculate Heart of Mary School and also public high schools in the vicinity of the high school, Sister Finneran said. Offered will be screening for scoliosis with Georgia State University nursing students assisting; vision, hearing, anemia, and general fitness tests. From displays around the gym where the fair will be held students will learn about fitness, nutrition and eating disorders including anorexia and bulemia, local and world hunger, and infant mortality and child survival in nine countries in the Third World. Participants will learn about infant mortality rates and the causes of the hunger that sees 40,000 children die daily. Presentations will discuss solutions such as immunization, nutrition, and oral rehydration therapy. A display on “Tomorrow’s Child” will be set up in a trailer outside the building. This will focus on the effects of drugs, alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases on the un born. For further details of the Health Fair call Sister Finneran at 636-3023. Agencies Denounce Cuts In Medicaid WASHINGTON (NC) - Officials of three national Catholic organizations have denounced the Reagan administration’s proposal to cap federal Medicaid spending for health care services to the poor. “In a society in which 36 million people have no guaranteed access to adequate health care services, cutting federal support for Medicaid represents an unacceptable threat not only to the quality of life of many poor Americans, but to life itself,” the officials said. They made the statement in a letter to members of the House and Senate budget committees, the Senate Finance Committee, and the House Energy and Com merce Committee. Released Feb. 13, the letter was signed by Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye, general secretary of the U.S. Catholic Conference; Father Thomas J. Harvey, ex ecutive director of Catholic Charities USA; and John E. Curley Jr., president of the Catholic Health Association. The USCC is the public policy arm of the U.S. Catholic bishops. The letter said a 1988 budget proposal by the Reagan administration would reduce the federal share of Medicaid costs by more than $18 billion over the next five years. Since 1981 when federal support for Medicaid was reduced, the church officials said, “there has been a resulting serious erosion in eligibility and services for the poor.” The church officials said they “share the belief that access to health care services is a basic human right and that government, as an instrument of public policy, has the ultimate responsibility for guarantee ing that right.”
