Administrator's Message: ACCC past defined by courage, commitment

By Dan Howell
Chief Executive Officer

When was the last time you looked through your childhood photo album or your parents’?

If you’re like me, you have a yearning to know about your past and look at pictures and hear stories about your ancestors.

At Anne Carlsen Center for Children this year, we are taking a nostalgic look back as we celebrate our 65th year in our Jamestown location, even though our ancestors date back to 1932.

CEO Dan Howell stands at the site of our dedication in 1941.

We have a tremendous respect for those who came before us. We appreciate our history, celebrate it, and learn from it. At the same time, we have a great opportunity to chart our own course.

Breaking ground for what was known as the Crippled Children’s School took a lot of faith. The early days of this organization were truly defined by hand to mouth existence as they experienced war rationings and limited funding due to World War II.

Our past is defined by courageous decisions on the part of this organization’s leaders. The choice to build a special place for children with physical disabilities in the 1940s took courage.

In the 1980s, those children began receiving education in the public schools, thanks to legislation that required schools to provide greater access. That meant a change for our organization. We made the conscious choice to change our focus and begin educating and caring for children with cognitive and physical impairments even though our building was not best suited or our staffing adequate. Folks here at the time, though, had a common sense of purpose defined by one word...independence.

We are rallying around similar choices today, adapting our programs, buildings, and technology to serve a group young people who have one common goal to be as independent as they can possibly be.

We have the same faith as our founders, the same rallying spirit and the same energy as they did when they opened the doors to this place on Sept. 21, 1941.

My predecessor, our first superintendent Rev. W.B. Schoenbohm, didn’t settle for average. We won’t either. We will constantly strive to give the children we serve the most fulfilling life they can possibly have.