The Bridgeport Post from Bridgeport, Connecticut • Page 26

B--EIGHT BRIDGEPORT SUNDAY POST, JANUARY 17, 1965 Red Cross Director Of Volunteers Calls New Job a Challenge By MARY F. DRUMMOND "I understand that the Red Cross has an excellent group of volunteers who have given unstintingly of their services, and I hope they continue to do so," Miss Augusta Mendel said when discussing her election as a vice chairman of the Bridgeport chapter of the American Red Cross. Named to that position at the annual meeting of the Red Cross chapter Wednesday evening in the University of Bridgeport Student center, Miss Mendel succeeds Mrs. A. Edwin Crockett, who heid the office for the past two years As vice chairman, Miss Mendel heads the Office of Volunteers.

Today't focus On A WOMAN'S WORLD Interviewed this past week in the pleasant living room of her apartment at 1620 Park avenue, the former superintendent of schools and, more recently, former acting director of the Museum of Art, Science and Industry, said that she thinks this directorship of volunteer work for the United Fund agency "will be a very big job." She added that she will spend a good deal of time at it, and will do everything she can to insure its great future. Miss Mendel knows, loo, that she will have plenty of help from Dr. Eaton V. W. Read, dean of the School of Business at UB, who has been named Red Cross chapter 'chairman, and from staff members and volunteers.

Mendel is looking forward to working with the new chairman, as both she and Dr. Read are educators and administrators types." THE DIRECTOR of volunteers thoroughly enjoys working with people, "and the Red Cross is people," she pointed out She is actively interested in only one other organization now -The Homemaker Services of the Community Council, which is sponsored by the Bridgeport Heart association, the Bridgeport Cancsr association, the Junior League of Bridgeport, the Family Service society and the United Fund. She is chairman. "This is the first time that United Fund money has been involved with a private organization," Miss Mendel declared, referring to the Homemaker Services, "And this is a good thing." She explained that the Homemaker Services in'Bridgeport is a five-year project. It 'is hoped that it will become an Independent organization next'year when its five initial years are completed.

In fact, Miss Mendel is In the process of appointing a committee to study the and incoming and outgoing funds of the agency, so that it can be proved that the Homemaker Services is necessary -for the good of the community. Mrs. Hubert T. Mandeville ol the Junior League heads the study committee. As chairman of Homemaker Services, Miss Mendel is present always for the first training sessions of new homemakers.

She feels that it is important to recount to them personally the history and purposes of the project. ASKED WHAT was the greatest accomnlishment of her career as superintendent of schools, Miss Mendel smiled remlriiscent- ly and said that many projects were started which were not finished until after her retirement; some were not even begun until then. She was named assistant superintendent of the Bridgeport school system in 1951, and promoted to deputy superintendent in 1954. In 1957 she replaced Joseph E. Jeffery as superintendent, but was named acting superintendent until she acquired the necessary credits for that position.

In 1957 she was appointed as full superintendent and she served until her retirement in June, 1960. "During those years, we re-, quested and obtained five new schools. We made plans for the new North End high school--perhaps this was our greatest achievement. "We also started the guidance counseling program, and we began teaching Spanish in two elementary schools on pilot programs. We had several classes in Russian.

We asked for and obtained a lot more teachers. "That's about all that comes to mind," she said. It is a good deal. On her retirement, Miss Mendel, who held the affection and friendship of teachers, principals and civic workers, was honored by all, including the Board of Education and Mayor Tedesco. WHEN ASKED to "pinch hit" by the board of directors of Museum of Art, Science and Industry at the time Earle W.

Newton, director-historian, resigned In 1962, Miss Mendel accepted, temporarily, the position of act- Ing director. She had been on the advisory committee and the building committee for the Museum, and so took the directorship for four She stayed three years. In fact, when queried by the Red Cross as to her interest In becoming director tif volunteers, the felt (hat she could not icccct the position, became the Museum work demanded her presence there daily. "Frankly, I did not want a 'second she said, "and the museum director has, if not a full time job, a daily one." She added, however, that she enjoyed seeing the visitors there, working with the staff, and learning so much; for instance, she had never realized how fascinating the stars are. On the appointment of J.

Cameron Mackenzie as director In November, 1964, Miss Mendel was free to work with the Red Cross. BORN IN Bridgeport, Augusta Mendel attended Bridgeport high school and Bridgeport Normal school. She received her bachelor of science degree from New York university in 1934, and her master's in 1944. She later took advance courses at Columbia and Yale universities and the University of Bridgeport. She began her career as a teacher in the Bridgeport School system, teaching all subjects in elementary school; then became mathematics teacher in Bassick Junior high school.

In 1930 she was named principal at Washington school, then principal at Sheridan.school and finally at Maplewood Junior high, before becoming assistant superintendent of schools. IN ADDITION to her duties as an educator. Miss Mendel served yearly as, chairman of the educational division for the United Red Feather of the Community Chest of Greater Bridgeport and Stratford and for its successor, the United Fund. She was a director of the Bridgeport Tuberculosis association, was president of the Bridgeport Teachers association and president of the State Federation of Teachers associations, vice president of the Community Chest, the Wonder Workshop Museum and of the Altrusa club, a director of the Mental Hygiene association, and a member of the National Education association and the Connecticut Guidance and Personnel association. Currently, this civic worker is again a director of the TB association, and a member of the American Association of School Administrators, the Bridgeport section, National Council of Jewish Women, and of the Association of Childhood Education.

She is a life member of Pi Lambda Theta, Rho chapter, honorary education society for women. Miss Mendel enjoys the theater, music, reading and traveling. She attends all the. plays at the Shakespeare theater in Stratford, and 'goes regularly to New Haven' to musical comedies there, belongs to the Community Con- ELECTED A VICE CHAIRMAN of the Bridgeport chapter of the American Red Cross this past week at the annual meeting of the chapter in the UB Student center, Miss Augusta Mendel, former superintendent of schools, looks forward eagerly to her job which entails directing the Office of Volunteers. Her record of community service in the Bridgeport school system, as acting director of the Museum of Art, Science and Industry until November, 1964, and with civic groups, labels Miss Mendel as an "organization type," who enjoys working with and for people.

cert association and the Connecticut Symphony. "I am one of those persons necessary to the artist--I listen," she said with a smile. LAST SUMMER she spent some time in Maine, and she has traveled to Mexico, South America, Canada and Bermuda, and five times to California. She has no great desire to visit Europe, perhaps "because of people's attitude there toward Americans." Her dates for the near future include a reminiscent talk at the 35th reunion of the Sheridan school which the PTA will sponsor Feb. 2 at the school, and participation in the program at the dinner of the Red Cross board Jan.

28. As head of the Red Cross Office of Volunteers, Miss Mendel is in charge of the Gray Ladies, the Motor Corps, staff aides Canteen, and Blood Bank volunteers. She is looking for more women to take on volunteer work, especially in the executive capacity. "The whole of Red Cross is constantly undergoing change with present-day needs," Miss Mendel stated. "There is new thinking in the organization.

This is a challenge to me. To do the job properly we need the support of everyone, not only dedicated volunteers, but many other individuals and groups in the community." Trust Will Erase Fear of Dentist SAN FRANCISCO Parents are the big reason wny most children dislike going to the dentist. That is the firm belief of Dr. Bernard Rabinowitch, who told a panel of dentists "the biggest hazard of being a child's dentist is parents." "When a parent walks Into your office and tells the child, 'he won't hurt you'--brother, you're half dead." Dr. Rabinowitch, who has a practice in Beverly Hills, said that children will learn to trust their dentist and can develop an early, comfortable relationship with him if parents will just keep their opinions to themselves.

"They should learn to trust the dentist as a friend and will look forward to their visits to his office and its painless equipment," Dr. Rabinowitch explained. "They should be started early, preferrably under five years of age." He said that 90 per cent of the nation's children under five years of age have never visited a dentist, and only 50 per cent of those under 15 know what a dentist's office looks like. UNITED TRESS INTERNATIONAL American women are marrying earlier and having their first baby sooner after marriage than a gen. eration ago, the Population Reference bureau, reports.

About 30 per cent of the 1964 cranberry crop has been used for non-alcoholic cranberry cocktail drink, with the rest going into mixed relishes, jams, jellies and bread, in addition to sauce. VHSAide Extra Busy Promoting Benefit Ball By LUCIA DONNELLY Mrs. Beulah Burhoe, executive director of the Visiting Homemaker Service of Westport, since its inception in 1957, is just about the busiest "semi-retired" woman to be found--and one of the luckiest. For she says with a gay smile and obvious zest that "most of my life I have done what I would choose to do." This is sheer luck as many of her various jobs have just happened to come along, such as her work with the VHS. A resident of Westport since Mrs.

Burhoe had decided some years back'to retire once again (she'd tried a stint at sitting home and "being a lady" some years earlier). But one day in 1956 the phone rang and the Westport Section, National Council of Jewish Women, inquired if she would become executive director of the homemaker service the chapter was planning to establish. Mrs. Burhoe recalled that she replied, "What's a homemaker service?" WELL, SHE HAS found out in the eight years she has been at its helm, busily supplying homemakers to take over for area families in illness, accident, and other emergencies. During these eight years has been on call from 7 a.m.

until 10 p.m. daily and every time she leaves home, she notifies the answering service where she may be reached. For The Visiting Homemaker Service director has found that there is "nothing that can happen to a human that we haven't had, from cradle to grave." As the name implies, the homemaker comes in as a rule when the mother of a family is ill, or perhaps both parents have been called from town in an emergency. When these emergencies hit, there always is need for someone to come in, take care of the children and keep the home operating as usual. Through efforts 'of a substitute mother, whose services may be needed for a day, a week, a month, or longer, this is done satisfactorily.

RIGHT NOW Mrs. Burhoe is busier than usual as the organization attained independent status Jan. 1 and is sponsoring its first major fund-raising effort, the first annual Snowflake Ball, at Longshore club, Westport, on Saturday--two days after- the eighth anniversary of The Visiting Homemaker Service undertaking its first case in Westport. Hopes are, she said, to raise as much as $6,000 to provide for the bulk of operating costs during this first year of independence. The National Council of Jewish Women sponsored and supported the VHS until it was operating smoothly and then, after four years, went on to new projects.

Support of the VHS then was taken over by the Westport Woman's club. But now, VHS hopes to run on its own power, raising funds through the dinner dance, through the 50 cents returned to VHS from Hie $2.00 hourly fee charged (plus seven cents a mile for transportation) tor its services. And, of course, with the continued contributions from its many friends. DURING THE PAST eight years, VHS homemakers have provided approximately 57,500 hours of service for some SOO families, with requests coming in from approximately 100 new families each year. When it was started, the local Queen Farah of Iran Ten Best Crests-- Anne Klein Debbie Reynolds Eileen Ford Catherine A PRETTY FACE doesn't mean as much as a pretty head in the picking of the 10 best coiffured women of 1964, selected by the nation's 180,000 hair stylists.

Hair colors range from deep black (Queen Farah of Iran) to strawberry blonde (actress Bethel Leslie). The group comes from royalty, stage, and society. Criterion is hair style's appropriateness to the woman's appearance, personality and way of life. Fashion designers are represented by Anne Klein and Catherine Scott; Eileen Ford is a beauty expert; Mme. Herve Alphand is the wife of the French ambassador to the United States and Felicia Montealegre Bernstein is an actress and wife of composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein.

VHS served the entire area and was the third homemaker service organized in the state, with the first two in New Haven and Hartford. Today, however, its services are limited to residents of Westport and Weston. There now are some 320 homemaker services in the United States, with the first national conference conducted in Washington, D.C., last year. Mrs. Burhoe was one of two Connecticut women invited to attend and to participate on the program.

MRS. BURHOE'S enthusiasm for her work shines through her every remark. That her enthusiasm is contagious is evidenced by her corps of homemakers, with the staff averaging from 12 to 15, but increasing to 29 during the Asian flu epidemic a few years ago. She's extremely careful in selecting the homemakers, who, she emphasized, are not maids and dp not do manual labor. Her criteria is somewhat unique, but the qualification she looks for above all others is an obvious "love of her fellow man." Her homemakers also must be "exceptionally fond of children, love to cook, and willing to provide tender care, for our sometimes cranky senior citizens." One thing Mrs.

Burhoe is proud of is the fact.that her VHS staff offers care for many elderly citizens (and this frequently without remuneration), enabling them to stay on in their own homes rather than having to go into nursing homes. MRS. BURHOE was graduated from Barnard college, and she went almost immediately to the famous Henry Street Settlement in New York city, where she worked closely under supervision of its founder, the late Lillian Wald, also a former resident of Westport. Then in 1919 she and a colleague decided, she said, "that the "city children really had everything and those in the southern mountains needed us more." So off she and the friend, a nurse, went to Friend's Creek in the mountains of northeastern Maryland. "This little area really needed us." she recalled, noting that sqhool then was not compulsory and that few parents troubled to send their children so they were "growing up with no education at all." They finally found an incentive for the children-the fact that the mountain youngsters had 'magnificent voices and loved to sing." So the two young women arranged only entertainment available a even drove a bus to collect the children and their parents.

The adults were loathe to come, she commented, as they had to ford a creek seven times to get to the school. And these sings had another motive--they provided the incentive for the children to learn to read because they wanted to learn the words of the songsl Mrs. Burhoe recalls it as a 'wonderful four years" with their efforts resulting in the building of a consolidated school for the district. They--she and the adopted four youngsters, ages seven to 14 to provide for them what they otherwise could not have had. THEY THEN returned to New York and Mrs.

Burhoe ran the 79th street branch of the Henry street Settlement. After what she describes as "various odd jobs," she joined the staff of the National Tuberculosis association and after certain work there decided In the thirties to return to school and get her doctor's degree. This she received--a Ph.D. in educational sociology--at New York university in 1934. After she had served 10 years with the Tuberculosis association, her husband, B.

D. Burhoe, decided she should "stay home and be a lady," she smiled. Home then was Portland, where Mr. Burhoe was director-secretary of the Community Chest, having formerly served as associate director in Stamford. But it didn't take the brisk and energetic Mrs.

Burhoe long to tire of this. As she had been one of the first to give aptitude tests while working with the Tuberculosis association and later In a Civil Works association project, she opened her own "lit- tie guidance clinic" In Maine. wound up testing night school students to determine fields they should enter. THE BURJIOES then returned to New York; World War II broke out and during the war years, Mrs. Burhoe worked with the Russian War Relief organization, sponsored by the Council of Churches.

In her spare time, she taught herself Russian. Later her work took her to ON CONSTANT CALL-nJrs. Reulah Burhoe, executive director of the Visiting Homemaker Service of Westport, is pictured it she usually Is found--at the telephone taking requests giving information concerning her agency. The VHS, a non-profit agency, was organized eight years ago to provide espectally-traiijeYI women to assist in household management when there is illness or emergency in the home. Mrs.

Burhoe's telephone Is busier; than these days as the VHS is sponsoring its first major firad-rsising project, the Snowflake Ball, on Saturday, Jan. 23 at Longshore club. CAREER'S BEGINNING-Mrs. Beulah Burhoe, executive director of the Visiting Homemaker Service of Westport, is shown in the early days of her career. Soon after World War she worked with the mountain children in northeastern Maryland, helping' in their schooling and In the many ways needed by what today is called a "deprived" group.

Here she leads the hone, Cozette, as one of the four children she and her co-worker, a nurse, adopted, sits astride the horse, holding his kittens. The adopted son, Clarence, died a year ago at the age of 52. Before and after four year In the Maryland mountains, Mrs. Burhoe worked with the late Lillian Wald, also a former Weslport resident, at the Henry Street Settlement in New York. Survey Magazine, where she was a staff member a couple of years, then to the Church World Service, 'founded to provide; relief around the world by the National Council Churches.

After the Burhoes came to Westport in 1945 she was educa- tipnal director for five years for the Wassell Organization before she "retired." Taking on her present work in semi-retirement as "part-time," Mrs. Burhoe has only one worry: "I'm getting old and wonder where I will find an understudy." That, as almost anyone would venture, will be difficult, as it's pretty hard to find one willing to be on call the 15 hours a day that Mrs. Burhoe is. But right now her enthusiastic energy is directed toward making this first annual Snowflake Ball a success, both from the viewpoint of an outstanding social event and, most important, to raise the funds to keep VHS assistance available to all in need of this heartwarming service. Cottons so heavily embossed they look like dull silks run through the spring fashion collections.

Designers use the cottons for late day and evening, notably In white. Bill Blass of Maurice Rentner, New York, for example, creates a i sleeveless princess dress with a high-slashed neckline. A deep front pleat adds grace to 'the A-shaped skirt; A pipe cleaner is handy to remove hard deposits from salt and pepper shakers when cleaning them before soaking In warm sudsy water. Rinse and dry well before refilling. Household Hints Are Nothing Newt- Printed household hints aren't anything Here are a that Were carried 'a cook book of 120 years ago: "To seal preserves, the white of an egg, iake tissue paper the size "that you require, dip into the egg, wetting the paper on both sides, cover the jar carefully, pressing it around the sides securely.

"To boil a ham, fill a pot with water, put in the ham. Fill all around with nice hay, add garlic, cloves, mace, allspice, thyme and 'let it boil several hours until quite done, and then add about a quart of cider or wine. "To make a filling for jelly cake. One quart of new milk, whites of five eggs, eight tablespoons of flour boiled- to a thick paste. "For a beautiful coloring for a cake, fine equal parts of alum, cream of tartar and cochineal and dissolve it in water.

"As a nice flavoring for a cake, mix. one tablespoon of brandy with one teaspoon of lemon acid (pulverized)." Did you note that "nice hay" around the ham as it Is boiled? AP Tfewileatorai) Silver fish-like paper, glue and sizing, all of which are found In books. To prevent damage to your books from them, wipe the shelves of your book cise occasionally with a rag faturated with ttirpine. UNIVERSITY of BRIDGEPORT EVENING CLASS REGISTRATION! January 25, 26, 27 6:00 to 8:30 P.M. DANA HALL SPECIAL COURSES CERTIFICATE AWARD ASSOCIATE DEGREE BACHELOR DEGREE GRADUATE DEGREE PHONE OR WRITE FOR FREE CATALOG AND SCHEDULE 230 UNIVERSITY AYE.

366-3611.