6---Cathollc Nie Proqress Snd Sectlon
', Feb. !5, 1963
From Small Beginnings
(Continued from Page 3)
Patricelli and Mr. and Mrs. 3ohn Hayden.
The former takes in eight grade-school boys
and girls and the Haydens care for eight
high-school age girls.
"Many children can't live in a foster
home," Miss Weber explained. 'Key have
such unpleasant associations of family life
that they do better with a small group of
youngsters their own age living in what we
call 'group homes.' "
With the orphanage closed, the task of
finding over 100 foster homes fell to the
agency.
"We were saved by a group of men,"
Bishop Gill said, "now known as the Assem-
bly Club who drummed up contacts, opened
doors for us, and literally found our foster
homes.'"
Headed by Joseph Manning Jr., John
Walsh, Alvin Stark and Joseph Michael, the
group dedicates itself entirely to the foster
parent program. Each year they sponsor a
banquet honoring those unselfish couples
who, often with children of theix own, take
in neglected youngsters.
'hese people are saints," Miss Weber
emphasized. 'I'here is no other word for
those who open their hearts and homes so
willingly to lonely, homesick, often physically
or mentally disabled children."
From the 62 children who were placed
i,n foster homes in 1939 the number rose to
over 300 in 1962. The increase in adoptions
is also marked with 19 children adopted in
1939 as compared to 122 last year.
• "'Unfortunately," Miss Weber said, "while
our number of adoptive parents remains con-
stant, the number of children needing homes
i.s spiraling upward all the time. With minor-
ity groups, especially Negroes, the number
of waiJfing babies is pitifully high.
"Where once parents had to walt two or
three years," Miss Weber added, "'the wait-
ing period has dropped to pexhaps six to
nine mouths. For Negro couples the waiting
period is even shorter."
IkmRI
Lay participation in Catholic Children's
Services took a distinct upward swing when
Bishop Shaughnessy invited 12 representa-
tire Catholics to serve on the Board of Di-
rectors of the Catholic Children's Bureau.
The first meeting was held March 20, 1945
and Mrs. Charles N. Smith was the first
chairman.
Among board members who have served
through the years, Leo Sullivan and Di'. :Fran-
cis Flaherty are charter members, attending
every meeting without fail.
Villa Maria Home Begins
Another service CCS was able to estab-
lish in 1951 was:Villa Maria Home for unwed
mothers. There a girl is cared for and may
remain as long as necessary following the
birth of her baby.
Catholic Children's Services is now 25
years old and the number of caseworkers
has multiplied almost seven times. All are
over-worked, dedicated, selfless people, striv-
ing not for material gains, but for the love
of the thousands of youngsters who, like the
impatient little blonde boy, pass through the
doors of 410 Marion looking for Iove and
warmth, children who are unabIe to help
themselves, but who are deserving of a prop-
erly-nurtured Catholic Faith to which the
men and women of Catholic Children's Serv-
ices have dedicated their lives.
i:i !
GATHERED TOGETHER for a rm'e moment are caseworkers and €lerical workers who
comprise Catholic Children's Services. With them is Rev. Dennis Muehe, Archdiocesan Director
of Cku.ilhs. The others are Ifro row. from the left') Mary Marenger, Patricia Long,
Margaret Hlt NealOao Kelan Idacmaid, Florence Gallo and Marie Skahan.
(Second row) Irene ReloAds, Canaon. Joan Kawaguchl, Catherine Word. Hendetlm
Stephens. Irene Weber, Mary Schorr, Patr|cia Donovan, Anne Cdllas and Janet (TM
row) Lorraine Ropes, Palcia Everlncjham, Doris Shomber, Judith Connor. Joan Lord, Maurq
Kelleher, Jane Barline, Melvina Squires, Kay Collon and Vcderia Shearer. (Fourth row1 Will|am
McCm-thy, George Marshall, Herbert Denny, Louis Beresovoy, Michael Bannon. Tom Con, or.
and Earl Dangelmaier. Genevieve Nelsan and Edea Sales were unable to be present for the
picture.
Tile Beltran Fami00
(Continued From Page 5)
own three children who are now grown, married
and rearing children.
Regardless of the number, these two parents
will be the first recipients of an award, emble-
matic of 25 years of dedicated service to foster
and adoptive children under the care of Catholic
Children's Services.
The presentation will be made at the 13th
Foster Parents Dinner of the Catholic Children's
Services Tuesday, Feb. 26, in Olympic Hotel's
Grand Ballroom.
Sally and her younger brother, Melchor,
were the first of the trans' foster children.
She was only I1 in 1940 when she began a new
life in the Beltran home at 531- 16th Ave. in
Immaculate Parish. Sally is now happily mar-
ried in Redmond and tl proud mother of a
17-year-old son. The Beltrans will always be her
parents.
The feelings of others is similar.
Among the children now at home is Albert,
I6, a high school sophomore who has been with
the Beltrans since he was Ig months old. He
uses proudly for his last name, Boltran.
Tommy, 10, a fourth grader, has been with
the Beltrans since he was 17 days old. He says
that Albert is his brother like Jim and Edrie.
Jim is the couple's oldest child. Now 30,
Jim is the first Filipino to become a Seattle
police officer. He has fbce children of his own
and lives with his famil'y in St. Paul Parish.
Edrie is the Be!trans' third and yougest
child. A former O'Dea Stellar football and has-
ketball player, Edrie, 20, and his young wife are
just getting used to their two-month-old daugh-
ter.
The second Beltran child is Mary, 25, named
after her mother. Mary lives with her husband,
Bart Felix, and their three children in St. Teresa
Parish.
"We opened our door and our hearts first to
children of Filipino descent because they were
unwanted," Mrs. Beltran s a i d. "We received
these children and raised them like our own."
Since Sally and Melchor, the racial origins
of foster children inthe Beltran home are many
and diversified.
"I like children," she said. "Maybe it is be-
cause I did not have enough of my own."
What keeps everyone in tow? Discipline,
says both parents.
"I have raised all of them like I did my
own," the mother said.
As for household chores, the older ones do
most of the coordinating. All work is rotated
from dishwashing, yard work to learning how
to iron their own clothes.
Mr. Beltran, 61, left his hometown of Faire
in the Philippine province of Cagayan and ar-
rivd in Seattle in 1925. Finishing a Jesuit high
school education in M a n i I a, Mr. Beltran had
planned to continue his education in America.
The former Maria Abastilla, born 1902 in
Baguio in the Mountain Province, c a m e from
the Philippines to Seattle in 1929. When she
arrived, the future Mrs. Beltran was already a
registered nurse. In 1931 she completed her
post graduate work in contagion and public
health nursing and eaz;r+ed a,bache.lor's degree
in nursing rom fliq niversit' Of Wshington.
The two were married in Seattle's former
Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church on Novem-
ber 7, 1931. They have lived in their present
home since 1940.
Their concern for the welfare of children--
badly needing parents, home and love--have
served as an haspiration to others of their own
race and interests in caring for God's little
ones.
In All Corners
Of The Archdiocese
ATHOLIC Children's Services in Seattle
is but one of a network of agencies
throughout the Archdiocese operated under
Catholic Charities. Each of the agencies has
its own staff and board and carries on a full
program of child welfare services.
In Tacoma the hoard is headed by Mrs.
William Johnston. This agency also operates
Villa Majella Maternity Home and provides
casework service for St. Ann's Home.
In Bellingham, Mrs. Fred Farmer ispresi-
dent of the board. The agency which covers
Skagit and Island Counties is headed by John
E. Weckert. Mrs. Stephen Beck is president of
the Catholi Children's Bureau in Everett and
Thomas J. Donovan beads the agency in Van-
couver.
Together, these agencies provide child wel-
fare service throughout the Archdiocese of
Seattle from Canada to Oregon and from the
.Cascades to the sea. Last year alone they pro-
vided re and_$ery_t oer 1,5. children.
