Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 294, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1916 — $50,000 BUILDING FUND CAMPAIGN NOW ON [ARTICLE]

$50,000 BUILDING FUND CAMPAIGN NOW ON

Campaign to Raise $50,000 FdiZMonnett School For Girls to Be Started Soon.

Owing to the crowded condition of Monnett School, and to provide adequite facilities for the greatly increasing number of girls who are making application for admission to. the school, the board of trustees of the school have decided td at once begin a campaign for $50,000 to erect and properly equip a building of sufficient size for the needs of the school. A We are anxious that the people of Rensselaer, and in fact the people of Indiana, shall fully understand, not only the needs of this school but also the place that it occupies in filling a gredt need in this and other states. There is no other school of its kind

in this country. Monnett School for Girls is not an orphanage, for if it were there would be no real need for it at this time, for the great state of Indiana at the present time has more orphanages than there are orphans to place therein. It is neither a reform school or a charitable institution, but a school home where the ideals and thoughts of its founder are being realized in its ability to give training and care to those girls from 6 to 14 years of age whose home life is broken up or unsettled through various causes —possibly parents or one of them being dead—fathers traveling or earning salaries sufficient for only the most moderate way of living. The cost of school training and home life is of such a small sum that children-whose parents could not afford to send them t*any other school can arrange to send them to Monnett. Expenses must be kept at as low a figure as possible, for if only $25 or S3O more per year is added some of the children would be unable to come.

The workers carry on the school without salary and thus the expenses are kept at a minimum. More children are ready to come — applications are being received all the time—but there is no room; larger buildings are sadly needed. Children are received at th e school without regard to their church preference. At the present time children are at the school from Illinois, Indiana, Town, Oklahoma and New Jersey.’ The raising of the fund of $50,066 will enable the school to care for at least 160 girls and these will be ready to come as soon as the buildings are ready. The question for the business men and citizens in general of Rensselaer to consider at this time is, “What will a larger Monnett School mean to Rensselaer?” A larger school with its larger xorce of workers and students? Does the care of childhood appeal to us ? What part will we take in the cam ? —Remember, the school needs $50,006 and needs it at once. Campaign headquarters have been opened in the building next to the postoffice and subscriptions to the fund are being received. How much will you give ? The names of all contributors will be published in this paper from week to week. , It is expected that the campaign will last for ten weeks and that during that time our people will so rally to this worthy and needed project that means so much to the girls of our state and means so much to Rensselaer, that when the campaign is over the entire amount will have been subscribed and a large and lasting school established in this city. A general committee of 35 members and a business committee of 16 members has been selected to take charge of the work? > M. D. Gwin, Chairman; Mrs. H. L. Brown, Secretary; J. D. Allman, Treasurer. IG. Hartman Bright, of Chicago, is in direct charge of the campaign.