Cripples' School

One morning last week 45 children in 45 Denver homes were too excited to eat breakfast. Up since dawn, they clutched schoolbooks, babbled to their parents. Soon, to each door in succession rolled a school bus. "Rusty," the bus driver, marched in, picked up a small passenger, carried him to a seat in the bus. His passengers were going to Denver's new School for Crippled Children. For many, it was their first school day.

Most crippled children never go to school, get their lessons from visiting teachers at home or hospital. The man who made Denver's school possible was famed, 88-year-old Capitalist Charles Boettcher (beet sugar, cement), whose grandson, Charles II, was kidnapped seven years ago, ransomed for $60,000. The Boettcher family put up $193,000, enabled Denver's Board of Education to get a PWA grant and build a $384,000 school. Designed in pale green concrete and glass by famed Architect Burnham Hoyt, it was easily the handsomest and best-equipped school for crippled children in the U. S.

As pupils with canes, crutches, wheel chairs arrived at their new school at East 1 9th and Downing Streets, next to Denver's Children's Hospital, five teachers and a nurse ushered them in. The children sat in its red leather chairs, hobbled up its ramps (just for exercise, the school had a few stairs to its observation tower), found handrails along every wall, adjustable chairs and tables, two lavatories, a drinking fountain and a grassy outdoor playground next to each classroom. Other equipment: arts & crafts shops, sewing machines, two model kitchens.

A progressive school, the School for Crippled Children organized small classes from kindergarten through high school, planned to teach its pupils how to make a living. Because many a sensitive crippled child hates school hustle & bustle, Denver's teachers were not surprised that most of their school's 250 seats were still empty the first week. But they expected that pupils would find the school such fun that it would soon be filled. Expensive to run, the School for Crippled Children is free to Denver children, will admit out-of-town pupils for $300 a year.

Last week, as old Charles Boettcher took his daily stroll to work down 17th Street, Denverites stopped him in the street, warmly shook his hand.

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