The
Lyon County Association for Retarded Children was formed by a group of
parents of retarded children and interested citizens of Emporia for the
purpose of providing training facilities for those children not eligible
for public school special education classes. This parent group, along with
the volunteers, worked long and hard for something in which they believed.
Without money, without a building, without many other things, but with
strong determination and great fortitude, they set about providing something
for their retarded children.
In September of 1961, classes started in a single upstairs room at the Emporia Recreation Center. Five children were enrolled in the classes. When the state declared this room unsafe for the children, Dr. John King, President of Kansas State Teachers College, gave them the use of a vacant fraternity house on the college campus. At the end of the first year, twelve children were enrolled and there were twenty volunteer workers serving them. During the second year, a teacher was hired and a five day a week program for two hours each morning was begun. Children from Lyon, Coffey, Greenwood, and Chase counties attended. Faced with this rapid growth, it became apparent to parents and volunteers that additional space was required. Judge Jay Sullivan and other interested citizens saw to it that, through the generosity of various individual estates, funds were made available to construct a new facility at 707 South Commercial Street. This building was the first constructed in Kansas to be used specifically for the education of retarded children.
In March of 1969, bids were let for the construction of a sheltered workshop. While awaiting completion of the new building, eight clients performed subcontract work in a small metal building. In January 1971, an addition that approximately double the size of the original building was completed. The sheltered workshop was a separate corporation. On July 1, 1972, the Duane F. Hetlinger Memorial Sheltered Workshop and the Lyon County Association for Retarded Children merged into a single corporate entity and functioned under one board of directors. On July 1, 1974, the facility changed its name to the Hetlinger Developmental Center and Sheltered Workshop, Inc.
With the state mandate on special education adopted by Kansas in 1973-74, all school age children were transferred to a variety of special level classes in the public school system. This had been the long term goal of the founding mothers and fathers. While the facility was changed from an all purpose school for the mentally retarded and those with other disabilities, it continued with the sheltered workshop program. An infant stimulation program and a pre-school non-categorical program were operated under a cooperative agreement between Hetlinger Developmental Center & Sheltered Workshop, Inc., and the Flint Hills Education Cooperative. In 1989, the school district assumed full responsibility of the children's programs.
The consumers receiving services in the workshop are paid for their productive work. Industries provide subcontracts which are performed by the workshop clients. Last year's gross income from this work was $125,416 with a consumer payroll of $91,613.
