Richard leaving Cerebral Palsy Clinic
By
MARSHA K. SILLS
Special to the Daily World
Opelousas, LA
May 30, 1999
"This place is special. I know it will be okay without me because this place is blessed," said Patty Richard as she looked around at the smiling pictures of children covering her office walls.
Since 1991, Richard has been the director of the Opelousas Area Cerebral Palsy Clinic which offers free physical therapy to children with cerebral palsy. The clinic is losing Richard this summer. Her husband, Ray and their two youngest children, Jake, 14, and Amy, 11, are migrating to Los Angeles where her husband accepted a job transfer. She confessed that one of the hardest trials of the move will be leaving behind her family; especially her two oldest children, Bill, 19, and Caroline, 17, who will remain here.
"It's scary, but exciting. Not many people get that opportunity at 42 years old," she realized.
The clinic has always been a part of Richard's life. Her parents, Bill and Elaine Fields started the clinic in 1954 because no therapy was available for Richard's older sister who had cerebral palsy.
She explained that her parents started the clinic to alleviate the expense and draining travel families had to take to New Orleans or Houston for their children's therapy. The Fields decided that care must be made available in St. Landry Parish. They began their fundraising through a Postman's Drive in which the mailmen would pass through their routes in the evening to collect donations for the clinic. Richard said that the community effort allowed for the hiring of a physical therapist and the therapy for more than 20 children. She said the clinic was eventually built and progressed through community involvement.
"The community has basically built this place," she said. "I can not emphasize the importance of the impact it has had because this place would never have been started or continued this many years. When we need equipment we write a letter to an organization and usually get a letter back saying 'sure'."
She said the clinic recently received a grant of $12,500 from the Valero Benefit for Children Golf Classic and at least three of four other grants which allowed the clinic to hire three pediatric physical therapists.
She stressed the importance of early implementation of therapy and said that 10 to 15 children under the age of three undergo therapy through the clinic. Forty school-age children are bussed from their schools to the clinic during the week; however, Richard said that beginning next school year the therapists will go into the schools.
Richard said because of added funding, speech therapy will be offered in a 7-week session this summer which is also free for the children.
A lot has been happening at the little clinic that sits on the gravel end of Bellevue, unobtrusive to those driving down Academy Street.
"This place has been going 40 years. It has nothing to do with me," emphasized Richard. The physical therapists are absolutely the best. They're so caring and patient. There's no agenda. They're here to help the children."
"They have pictures of me at five accepting donations for the clinic. It was only natural for me to apply," she said.
Being a caretaker is also natural to her. She received her nursing degree from LSU-E and worked for two years at Opelousas General before she became a stay-at-home mom. The clinic also remains a family past time; her children have volunteered at the clinic and her mother remains on the clinic's board of directors.
The legacy her parents started became her own and she said it will be hard for her to let it go.
"It's family. I'm going to miss the kids," realized Richard. "We don't wear lab coats. We're their friends. One kid was here when I started and he's graduating from high school this month. This is home to me. The kids keep you very humble. You think you have problems, but to see them work themselves when the smallest motion is difficult and even just moving their arm is difficult, it puts life into perspective. Their attitudes are incredible; adults should be able to handle our problems more graciously."
"It is beyond words to see the accomplishments they make," conceded clinic volunteer Karen Higginbotham. "To go in there and see the kids who couldn't walk or sit up make progress - it's thrilling and to be part of that is pretty special."
Her daughter, Alison, receives therapy at the clinic and Higginbotham has volunteered at the clinic since Richard began as director.
"It's fun and exciting," said Higginbotham of her work with Richard. "I see her dedication to the children that go there. It's very rewarding working with her."
She also emphasized how much the children will miss Richard. Higginbotham and Richard explained that most of the children don't really understand that she will be leaving. The children are gone. The clinic will be empty until the summer speech therapy begins. Pictures and memories remain. A typed note is taped to her wall from a child with limited mobility. In little caps, no spaces it read: "pattyiloveyou!" He understood.
"These kids appreciate so much of what you do," she said referring to the message.
"You know, I think I'll miss the Christmas parties the most," she reminisced. "They're very special. We have a man who comes to play Santa and he probably enjoys it more than the kids. To see the look on these kids faces ... it's so heart-warming. And having the kids take their first step and all the all the little accomplishments. I'll always feel a part of that."
