[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 73 (Friday, May 21, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E954]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING 50 YEARS OF HISTORY

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 20, 2004

  Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Association 
of Retarded Citizens of Morris County, New Jersey in my Congressional 
District. The ARC is celebrating fifty years of providing excellence in 
community service.
  In July of 1953, several families in Morris County formed a unit of 
the New Jersey Parents Group for Retarded Children. They soon began to 
fill the void and developed their own services; the Play Center was 
established as well as the Teen Club. Several years later, the first 
scouting program serving boys with mental retardation was added. The 
groups advocated with local school districts, and, out of those 
efforts, special classes were started for those people with retardation 
who were considered educable or trainable. By the close of its first 
decade, it recognized the critical importance of getting services to 
people with developmental delays at the youngest possible age, the unit 
established a nursery school for children with special needs.
  In the 1960s the families of the Morris Unit continued to make 
strides to change the world for people with mental retardation. A 
second nursery school was opened and in 1969 a site was dedicated as 
Camp Sundial in Chester.
  Federal legislation, which provided increased funding and mandated 
more stringent standards for institutions, was enacted, and more 
significantly, the appropriateness of institutional care ``per se'' 
began to be questioned. Advocates came together to create a service to 
fill this need. They raised the funds necessary to open the first Adult 
Activities Program, a forerunner of their Adult Training and 
Rehabilitation Centers. By the end of the 1970s, the Morris County 
Recreation Consortium was created, and the Early Childhood Enrichment 
programs developed, both of which would later evolve into programs that 
would represent a new era in community-based services.
  In October 1982, they dedicated their first Adult Training Center, 
located in Flanders. In the 1980's and 1990's the ARC/Morris County 
Chapter continued to expand and diversify its programs and services and 
also developed many group homes that allowed for greater independent 
living. This organization went from a small parent support group, to a 
movement that changed millions of lives for the better, and along the 
way, countless other lives and communities have benefited and will 
continue to well into the future.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that you and my colleagues in the House of 
Representatives join with me in congratulating the Association of 
Retarded Citizens of Morris County, and all of the Association's 
outstanding staff, employees and volunteers, upon celebrating its 50th 
Anniversary.

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