Bethlen Naptár, 1953 (Ligonier)
Life in our Bethlen Home
232 BETHLEN NAPTÁK Many of our old folks are now bed-ridden. For their adequate care we have had a full-time nurse on duty for the past two years. Spiritual care has been provided for all our guests through the daily home devotions, Sunday worship services at our chapel and in the local Presbyterian church, which our children attend regularly for Sunday School and where they take an active part in the Westminster Youth Fellowship. An adequate recreational and work program is followed in both homes. Our children have had the benefit of the Daily Vacation Bible School in the local Protestant churches, Hungarian school in the Home and supervised recreation on the public recreation field during the summer months. Many of our children are members of the high school band, take part in school sports activities and are active in scouting. The Bethlen Home has a fine library at the children’s disposal. Our old folks have always had the opportunity to occupy themselves in the gardens and the kitchen, and to find recreation and occupation through handwork, reading of the daily newspapers and books from their library. In order that our institution might keep up with the times in providing up-to-date entertainment for its big family, in addition to the RCA-Victor 16-mm. film and sound projector, we have for them three television sets: one in each home. It is with pleasure that I report that our Bethlen Home has been rated as an A-l institution by the Welfare Department of the State of Pennsylvania, which department officially checks all institutions. It is worth mentioning in connection with our good status that the Ligonier Valley Chamber of Commerce had this to say about our Home: “The Bethlen Home of Ligonier, with its charitable work, its beautiful buildings that are a pride of the Valley, with its fine staff of leaders and workers, as well as guests, is not only a respected institution in our community, but one of which we are justly proud.” Through the Christian work done within its walls, the Bethlen Home is happy to note that the children are well-behaved, both at home and within their circles of friends, and have shown outstanding progress in their school work. Our old folks are generally content, though old age has brought illness and incapacity to many. Because of an extensive program of remodeling, building and investing in necessary articles of machinery, our institution has grown materially so that it now represents an approximate value of one-half million dollars.
