Tuesday morning, May 21, 1957, in the second plenary session of the International Convention held in Lucerne, Switzerland, the Keynote Address was given by Helen Keller.

 

Helen Keller was an incredible spokesperson for the blind, and at her own expense. Even though she lost the senses of sight, sound and hearing almost six months before her second birthday, she grew into a life’s work of giving of her self. She worked incessantly, and her writings and presentations were regarded as “brilliant, thought-provoking and compassionate.“

 

Other than convention personnel, she was one of the first five women to ever address a Rotary International Convention, as her keynote was given 30 years before the U. S. Supreme Court decision that allowed women to join Rotary. A copy of her address appears below, as relayed to the audience by her companion Miss Polly Thomson. It was taken from the 1957 Convention Proceedings.

 

Doug Rudman

 

Convention Address

 

By Miss Helen Keller

Counselor, American Foundation for the Overseas Blind

 

FIRST of all, I want to thank you, Dr. Bonnevie-Svendsen, for your beautiful words and for this high tribute and for the happy feeling that I have in being part of the world friendship which binds you all together.

 

Now I have the honor of telling you that I was especially asked to convey to you the warmest greetings from your fellow Rotarians in Iceland.

 

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Lang, Members and Friends: It was truly a precious honor for me to receive your invitation to Lucerne. I am proud to speak to a gathering at once so distinguished and so beneficent. I am thrilled by the creativeness, which you bring to the service of mankind, and gratefully I have watched the Rotary Clubs as they have included the blind, the deaf and other handicapped groups within the circle of their generosity.

IN my travels around the world, I have been cheered by the steady progress in the education of blind children in lands where they were once outcasts of society. But if all the young blind are to be taught, many more schools must be constructed and thousands of capable teachers specially trained. Huge quantities of teaching appliances, books and materials must be found.

 

As for the adult blind, millions of them live in idleness, though strong in mind and body and desirous of serving society. It has been proven that if the blind are trained, they can do excellent work. Surely, we who seek to promote the dignity of every individual should lend our full strength to provide the training and employment services that will enable the blind to become active members of society.

 

WHAT the Rotarians have done in the past encourages me to suggest that, as an international organization of high prestige and influence, you undertake a world-wide crusade to meet the imperative needs of the blind. Where there are few qualified workers, scholarships might be arranged for promising blind students, to enable them to teach others, and to found new programs in their own countries. In other places, your knowledge of commerce, agriculture and marketing might be used to introduce training courses for urban and rural occupations in which the blind could succeed. Elsewhere, your labors and funds might be given to provide the blind with Braille printing presses.

 

I can assure you that the American Foundation for Overseas Blind stands ready to join with you in constructive partnership.

 

Yes, dear Rotarians, it would gratify me beyond words if, through your kindness, the blind of all lands might draw freely on the bread and water of life, literature and culture to satisfy their cravings of the mind and the spirit.

 

 

Wolfgang Ziegler

Doug Rudman

 

Also read her biography