Longest-serving Founders’ Board member extends her legacy
When Peggy Carr joined the hospital's Founders' Board , Harry S. Truman was president and the cost of a postage stamp was three cents. The year was 1949, and the Chicago native and mother of two joined the Board at the encouragement of her friend and fellow member Ann Donnelly, not knowing that she would still be involved more than a half-century later.
The leadership legacy of the Founders' Board dates back to 1892 when hospital founder Julia Foster Porter enlisted a group of women to serve on an advisory Board. As the longest-serving member, Carr has been a part of the Founders' Board for more than half of its existence and witnessed significant changes over the years, both within the Board and the hospital.
Her passion for helping others was instilled at a young age by her mother, who was president of the Chicago Orphan Asylum and brought her along on visits to the orphanages, where Carr saw firsthand the need to protect and heal society's most vulnerable children.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Carr and the other Founders' Board members managed the White Elephant resale shop, then an all-volunteer operation. They also devoted many hours of service to entertain children and assist caregivers in the hospital. Carr vividly remembers holding and feeding children who needed special attention, especially those with cerebral palsy. “Caring for those children and ultimately seeing them smile was wonderfully rewarding,” she says.
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Tell us your story Before the hospital had a Child Life program, Founders' Board members played a leading role in fostering play and developmental growth in the children. Carr spearheaded a partnership with the Chicago Botanic Garden to start the horticultural therapy program for children at the hospital in the 1960s.
The program, still thriving today, enables children to learn about horticulture and plant window box gardens for their rooms. Carr remembers many children transformed by their experiences. “There was a boy so ill he could barely sit up who also had autism and had not spoken in weeks. I will never forget that afternoon of planting flowers at his bedside when he smiled and even responded verbally,” she says.