WCDC founded by parents who wanted local organization

The 1970s dawned at a time of great change in America.

The 1960s saw the fight for Civil Rights, people questioning the United States’ role in Vietnam and the expansion of the social safety net.

As the new decade arrived, people were questioning other societal institutions.

One of those was The Arc — the Association of Retarded Citizens.

A group of parents of intellectually disabled children in Washington thought a local organization would be more beneficial for their children. One of those parents was Gary DeWolf.

“There were a number of families in Washington with parents of children with mental disabilities,” DeWolf said. “We were all members of The Arc — the Association for Retarded Citizens. One of the problems we had being members of this national organization was that most of the money that we sent in as a local organization we sent elsewhere.

“It wasn’t being spent locally. We started our own organization.”

In 1971, that group of parents founded Rolling Meadows, which would eventually become WCDC.

“I’m just amazed at the insight of some parents of some special needs or intellectually disabled adults 50 years ago,” WCDC President David Hoffman said. “Those parents had the insight to get something started for their kids. They knew that their kids had a lot to offer.

“They went out and started an organization that would help their kids become productive citizens in life, being able to hold jobs and be part of the community and be well-rounded adults.”

DeWolf said that the parents were doing what they believed to be the right thing for their children.

“I look at it as something that we needed to do, and we did it,” he said. “A lot of people forget about these individuals.

“Many years ago, people would kind of shove them in a closet and forget about them. That’s not the proper thing to do.”

Hoffman, who has served as WCDC president for the past five years, praised the efforts of the organization’s “founding fathers.”

“For that organization to grow and evolve into WCDC 50 years later, that’s just an amazing,” Hoffman said. “What a credit to the people of Washington County to have that foresight and drive to make this work.”

DeWolf said that it is gratifying to see how the organization has grown over the past 50 years.

“I’m very happy to have been a part of the group that set up the local organization and accomplish what we did,” DeWolf said. “It’s been very gratifying to see that something has been accomplished to benefit these people.”