Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Times
Saturday, July 10, 1976, page 1 (of 27)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
the sun shines on . . . Jenni's an inspiration to everyone
By LINDA HAMLIN Correspondent Jenni Gold inspires people. She inspired her family, her teachers, her classmates and her friends. She inspires friendship and she inspires people to contribute to the Muscular Dystrophy Fund, to combat the disease she's had all her life. Jenni, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Gold, 17230 SW 90th Ave., is 10 years old and helps at the Muscular Dystrophy (MD) telethon in Miami every year during Labor Day weekend. During the telethon she's been named an honorary firefighter, and Miami's firemen who stop cars for contributions dump the money every year in her lap on stage while she wears her own fire hat. Wheeling in a wheelchair for three years, Jenni and her two older sisters, Vicki and Becki, have also sold carnations to raise funds for MD. Jennie also gets frequent publicity pictures taken of her, such as with the Dolphins, for fundraising. WTVJ's Chuck Zink (Skipper Chuck) made a movie and wrote a song about Jenni to encourage her his backyard carnivals to raise funds for MD. Joe Strano, vice-president of the Perrine-Cutler Ridge Jaycees, owns the gas station in Perrine where the Gold family trades. The Jaycees contribute annually to MD, but Strano has been personally motivated. "By getting to know Jenni and the family and the problems of Muscular Dystrophy, it's brought the need to light for me. I'm running the project for MD this year for the club and we'll take collections and have maybe a fundraising carnival in at my station." Every summer Jenni participates in a camp for kids with MD, sponsored by the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Her sisters and two neighborhood friends are counselors, and Jenni's mother, Olga, said that after one week, the counselors "get so attached to the kids, they come back here to visit. They can't wait until next year to see everybody. "The friends Jenni meets through fundraising and camp are leasing; they keep calling for years. Jennie met one young man, Leon Sootin, at a telethon, and even after four years he still calls almost every two weeks and comes to see Jenni whenever he's in town," Mrs. Gold contributed. "Also through the telethon, Jenni's met the Rhodes Brothers, and her favorite, Tom, comes to the house to see her. He invited her to his wedding. The whole family works at the telethon, and Jenni's contribution to fundraising had an early start. "When Jenni was four years old," Mrs. Gold said, "I went on a march with mothers through the neighborhood, trying to get donations. When I came back, I started crying because the neighbors would maybe donate 25 cents, and they could afford more because they had big boats and cars in their yards. Jenni went to her room and came back with her piggy bank. She wanted to give me the whole thing." Jenni is quiet when she first meets someone, but she will talk about her animals, which she loves. "We had 19 animals at one time at home," Jenni said, "I love them." Her other love is children, according to Jenni's fourth grade teacher at Westminster Christian School, Mrs. Henry Admundson, 20300 SW 103rd Ave. "When she was in my class, the whole class rallied around her and were closer to each other. Having Jenni in my class was the best experience I've had as a teacher. She made the class conscious of their blessings and the Muscular Dystrophy telethon was a new meaning. I can't say enough good things about her." Each day students at school push Jenni's wheelchair during recess. "Even little boys, who are so shy to show affection," Mrs. Amundson said, "would want to push her around, and they would say the sweetest things to her." Jenni "spreads sunshine, although she has her blue moments, too," Mrs. Gold said. "But, she affects people positively. I hope I don't sound like a bragging parent." Appropriately, Jenni's CB handle is Florida Sunshine. "It fits me," Jenni said, "It's the only one I liked." Jenni with camp counselors, sisters . . . Vicki Gold, Carol Hagan, Becki Gold, Karyn Condatore
They teach others to enjoy life
By ELIZABETH OWEN Staff Writer Gordon Blaum claims he has changed quiet, retiring introverts into gregarious, vivacious extroverts in a matter of weeks. How? Square dancing. Whoever thinks the quadrille or square dance is passe hasn't been to Cross Trail Square Dance Center in South Dade. For 27 years, Gordon and his wife Edna have been teaching square dancing to hundreds of men, women, girls and boys from Miami Beach to Homestead. The Center, a large dance hall with a well-worn wooden floor, is secluded in an industrial section of town at 4150 SW 70th Ct. "We teach people 13 years and older," said Edna. "But our oldest dancer is Bob Godbey from South Miami — he's 81." Gordon, the first caller in Southeast Florida — from West Palm Beach to Miami — started dancing and calling when he was a sophomore at the University of Miami. "We learned square dancing from Dr. Lloyd Shaw's textbook," said Gordon. "He was the school superintendent of Colorado, and he's considered the "Grand Pappy" of square dancing." Edna said Gordon's mother, a staunch Baptist, did not wholeheartedly approve of Gordon's new-found interest. "She called square dancing 'huggin set to music,' " said Edna. When Gordon and Edna married in 1947, he taught his young bride the dance, and the two have been avid instructors ever since. Gordon taught square dance classes at the old downtown YWCA from 1950-1957. He was a calier for students and faculty at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and he started the first square dance shortcourse there. As physical education director at Merrick Elementary School in Coral Gables for 22 years, Gordon was often called upon to put on square dance demonstrations at local schools. When he was doing one such dance at Sylvania Heights Elementary School in 1950, a group of airline pilots and their wives, who came to watch, asked Gordon if they couldn't get in on the dancing as well. "They asked me if adults could have that much fun too," said Gordon. "That's when Edna and I started teaching in people's homes." Through the years, the middle-aged couple has formed a number of square dance clubs. The "Dixie Rebels" sprung from a class held at the Gables home of Fred Desilhorsts. Gordon and Edna said 40 people met weekly on Desilhorsts' beautiful patio for several months, "graduated" with diplomas and formed the club which celebrates its 17th birthday this year. The pair even sponsors a blind square dance club called the "Guided Missiles." All the Cross Trail clubs meet twice a month and the average attendance for each is 60 to 70 people, said Edna. Gordon and Edna Blaum . . . square dancing changed their lives