So Much For So Little, Never was a title of a movie so deceptive. The Hospital Recreation Consultant Service of the National Recreation Association, which consists of Jody Legoyda and myself, can hardly believe, after two years of trials, tribulations, hopes and often despair, that the picture we dreamed of is completed and ready for distribution. We hope you will like it! So Much For So Little, 28 minutes, in color, will be available for rental for $.50. The picture has both narration and lip synchronization. It has been produced by the Hospital Recreation Consultant Service and Robert Wald, producer of the the “American Inventory Series” of NBC-TV, for the purpose of stimulating interest in the creating of recreation programs for all age groups in hospitals, nursing homes, homes for the aged, and specialized institutions for the ill and handicapped.

The picture was made possible by a grant from the Hofheimer Foundation, New York. It shows, in dramatic form, how a volunteer worker discovers that recreation in a general civilian hospital contributes to better patient morale. A highlight of the film is an appeal made by Howard A. Rusk, M.D., director of the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and associate editor of the New York Times, for more community and professional interest in this new, but fast developing, field.

Springfield College, in Springfield, Massachusetts, held a two-week summer session workshop, July 18-29, entitled “Survey of Recreation in Rehabilitation.” The workshop had a registration of thirty-five professionals, as well as many who came in for special sessions. One day was devoted to recreation in hospitals, at which time I was privileged to conduct the sessions. They dealt with hospital recreation services for children, general, medical and surgical, chronic and neuropsychiatric patients. Also, we covered the educational and vocational aspects of today’s hospital picture. These sessions were presented by recreation directors Alice Burkehardt, Children’s Division, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York; Doris Berryman, Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York; John Gehan, Goldwater Memorial Hospital, New York; and Martin Meyer, chief, Recreation Service, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Hospital, Peekskill, New York.

I would particularly like to recommend to all those working in hospitals, homes or institutions, especially for the mentally ill, a pamphlet entitled Volunteers in Mental Hospitals, published by the National Association for Mental Health, 190 Broadway, New York, at twenty-five cents per copy. Edited and co-authored by Marjorie Frank, former director of service in Veterans Hospitals, American Red Cross, now assistant executive director of the National Association of Mental Health, this pamphlet includes a fine article by Doctor O. Arnold Kilpatrick, director of Hudson River State Hospital in New York, on the great value of volunteers in his hospital. The pamphlet not only tells of the need for volunteers, but also of the great many important arts that they play in the recreation programs in such institutions.

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