How did the simple act of a sister encouraging her little brother 120 years ago help define Alphapointe today?
In September of 1900, a 23-year-old man named Eugene Condon traveled to Nebraska City with the intent of changing the trajectory of his life. Blinded a few years earlier, Condon was eager to free himself from a seemingly endless cycle of anger, heartbreak and depression.
Although scores of blind men and women look for ways to support themselves, occupational opportunities remain scarce. Only 16 industrial programs across the United States in major cities employ blind workers, forcing many to rely on the generosity of others to survive.
Alphapointe traces its founding back to an eventful Labor Day rally where the individual journeys of 30 blind advocates intersect in Kansas City’s Budd Park. Together, blind and sighted alike join forces to form the Association of Workers for the Blind of Greater Kansas City, the precursor to Alphapointe.
How do the accomplishments of two men a century ago help shape Alphapointe today?
Defying the odds and entrenched prejudices, Hayes H. Brooks becomes the first blind student to receive a law degree from the Kansas City School of Law.
Intent on helping blind women develop greater independence, Alphapointe rents an eight-room house and christens it the Catherine Hale Home for Blind Women.
Thanks to the generosity of businessman W. G. Whitcomb and his wife, Alphapointe is deeded a property at 1432 W. Prospect, which will become home to association’s new workshop. Club rooms for employees and their families at the site are completed two years later.
Under the direction of blind foreman Edgar Schaeffer, Alphapointe’s first workshop opens at 415 W. Sixth Street in Kansas City
They returned home, having altered the course of world history, far different than when they left—wounded, scarred, and shell-shocked by the horrors of war.
Seeking to aid blind veterans returning from World War I, Alphapointe organizes its first-ever “tag day” fundraiser.
After touring Alphapointe’s facilities, livestock dealer Hiram Kollar is so impressed that he secretly amends his will.
In the beginning, there was skepticism. Although local businesses liked the idea of buying products that supported blind workers, old prejudices lingered. “Could blind workers really produce products,” they wondered “that were as good as those made by sighted folks?”
"Herein lies the story of hands that see. These large groping hands seed broom corn, refine it, shape it about broom handles, sew it and bind it with wire, cut the corn smooth and label the firm and finished product with the bright red and blue label, 'The Blind Man's Broom is the Best'" Kansas City Journal-Post story February 1925
During the darkest days of the Great Depression, Alphapointe funds the construction of a new Catherine Hale Home for the Blind.
An important barrier is broken in the skies over Kansas City.
A new landmark is born.
It was the year philanthropy almost died. When the stock market shed more than $25 billion dollars in the autumn of 1929, the crash did more than just instantly wipe out the savings of countless Americans. It also stanched the flow of charitable support to countless nonprofit organizations across the country.
When Lieut. Col. Sir Ian Fraser, one of the foremost advocates for blind veterans in the English-speaking world, traveled to Kansas City on a speaking tour in 1942, he made it a priority to visit Alphapointe’s workshop.
: In a bold move that defies the racial segregation of the era, Alphapointe absorbs The Pilot Club, a social club for visually impaired African Americans.
After dedicating much of her life to helping the blind pursue their dreams and aspirations on their own terms, Alphapointe founder Catherine Hale is laid to rest in Kansas City.
Alphapointe’s commitment to helping the blind help themselves is not only preserved but expanded by Catherine Hale’s successor, William Crowe.
When it opened in 1952, the Kansas City Nursery School for the Blind was unlike any other school in the city, a unique learning institution built to convince blind children that they could indeed survive—and thrive—in a sighted world.
Empowering blind children to succeed in adulthood began in the 1950's and continues to grow today with Alphapointe's Youth Services and connections to Children's Center for the Visually Impaired
The association once again receives an award for service.
It all began, fittingly enough, in 1956 with a few books crammed into an old church bookshelf in Kansas City. Given its limited resources, the prospect of Alphapointe expanding that small collection into a full-fledged Braille library seemed to be little more than a far-flung prayer.
During the height of the Cold War, Alphapointe secures work from the Department of Defense to create sanitation kits for fallout shelters.
They arrived in droves. Some 13 million in 1967 alone. Boxes and batches and containers full of retractable ball-point pens—the writing instruments that would dot the i’s and cross the t’s on countless contracts, work orders and documents across the U.S. government.
Alphapointe’s new executive director, Elva Hayes, dramatically alters the organization’s product line by negotiating a deal to produce pens for the General Services Administration.
Due to the efforts of New York Senator Jacob Javits, the Wagner-O’Day Act is amended to ensure that the government purchases products produced by blind and disabled individuals. In time Alphapointe will create work adjustment centers, where blind individuals with other disabilities can find work.
As Alphapointe’s catalogue of products expands to include new commercial products, including golf-cart mats, the organization also broadened benefits for its 81 blind employees to include life insurance, dental plans, two weeks of vacation and Christmas bonuses.
Diversification becomes an organizational priority
Prior to Alphapointe opening up its first Work Adjustment Center, there were few safe spaces where blind individuals with developmental disabilities could learn critical life skills.
It was, in many ways, a game-changing idea. For some time, the board of the Kansas City Association for the Blind had considered amending its name to adapt to changing times. It was in search of a new image, something that could reflect the quality of the products being created by its blind employees.
For a fleeting moment in time, all $500,000 worth of equipment sat idle. It was high-tech machinery, an injection-molding system designed to make high-quality plastic bottles—one that was waiting patiently to prove its worth.
With an increasingly outdated and cramped facility on Broadway, plans were made to find a new location for Alphapointe.
Initially, it appeared that there was nothing that could be done. When the Rehabilitation Institute of Kansas City announced in the late 1990s that it was struggling to keep its Center for Blindness and Low Vision (CBLV) open, the visually impaired community of greater Kansas City braced itself for a tragic loss.
For over 90 years, it proved to be an elusive dream. Since 1911, Alphapointe had passionately advocated for the creation of white-collar positions for the blind, only to see their efforts blocked by lingering stereotypes at almost every turn.
Over the last century, Alphapointe has served U.S. armed forces with distinction in every major military campaign since World War I. Whether it was producing tent rope and tying springs during World War II or manufacturing sanitation kits for fallout shelters during the Cold War, the aim of Alphapointe’s blind workforce has always been to offer support for those brave few who protect so very many.
For most people, the paint-chipped, rusted-over remains of the former Fairyland Amusement Park in Kansas City were nothing more than a depressing eyesore.
Alphapointe CEO Dr. Daniel Walker bets big on his own employees by applying for an ISO-9000 quality-control certification.
Intent on creating new work opportunities for its blind workers, Alphapointe forms a partnership with Kensington, a division of ACCO Brands, to supply computer locks to the federal government—a move that would lead two years later to a partnership with the 3M Company to produce office tape for the U.S. government.
It was a summer camp like no other in the state of Missouri. When Alphapointe launched its camp program in the late 1950s, it didn’t just schedule walks in the park or fun outings to local playgrounds. It provided blind children with thrills they’d remember for the rest of their lives.
Having worked for over 100 years to help the blind earn the respect and dignity they deserve, the organization formerly known as the Alphapointe Association for the Blind shortens its name to Alphapointe and embarks on a successful campaign to expand its reach from Kansas City to the nation as a whole.
The merger between Alphapointe and the New York City Industries for the Blind (NYCIB) is formally approved on May 1. The merger preserves 100 jobs for blind workers in New York, while allowing for the adoption of new employee benefits, including guaranteed retirement resources.
The experiment appeared to be coming to an end before it really began. When Alphapointe opened its first blind workshop in 1918, it was operating on borrowed time. A local Kansas City brewer named J.J. Heim had graciously offered Alphapointe six months of free rent to get the workshop up and running, but he could afford to do so no longer.
Alphapointe, one of the largest employers of legally blind New Yorkers in the city, is moving its offices to Richmond Hill from Brooklyn.
October 22nd may have been just another Monday in most circles, but at Alphapointe’s Richmond Hill, Queens location, it was anything but ordinary.
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