Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute

Polio is a disease that had existed throughout human history, but increased sanitation reduced immunity to it, which led to increasing incidence and increasing severity in the 20th century. The initial response by the medical community was to put splints and braces on affected limbs, in order to prevent the affected parts of the body from harming the rest of the body. Sister Elizabeth Kenny, an Australian healthcare provider who worked as a nurse during World War I, had a different approach. She spent decades in her career investigating and experimenting with treatments involving heat (to relax the muscles) and movement (to help heal the entire body).[15] In Australia in 1932 Kenny opened the Sister Kenny Clinic in the Outpatients Building of the Rockhampton Base Hospital in Queensland, and she also set up a clinic at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney.[16]

In 1942 Kenny came to the US to provide her experience for treatment of the disease. Minnesota alone was immediately receptive to her methods.[17] Her therapeutic treatment for polio survivors resulted in less severe deformities and reduced hospital stays, and led to today’s innovative rehabilitation therapy methods.[18][15] The original Minneapolis facility, initially called the Kenny clinic, was the first one established in the United States. Kenny worked closely with physicians and nurses at University Hospital and the Minneapolis General Hospital (now Hennepin County Medical Center) including providing training at the University of Minnesota".[19] Other locations were established around the country that same decade.[20]

In Minneapolis, the initial Sister Kenny facility was located within the Lymanhurst Health Center on Chicago Avenue and 18th Street in Minneapolis. which had served children with heart problems caused by Rheumatic fever. At first the building served both groups, but within 18 months the heart patients were moved out to make room for the growing number of polio patients.[21][22] That building later became the Hennepin County Detox Center.[23] In 1975 the Sister Kenny Institute moved to the Chicago and 27th Street location of the recently merged Abbott-Northwestern Hospital.[23][2]

Sister Kenny approved of the Chicago Avenue location for her primary teaching and treatment location in the U.S. originally because of its proximity to the staff of the Minneapolis General Hospital and to the research laboratories of the University Hospital.[24] Her clinic brought people from around the world who sought her expertise in curing the paralysis caused by polio prior to the existence of the vaccine. Her method, opposite of standard practice of splints to immobilize the limbs, was to apply heat to soothe the muscles and then encourage movement through an early form of physical therapy. That 'get up and go' approach has since become common response to many crippling illnesses and injuries.[25]

Fundraising for the Sister Kenny Institute was varied. The Sister Kenny Foundation was established in 1943 to support Kenny and clinics throughout the United States.[26][27] In addition to established sources such as March of Dimes and United Way, the institute received funds from private groups such as Crippled Child Relief, Inc., a Minnesota nonprofit which sprang from a single short advertisement in the newspaper.[note 1][3][4] In 1945 a $5 million national drive was launched, chaired by Bing Crosby, to open additional locations and provide training for nurses in these treatment methods.[29]

After widespread adoption of the Polio vaccine in the mid-1950's reduced the number of cases nationwide, the clinic switched its focus to rehabilitation medicine more broadly defined. Cerebral Palsy and other birth defects as well as conditions caused by accidents all became included in the work of the Kenny Institute. In 1975 the Sister Kenny Institute merged with Abbott-Northwestern.[23][15]

Courage Center’s predecessor organization, the Minnesota Society for Crippled Children and Adults, was founded in 1928. It had a legacy in advocating the needs of children and adults in education, by granting access to health care issues.[2] The national organization became better known as Easter Seals, and the Minnesota Society was referred to with both names for decades. Besides the original Easter Seals campaigns themselves, funding has been provided by a variety of sources, including United Way.[4][30][31]

Annual summer camps at Camp Kiwanis near Stillwater, Minnesota, were held in the 1940s for children with speech defects. The children were provided with brief periods of intensive training provided by speech therapists from the University of Minnesota and elsewhere. The camp site was provided by the St. Paul Kiwanis Club. Other camps were held for children with heart problems or orthopedic challenges. Expenses for those who cannot pay the costs themselves were provided by Easter Seal returns.[32]

By 1953, 600 children had to be turned away from Camp Kiwannis summer camp sessions because the demand was so much greater than that location's capacity. Planning started for a second location at Camp Courage, with the capacity for 400 children each year.[33]

Camp Courage in Wright County on Cedar Lake between Annandale and Maple Lake opened for its first summer session in 1955. Some of those first campers had been affected by a variety of diseases including polio, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, rheumatoid arthritis. Other campers had experienced congenital deformities, physical changes from accidents, head injuries and/or blindness. The name 'Camp Courage' was so popular that the predecessor organization changed its name to Courage Center.[34]

Courage North, which opened at Lake George near Itasca State Park in 1971, was a donation to the Society.[35]

The Courage Center outdoor adaptive sports program in Duluth was established in 1979. It began originally as a partnership with the UMD Recreational Sports program and the United Way. The first Parasports programs were a competitive wheelchair basketball team, adapted downhill skiing (at Spirit Mountain), sailing (with the involvement of the Duluth Superior Sailing Association), swimming, and track and field.[1][36] In the Twin Cities Three Rivers Park system has been one of Courage Kenny's main program partners since 2010, providing opportunities for cross-country skiing, mountain biking, kayaking, archery, geocaching, ice fishing and maple sugaring. Courage Kenny is Minnesota's main chapter of Move United, which was formed in the merger of Disabled Sports USA and Adaptive Sports USA.[37]

The main year-round rehabilitation facility and office building was established in Golden Valley in 1973. The fitness and wellness center was rebuilt at twice its original size in 2017 through a capital campaign which raised $4.75 million. It is part of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN), focused on people with spinal cord injuries.[38] Additional facilities were opened in Stillwater, Burnsville and Forest Lake.[39][40][35]

Courage Center has held events such as competitive wheelchair basketball tournaments since the 1980s, with the participation and support of various organizations including the Sister Kenny Institute.[7][8][9]

In 2003 a survey by Twin Cities Business Monthly magazine on nonprofit reputations resulted in Mayo Clinic having the best reputation in the State of Minnesota, and Courage Center being #2.[41]