Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People
A full-color photography book showcasing Oklahoma paired with the histories of companies, institutions, and organizations that have made the state great.
A full-color photography book showcasing Oklahoma paired with the histories of companies, institutions, and organizations that have made the state great.
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Above: Dusty and Dustin Rogers with<br />
Waneta, a worker at DRTC in 2013.<br />
DALE ROGERS TRAINING CENTER<br />
“Blazing Trails and Promoting Abilities” is<br />
the landmark mission of one of <strong>Oklahoma</strong>’s<br />
most celebrated community agencies, the<br />
Dale Rogers Training Center (DRTC). The<br />
Center has provided more than sixty years of<br />
award-winning service to the public and<br />
remains the oldest and largest community<br />
agency of its kind in the state.<br />
The historic nonprofit organization debuted<br />
in 1953 when a group of parents of young<br />
children with disabilities formed the<br />
<strong>Oklahoma</strong> County Council for Mentally<br />
Retarded Children. The collective dream of<br />
these devoted families was to create a<br />
place where the children would feel accepted<br />
and allowed to learn to and grow at their<br />
own pace.<br />
In the same year, Dale Evans Rogers,<br />
celebrity and wife of famed cowboy singer<br />
and actor Roy Rogers, published the inspiring<br />
account of her daughter, Robin, who was<br />
born with Down Syndrome and died just<br />
before she was two. The book sold millions<br />
worldwide and served to open the door to<br />
changes for people with disabilities. As a<br />
tribute to Dale’s life and work, the parents<br />
named the school in her honor and soon<br />
purchased property on Meek Drive, now<br />
Utah Street, where Dale later visited in<br />
1957. They remodeled an old dairy barn<br />
on the property to serve as a workshop<br />
for older children and began the good fight<br />
to raise funds for basic services through<br />
what seemed to be an “almost endless” string<br />
of rummage sales, pleas for donations, and<br />
chili suppers.<br />
As people with disabilities grew older,<br />
their needs changed and DRTC began to<br />
transition from a school to a vocational training<br />
and employment center. After the oil bust,<br />
<strong>Oklahoma</strong>’s fiscal pie left a small slice for<br />
people with disabilities, and with the economic<br />
downturn, the Center had to evaluate what<br />
type of nonprofit it wanted to be. The constant<br />
goal of the board had remained to “pay our<br />
own way” and develop new kinds of jobs<br />
and businesses for people with disabilities.<br />
Therefore, DRTC realized the best choice to<br />
effectively serve people with disabilities was an<br />
entrepreneurial approach, which created an<br />
entirely unique kind of nonprofit that virtually<br />
eliminated annual fundraising campaigns and<br />
donor solicitations for cash.<br />
Connie Thrash McGoodwin, the agency’s<br />
visionary executive director for more than<br />
thirty years, reflects on the experience, “We<br />
truly wanted our folks to be independent,<br />
contributing, tax-paying citizens.” As a result,<br />
DRTC has become an expert at developing<br />
O K L A H O M A : A S t o r y T h r o u g h H e r P e o p l e<br />
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