Midwest Forum

Foot Levelers Contributes to NWCC Library Renovation

Kent Greenawalt, president of Foot Levelers, Inc., has announced the company's support in helping Northwestern College of Chiropractic renovate its library. "Foot Levelers is committed to getting half of the money needed to get this going," said Mr. Greenawalt.

Plans are already underway to expand the library's physical structure, upgrade information systems, provide more computers, and increase the number of journals, all with an eye on keeping abreast of the most current research.

Northwestern's Jim McDonald explained the college has begun its fundraising campaign with a firm commitment from the Greenawalts and Foot Levelers for at least $250,000. Foot Levelers will give a $50,000 cash donation, and will also fund a series of seminars like those the company funded for the chiropractic centennial, that should produce a least $200,000.

National College of Chiropractic and the American Cancer Society in Lombard, Illinois, raised more than $10,000 in May via a unique fundraising program. "Prisoners" were picked up and hauled off to jail at NCC. Once incarcerated, the prisoners called friends, relatives, and business associates for pledges to the American Cancer Society. The pledges became their bail money and their means to release.

Don Betz, PhD, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Palmer College, and Garry Krakos, DC, associate professor and Palmer's liaison for international affairs, were both members of a delegation from the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) attending the World Health Organization (WHO) Assembly May 1-5 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The WHO, an autonomous agency under the auspices of the United Nations, is headquartered in Geneva and deals strictly with health issues of international scope. The World Health Assembly is the organization's annual meeting.

"We were invited to the World Health Assembly this year through our efforts to promote chiropractic worldwide and our contacts with the secretary-general of the World Federation of Chiropractic, David Chapman-Smith," said Dr. Betz. He said that he hopes chiropractic's presence at the WHO Assembly will help solidify relationships with ministers of health, international civil servants within WHO, and with other non-governmental organizations interested in worldwide health issues.

A Palmer College delegation of Drs. Don Betz and Garry Krakos, and students Don Ledoux and Theresa VanGessel traveled to Hungary in June to lobby that country's legislators about the benefits of chiropractic.

The impetus of the current trip stemmed from Don Ledoux's visit to Hungary last December to see his fiancee, and meet with Dr. Jack Conway, the only practicing chiropractor in the country. During that December visit, Don discussed ways to help Dr. Conway and his colleague Dr. Steven Anderson, president of the Hungarian Chiropractic Foundation, and ways to influence the direction of proposed health care legislation affecting chiropractic in Hungary.

During their June visit, the Palmer delegation held a conference with the Hungarian Ministry of Health and Welfare, and set up temporary free public clinics in Budapest and Tapolca. The visit to Tapolca, a city of 18,000 people, came at the invitation of that city's mayor. The group also conducted short lectures to the public explaining the benefits of chiropractic care and how it differs from traditional medical care.

"I never dreamed I would be involved with promoting chiropractic on an international scale," said Don Leduoux. "It's exciting to help establish roots for chiropractic in another country. It's like reliving the acceptance of chiropractic many years ago in the United States."

With the increase in students from 1,700 three years ago to the current population of nearly 2,000, Palmer College has purchased the 43,000 square-foot Masonic Temple Building, a block south of the campus. The building has two auditoriums, space for offices/classrooms, a kitchen, and dining facilities.