History Note
Each month of 2008,
Access Press will feature an important person or persons in disability
history: local, regional or national.
Stamps Buy State
Hospital Bus
by Luther Granquist
In September 1964, the bus
used by Cambridge State School and Hospital to transport residents
broke down after 900,000 miles. The bus was unsafe to take residents
to Twins games, Como Park, or the circus and was too costly to repair.
The legislature had not appropriated money to buy or lease a replacement.
At that time, many stores offered trading stamps to customers with
each purchase, so many stamps (points) for each dollar spent. Many
families collected them and used them to buy household goods and
similar items.
The institution’s volunteer services coordinator, Norm Synstelien,
asked parents and members of the Association for Retarded Citizens
and other civic groups to donate Gold Bond trading stamps to get
a bus. They needed 1,785,000 points or 2,550 filled books. It took
a while, but by July 1966 Cambridge had its bus. ![]()
