AIM MINISTRY: HISTORY
|Core Members| |Mission Statement|
The AIM retreat was founded in 1979 by Eileen Kenney and Harriet & Bernie Molinski of
Boca Raton, FL. It was known as AIM – Achieve, Inspire & Motivate.
By the grace of God, Eileen, Harriet & Bernie met each other at a church meeting (Ultreya) at St. Joan of Arc Church and their discussion led to establishing a Handicapped Retreat in South Florida. What follows is the story of Handicapped Meet Christ from its beginnings to the present date.
Before the Salk Vaccine, a little 2 year old girl in Brooklyn, New York contacted Polio. That little girl grew up to be Eileen Kenney who later attended a HEC (Handicapped Encounter Christ) retreat in New York state. It was in 1978 when Eileen moved to Boca Raton that she met the Molinski’s.
At the time, the Molinski’s daughter, Kathy, was suffering from Huntington’s disease which resulted in brain damage and total dependence on her parents for everything.
Thus, with Eileen having had Polio as a child; and Bernie & Harriet having a handicapped daughter, each was motivated to bring the program here so that every disabled individual -
the blind, the deaf, and those with all matter of physical disability, without regard for race, creed, religion or ability to pay, could experience the love of God and fellowman. For these reasons, Eileen, Harriet & Bernie formed a Core Group and thus began the origins of AIM.
The first step was finding a place to hold the retreat. Sister Muriel Brown, MSBT, was
delighted to have us hold our first retreat at the Cenacle in Lantana.
Following that, the core group quickly took action to complete its mission. Seed money was requested and received from IBM. The necessary paper work and advertising followed. A registered nurse was made available for the weekend. Weekly team meetings were held to pray together, to prepare talks, and to train each team member to become a “buddy” What is a “buddy”? Simply put, each handicapped person is paired with an able-bodied person referred to as his/her “buddy“. The “buddy” offers physical assistance, which allow the retreatants freedom to focus on their spiritual life. It also enables them to join in the various activities and to avail themselves of the wonderful friendships about to be made.
AIM #1 took place in June of 1979 and consisted of 15 candidates and 23 team members. It was an overwhelming success. Before long, the movement reached out as far as Jacksonville where the AIM retreat was held in April of 1981.
In 1983 the founders decided to incorporate the AIM organization in order to benefit from tax exemptions, contributions and non-profit organization mailings. The name of the program was also changed and since that time we have been known as Handicapped Meet Christ, Inc. It remains to this day available to all candidates regardless of their ability to pay.
The Core group was comprised of a mix of personalities that worked extremely well, and a mix of talents that lent itself to the success of the program. The Core Group was constantly absorbed in the all-important and time-consuming paperwork involved in this type of project. Also, Bernie was untiring in his efforts to ensure all went smoothly on each retreat from setup to tear-down.
In August 1981, AIM was selected by the Annual Catholic Lay Evangelization to present a workshop on AIM in Connecticut. Eileen and Harriet flew to Hartford to tell other attendees of our work with the disabled.
After establishing and running the program for 18 years, it was in June, 1997 that the Core Group resigned from the leadership of AIM. Its leadership was then transferred to the
very capable and long-time “Buddies” of Handicapped Meet Christ, namely; Jo-Anne Allison, Mary Renaud, Gary Radebaugh and Kevin Donnelly.