The History Of The Sunshine League...(1908).
The Sunshine League, the journalists at The Daily News newspaper who wrote the Children's Pages and the children who became members (many from Subiaco) are my favourite subjects to write about so please forgive me if I digress from my original topic of Subiaco (although many of the institutions and charities they supported are in Subiaco).
I have written about the Sunshine League, the journalists who ran the charity and the children in previous blog posts but here is a bit more of the history. The Sunshine League was founded by Uncle Tom at The Daily News newspaper in Western Australia on the 18 May, 1907 for children.
Approximately a year after the establishment of the Sunshine League, a 1000 children who were known as "nieces" and "nephews" had joined to assist in fostering acts of kindness throughout the community.
The Sunshine League was open to all children regardless of their cultural and religious background and aged up to 18 years. To become a member the children wrote to Uncle Tom (and later Auntie Nell) which was free. The children who joined were able to become involved in a number of ways that included writing to the paper and attempting to win prizes, donating money, performing in concerts to raise money for various charities, and growing flowers to take on visits to charities.
The Sunshine League had an emblem, motto and song. The aim was "Training children in acts of kindness and love, believing that such acts bring blessings to themselves and others." The motto was "There is nothing greater or more beautiful in all there world than kind deeds and humblest child can do them." The activities and money raised was recorded and published in The Daily News newspaper on a regular basis making the charity fully accountable. By 1910, Uncle Tom had left The Daily News newspaper the role was taken on by a number women journalists who edited the page as Auntie Nell and later Peg Peggotty.
The article is from Trove, the database of the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
The Daily News, 23 April, 1908.
INTERESTING BATCH OF LETTERS
HISTORY OF THE SUNSHINE LEAGUE.
BY "NIECES" AND "NEPHEWS" OF THE SUNSHINE LEAGUE.
WHAT IS THE SUNSHINE LEAGUE?
WHAT DOES IT ACCOMPLISH?
WHO ARE UNCLE TOM, HIS NIECES AND NEPHEWS?
CONDUCTED BY UNCLE TOM.
These are only a few of the many questions asked in regard to the Sunshine League, and the object of these lines is to supply the answers. The Sunshine League was founded by Uncle Tom 13 months ago in order that the children of Western Australia might have scope for their natural kindness of heart and enthusiasm in the cause of those who need the hand of friendship extended to them. The League is expanding, and not a single week passed during the past 13 months without numerous additions to the rolls being by its founder.
IT COSTS CHILDREN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO BECOME UNCLE TOM'S NIECES AND NEPHEWS.
and all intending members have to do is to write a letter addressed c/o "The Daily News" office, stating their ages, birthdays, and full addresses. It not only costs nothing to join, there are
NO FEES TO PAY
afterwards but the benefits are manifold both to the members and the objects of their sympathy. When the children's birthdays come around Uncle Tom sends them a pretty postcard, wishing them many happy returns of today. When they are ill he writes to them through the post, hoping for their speedy recovery, and every letter sent to him is published in "The Daily News" on Saturday and "Our Children's Page" and throughout the week in "Our Children's Column" is separately answered. In this way Uncle Tom and his nieces and nephews are in
Close Companionship
and the former is at all times willing and anxious to help the children in any way, and he cordially invites them to ask his aid when occasion arises. The membership has grown up rapidly that at the present time in round figures there are
1,000 Members on the Rolls.
The first class consists of little boys and girls of eight years and under.
The second class of those over eight to 13 years.
The third class of those over 13 to 16 years, and
The fourth class of those over 16 and up to 18 years.
To explicitly answer the first question - What is the Sunshine League? It is a society of young people blended together with one object - to make the lives of those who are less happy than they are, brighter and happier in, other words to be
Life's Sunshine Makers.
As the second question - What does the Sunshine League accomplish ? Many columns could be written setting forth what the children have accomplished in the past 13 months. Its members have paid
Many Thousands of Sunshine Visits
to the various charitable institutions in and around Perth. Uncle Tom asks all his nieces and nephews to make Sunshine Garden Patches, and while the cultivation of flowers inculcates in the young and plastic minds of the children a love for Nations, the gardens also furnish sweet posies of flowers which the children personally carry with them to give away to some sick one in the institutions visited. Books, lollies and other gifts are also distributed by the Sunshine makers each week, and it is not saying to much to declare that especially in the case of the orphanages and such like institutions visited by the Sunshine makers,
Floods of Human Sunshine
burst into lives too often lived under a cloud of despair. These visit engendered the kindliest feelings among those who undertake them, and those who are visited, and friendships have sprung up between the visitors and the visited which will last to the end of life.
The care of orphans and sick children is the special care Uncle Tom and his nieces and nephews. When the league was but a few months old, at the suggestions of its founder the members subscribed £76 10s and purchased two sunshine cots at the Lady Lawley Cottage-by-the-Sea which is splendid convalescent home for children. The occupants of those cots are sent to the home for a few weeks stay in each case, and in addition to being visited by the Sunshine makers the patients are the recipients of much tender care and attention and their complete to health in most cases come with pleasant swiftness. Children who are sent by Uncle Tom into these sunshine cots
Do Not Pay a Single Penny,
and it is not necessary to stress the hoon that the existence of the cots has been to many a poor mother, who hitherto has not known how to give her child needed rest a the seaside after an illness.
In order that the goldfields and out back children might receive benefit is Uncle Tom, on behalf of from the home ( in which there are 18 nieces and nephews, waited on the Minister for Railways (Mr. Gregory) a few months ago, and that gentleman readily consented to a proposal that these out-back children should be brought to the coast at a minimum fare, and now it costs but a few shillings to send a child all the way from Leonora to Perth, whereas at the old rates the cost was several pounds, and therefore prohibitive to poor children. At the present moment the members of the Sunshine League are preparing for their
First Annual Meeting
to be held in the Queen hall on Tuesday, May 26 His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor (Sir Edward Stone), who has taken a great interest in the League and unveiled the first Sunshine Cot last Christmas, will preside, and, in addition to the speech making and reports incidental to such a meeting, a grand concert will be given. The programme will be of a character never before attempted in Western Australia or in Australia for that matter. At the present the League is raising a fund of £200 in order to provide a Sunshine Ward in the new Children's Hospital, and to that end 30 concerts, bazaars, and plain and fancy dress balls have been organised by Uncle Tom, who presides at each concert and selects the best item from each programme for the Queen's hall programme. It is therefore safe to say that a better programme provided by children has never previously been attempted in Perth. The whole of the main hall will be reserved for children and adults in the gallery will see
A Sight Worth Seeing
Every item on the programme is being specially researched after its selection, so that there can be no doubt as to the high standard of the entertainment. The whole of the proceeds will be given to the Children's Hospital, and in view of the quality and nature of the programme and the character of the institution which will benefit, the Queen's hall should be packed every part. Uncle Tome has reserved the main floor for children in order to give the little ones a maximum of comfort and comfortable ingress and esgress, from the crushing inseparable from stairways.
In addition to raising £76 10s. for the Sunshine Cots and the £200 for the Sunshine Ward at the new Children's Hospital, the members of the Sunshine League last Christmas present every child at the Girls' Orphanage, Adelaide terrace, the Women's Home, Murray street and the Cottage-by-the-Sea with splendid presents. The Orphanage children were also entertained to a Christmas tea.
Who are Uncle Tom's nieces and nephews. They are children of every colour and whose parent's are of every religious belief. There absolutely no sectarian r to membership, because all children can subscribe to one pledge, to endeavour to endeavour to shed some rays of sunshine in to the lives of those in less fortunate circumstances. The orphans in the various orphanages, the aged men and women in the Old Men's and Women's Homes, and the sick and convalescents in the various institutions come within this category. The Sunshine League is truly
"A Union of Those Who Love in the Service of Those Who Suffer."
Its members win prizes every week for the best written letters: and during illnesses and on other special occasions, they have many opportunities for "coming out" at the various Sunshine concerts given at the different institutions, and at the many concerts and other efforts held to raise funds for the benefits of sick children, and they in turn do their level best to place other people in a condition of happiness equal to that which they enjoy. The Sunshine League is A Movement for Children by Children, the only adult in it being Uncle Tom. Here is a batch of letters taken hap-hazard from a large number received by him each week. Further letters will appear from day to day and in Our Children's Page on Saturdays.
