Ruth Folz is as true and blue as her award

But the best guess we could come up with in the light breeze and shaded comfort of the porch at the Hearth and Home across from Snowhill Elementary 10 days back is that we hadn’t seen one another for 20 ... or so ... years. (She and husband of 50 years Dave were there temporarily.)

We actually met 20 years ... or more ... before that in the office by the then-largely abandoned D&H factory building on Sheridan Avenue. There, she was in the early years of work that recently led the Springfield Federation of Women’s Clubs to honor her with its Empowering Women One by One Award.

So, what’s her story? Folz grew up in Cincinnati, where, after graduating as valedictorian at Our Lady of Angels High School, she entered the registered nursing program at Cincinnati’s Good Samaritan Hospital. She was at the same time a student in the bachelor of nursing program at Our Lady of Cincinnati College, from which she graduated cum laude a year after becoming an RN.

For the record, she told me she needed the master’s of education program she completed 30 years later at the University of Dayton “to be on top of the counseling situation” at Springfield’s Parent Infant Center. But I suggested to her the other day finishing the program with a 4.0 grade-point average was just showing off.

Of course, I’d never mention that in public, because everyone reading the story would know I was a liar.

She and Dave came to Springfield in 1973 to raise their 10 children, which somehow left time in her schedule.

“I was volunteering just a simple one afternoon a week,” Folz said, when she attended that June a meeting of about 40 people concerned about the increasing number of young pregnant unmarried women who needed help.

The program started as Birthline and grew into the Parent Infant Center, the program with which Folz’s name is as associated almost as a trademark.

At a time when there was a strong taboo about unwed pregnancies, “most of the original mothers were in a difficult situation,” she said; but that was just half the story.

“We realized in those early years, not only was it important to have a healthy pregnancy, but zero through three years were critical for the child developmentally as well.”

“There was an adolescent parent program in (high) schools helping mothers and mothers-to-be to complete their education,” a significant challenge.

“That was important,” Folz said, “but then they had this baby, and they may or may not have had a father for the child that was helpful.”

That reminded me of something she told me years ago: That because of the experiences they had had, scant few, if any, of the young women in the program would ever be in a lasting and trusting relationship with an adult male.

At the time, I paused a moment to let that sink in.

Folz — “along with many others,” she always adds — dug in to meet mothers’ everyday needs: Diapers and formula, of course, but support in food, clothing and housing for mother and child.

All of that had to be dealt with so the mothers could be in stable enough positions to attend the parenting and child development classes designed to be midwife to the crucial bond with their babies — a bond that would benefit both.

In a letter endorsing Folz for her recent award, Beverly Dixon, who followed her as the Parent Infant Center’s director, elaborated.

“(The) curricula stressed the health and developmental needs of babies and young teens. The instruction was not only very helpful, but the length of the series provided opportunity for mothers to develop positive attitudes and set goals for the future. Routine home visits strengthened the instruction and bonding.”

Folz said the program provided incentives for the mothers to earn toys, “something they could use to interact with their child. It was just a little inexpensive thing, but it created a link.”

The mothers created others.

“One of the neat things that happened is that (they) found support from other mothers,” Folz said.

And those relationships were cemented at swimming and Christmas parties that survive in her memory as well as theirs.

All the while, staff and volunteers say, Folz added a secret ingredient.

“She put her heart and soul in her work down to the many details of caring,” former volunteer Nancy Metzger wrote in her endorsement.

“If a child in her class would have a birthday, she would give them presents, not only for the birthday child, but a small gift for each of the other children and their siblings so no one would be left out.”

Pat Banaszak, founder of Clark County’s right to life chapter, credits Folz for helping many children “at risk for not making it out of the womb.” She said one of Folz’s great strengths is “a loving and non-judgmental mind.”

As a result of “her love for the girls,” Banaszak said, Folz was able to teach them about “pregnancy, parenting, discipline, breast feeding and relationships.” Those, in turn, equipped “many families with the abilities to be great parents. She was a role model for those who were under her care.” That included the center’s volunteers and staff.

In 1983, Folz hired Jan Kushmaul as the center’s curriculum coordinator at “a time when I was searching for a meaningful way to serve the community,” Kushmaul said.

Kushmaul was impressed not only by the degree to which the Center tried to meet mothers’ material needs but with the “deep relationships formed” on home visits. “The emotional support (they provided) was often more important than the material assistance,” she said.

Kushmaul also came to appreciate Folz’s organizational skills, so necessary to sustain programs for children, both infants and toddlers.

Folz was a prime mover and grant writer in the creation of the Parents and Children Together program, established through Mental Health Services of Clark County to encourage healthy family relationships.

Kushmaul worked at the program as an early childhood mental health therapist, the meaningful work she had been looking for when she met Folz.

During her decades leading the Parent Infant Center, Folz always aware of the “constant” need for fundraising. And though she rolls her eyes when she remembers that, she quickly volunteers that those times were made not just bearable but enjoyable by the many people in the mental health, children’s services and developmental disabilities communities:

“Everybody that was working with the moms had a good understanding of trying to meet their needs.”

Which is why she was so delighted to see so many of their faces at the Woman’s Town Club in Springfield when she was presented with the award.

As their remarks above show, they are the people who are most aware that Folz’s service of young mothers and children is as deeply true and blue as the cobalt blue glass award she was presented.

Except, maybe, some of the women and children themselves.

Tom Stafford is a columnist for the Springfield News-Sun.