21 October 2011
Please view the following link to a short video clip of an upcoming film about Willowbrook directed by Ross Cohen.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/936311743/willowbrook
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10 March 2010
"Nearly four decades after Willowbrook State School was mandated shut by the state for the warehousing and inhumane treatment of developmentally disabled children and adults, New York is showcasing a new Web site about the infamous place..."
(Click link below for full article)
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/putting_spotlight_on_former_wi.html
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Please take a look at the recent (March 7th, 2008) interview about Willowbrook on National Public Radio (NPR).
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=47&prgDate=03-07-2008&view=storyview
"Florence Viola McKee died at the Willowbrook State School in 1972. She was 67. Gerald Barth arrived there two years later. He was just 7.
Ms. McKee's gr
anddaughter is looking for a place to grieve the grandmother she knows nothing about. Gerald's cousin is convinced he may still be alive, somewhere, somehow.
It's been more than three decades since former Advance reporter Jane Kurtin and a then-unknown Geraldo Rivera took the plight of the residents of Willowbrook public. But their families still ache to know what happened to those who went in and never came out -- or to those who were transferred to other institutions, without a trace."
...to read more of Stephanie Slepian's article, Searching for the Lost Souls of the Willowbrook State School in the Sunday edition of the Staten Island Advance (8-3-2008), click on the link below (or paste the url in your browser).
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/searching_for_the_lost_souls_o.html
The photo on the right is of a merry-go-round--one of the last original remnants of Willowbrook, located in a wooded area on OMRDD's property, adjacent to the College of Staten Island's campus. (Photo copyright © 2008 Vanessa DeBello)
