Endeavour Foundation... in the early days

Thora Pribberow was one of Endeavour’s earliest champions. Mrs Pribberow lived at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane and was very concerned that there was no suitable school for her disabled son. In 1951 she set to work. A preliminary meeting to plan an association to help intellectually disabled children was held in March 1951.

In June that year, local newspapers featured stories advertising a public meeting to be held in the Lord Mayor’s rooms at Brisbane City Hall. A remarkable meeting was held on 14 June, 1951. The goal was to form an association dedicated to the interests of intellectually disabled children and young adults.

Queensland people knew that New South Wales was ahead of them – its association had been working for five years.

The New South Wales secretary, Mrs Swanson, attended the Brisbane meeting which was well supported by doctors and educational experts, including Professor Fred Schonell, who became the first President of Endeavour. The Reverend E.C. Bowen chaired the meeting and the interim committee included Mr and Mrs Hooper, who soon lent their verandah as Endeavour’s first school with Mrs Peterson as the first teacher.

This first meeting of what would later become the Endeavour Foundation was a great success and the organisation was established. Thora Pribberow became the first honorary secretary, and in September 1953 she joined the staff. She was still hard at work in 1963 and greatly mourned when she died in 1973.

Endeavour has come a long way from such humble beginnings.

Endeavour Foundation is now one of the largest non-government organisations of its type in Australia, supporting and providing opportunities for people with a disability through a mix of services and businesses at over 220 locations from Cairns and Mareeba in the north, to the southern end of the Gold Coast and west to Roma, Kingaroy, Stanthorpe and Warwick.