In 1938, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt asked the nation to help him find a cure for polio by contributing dimes for the cause and
sending them directly to the White House. Within weeks, over 80,000 letters
with dimes and dollars flooded the White House mailroom to the extent that
official correspondence to the President was literally buried in an avalanche
of donations, a total of 2,680,000 dimes or $268,000.
With the funds raised through this
annual campaign, the March of Dimes financed much of the research that led to
the development of the polio vaccine. The March of Dimes then organized a
massive field trial to prove its effectiveness in the largest peacetime
mobilization of volunteers in the history of the United States. And 60 years
ago, on April 12, 1955 Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was declared “safe, effective
and potent.” This was a major milestone in the fight against polio.
Over the next few weeks March
for Babies events will take place across the country. Approximately
3 million people will join their family, friends and colleagues in nearly 700
communities. These volunteers will walk to give hope to nearly half a million
babies born too soon each year. The money raised supports programs in local communities that
help moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies. And it funds research to find answers to
the problems that threaten our babies. We’ve been walking since 1970 and have
raised an incredible $2.3 billion to benefit all babies.
This week is National Volunteer Week
and we want to take this moment to thank everyone who has contributed to help
us achieve our goals. The efforts of our friends and volunteers are what make
this organization strong. We are resolved to push even harder for research into
the problems that threaten the health of babies.
To all of our volunteers past and
present, from polio to prematurity, we offer our most sincere thanks.
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