When I was very young in the 1950's polio was probably the most dreaded of childhood diseases. It caused children to be crippled for life. Some were put into iron lungs which looked like medieval torture devices. Those breathed for them so they would not die. Many died anyway.
Easterseals was an organization that was known to assist polio patients. People bought the seals that looked like stamps and used them to seal letters. They also reminded parents to watch their children for signs of polio if they displayed any.
Every year around Easter there would be a drive to collect funds for Easterseals. Each of us took a small donation. I always thought it happened all over the country and they raised a lot of money. Maybe they did.
Everyone was encouraged to give at least one dine. That became the idea of calling it the March of Dimes. It became synonymous with the search for the cure of polio.
One year someone came up with a fun idea. Mom took a strip of Scotch tape as long as me. Then we covered it with dimes from one end to the other. It must have cost my parents a fortune. Thank goodness only three of us were in school then.
Now because of the March of Dimes polio has been almost eradicated in the United States. I like to think my dimes helped.
I used to collect for the March of Dimes. We went door to door, asking for donations.
ReplyDeleteThe country really came together to try to protect the children. And it worked!
DeleteI remember a youth in the neighbourhood who sat in a wheelchair, could not speak, and was the victim of polio.
ReplyDeleteWe got oral vaccination at school - the government ordered it, and I remember the slogan then: "Oral vaccination is sweet, polio is bitter." The campaign helped.
Good to read that in America they collected donations for it.
Thankfully I never personally knew anyone who had polio. There was a woman who wrote a delightful blog and she was in a wheelchair because she had polio as a child. That was the sad thing about the disease. If someone survived it they usually had problems for the rest of their lives.
Deletewow this sound inspiring story dear Emma !
ReplyDeletehow nice you and your parents added their share for the great cause .i bet it surly must have done some help .as for as dime concerns for good cause what matters most is a pure selfless intention i believe .
thanks for sharing this with us .
i know few people who had polio, one of them is my first cousin ,17 years or so younger than me . yet he has adopted an independent life by the grace of God miraculously and has wife and children as well along with a shop in the village
we feel happy to see how he has managed all by himself
It is astounding how well your cousin has done for himself. Best wishes to him and all who suffered because of this terrible disease.
DeleteI remember the March of Dimes. I lost a young cousin to polio in the early 1950s. What a horrible disease.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear about your cousin. So many were inflicted and affected.
DeleteEmma, I too have never known io met anyone afflicted with polio, but I am familiar with Easter Seals and never knew why its slogan was the March of Dimes, thanks for that info. It’s good to know. that not only your family’s contribution but the dimes of so many other ones were significant in the elimination if this disease in the US.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason was that most people could afford a dime. And it worked.
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