Charity Spotlight: The March of Dimes

In 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. It's purpose was to defeat the polio epidemic, a disease that had debilitated the President in childhood, leaving him to require a wheelchair for much of his life. (Note: Some in the medical profession believe it was Guillain-Barre syndrome, not Polio that claimed the former President's faculties.) In any case, just as Chris Reeve used his fame and fortune to fund paralysis research and Michael J. Fox uses his influence to raise funding for and awareness of Parkinsons, in an effort both to cure himself, and to prevent future generations from losing their faculties to this disease, FDR used his considerable power as President of the United States to form an organization designed to destroy the disease of his youth.

The organization began with a radio appeal (Television didn't exist yet) which asked everyone in the nation to contribute ten cents (a dime) for the purpose of fighting polio. The name "March of Dimes" was derived from a play on words from the title of a popular newsreel of the time known as "The March of Time". Entertainer Eddie Cantor. As well as a number of other well known Hollywood celebrities of the time served to promote the cause. In 1979, the nickname for the foundation officially became the name of the organization. It is a little known fact that FDR's participation in the March of Dimes is to credit for the fact that his face was chosen as the face of the United States ten cent piece known as the dime. (Prior to Roosevelt's appearance, the face of the coin was the god Mercury.)

Largely due to the efforts of the March of Dimes, on April 12, 1955 many years after Roosevelt's death, Dr. Jonas Salk had discovered a vaccine for Polio. The largest clinical trial in history ensued and was proven to be 80-90 percent effective in preventing the type of polio that results in Paralysis. 1.8 million school children were part of the clinical trial. In 1958, having helped to develop two vaccines against polio that in essence eradicated the disease for American families, the primary mission of the organization, the charity chose to keep it's doors open, choosing a new cause, that of preventing birth defects and infant mortality. Now, the March of Dimes USA, an entirely separate organization than the March of Dimes Canada, funds researchers working in all sorts of ventures on behalf of infants, in fields such as biochemistry, microbiology, developmental biology and genetics.

While the Polio was problem put at bay many years ago, the fact is that there are still hundreds of physical disorders faced by infants, innocents who look to organizations such as the March of Dimes to protect them and to give them hope for a life that so many will never have. While ten cents doesn't go as far as it used to be, the concept behind the original effort is the same. Everyone can give a little. If everyone did so, we would be further along in our efforts to protect our children and to give them a fighting chance. This holiday season, and beyond, as you consider whether or not to donate to charity, you might consider once again, that an improved beginning can serve to improve the world, ten cents at a time.