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Birthday Balls:
When the President of the United States celebrates his birthday, it is rare for the day to have significance for anyone outside the select few invited to the party. However, when Franklin D. Roosevelt celebrated his birthday, Americans all over the nation participated, and even more people benefited, because FDR used his birthday to advance his most important cause - the fight to find a cure for infantile paralysis. January 30th was no longer just his birthday, but a day dedicated to raising money for polio research and treatment. Ever since he contracted polio at the age of 39 in 1921, Franklin Roosevelt actively sought new treatment to improve his life, as well as the lives of all persons afflicted with infantile paralysis, donating as much money as he could and encouraging others to do the same. In 1924, Roosevelt's quest led him to Warm Springs, Georgia, where other polio patients experienced relief in the buoyant mineral water of Warm Springs. Confident that his six weeks in the waters of Warm Springs did more to improve his condition than any treatment he had received in the previous 3 years, FDR made a home for himself in Georgia, and invited other patients to join him. His presence, money, and prestige helped to make Warm Springs a world-class facility for the treatment of infantile paralysis. When Warm Springs, a former resort area, faced economic hardship in 1926, Franklin Roosevelt purchased the facility for $200,000 and created a therapeutic center under the direction of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, later named the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. The Warm Springs Institute opened its doors to patients all over the country, providing medical treatment and an opportunity to spend time with others suffering from the effects of polio. Unfortunately, the facility in Warm Springs needed more than just Franklin Roosevelt's money to treat its growing number of patients, and he started asking friends for monetary contributions. Initially, Roosevelt's fund-raising campaign was a small-scale operation, but that changed when his associate Keith Morgan called upon business magnate Henry L. Doherty for a donation. Hoping to improve Doherty's public image and win him political favor with FDR, Carl Byoir, Doherty's public relations consultant, suggested that Henry Doherty sponsor a dance in every town across the country to celebrate the President's birthday and raise money for Warm Springs. With a $25,000 contribution, Doherty launched the National Committee for Birthday Balls. Although Doherty did not receive special political favor with FDR, Birthday Balls became an annual fundraising success. The first Birthday Ball was held in 1934; 4,376 communities joined together in 600 separate celebrations to raise over one million dollars for the Warm Springs Foundation. Future fundraising contributions were split between Warm Springs and the local communities in which the Birthday Balls were held. The Birthday Balls continued to generate approximately one million dollars per year, but the revenue was still not sufficient to support the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, created by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938 as a national organization to help victims of polio all across the country and not just in Warm Springs. To heighten awareness, radio personality and philanthropist Eddie Cantor urged Americans to send their loose change to President Roosevelt in "a march of dimes to reach all the way to the White House." Soon, millions of dimes flooded the White House, and this campaign became known as the "March of Dimes;" in 1945 the Foundation raised 18.9 million dollars. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, took the name of its popular campaign to become the March of Dimes. The funds raised by the Birthday Balls and March of Dimes financially supported the creation of a polio vaccine by Jonas Salk in 1955, eradicating the disease throughout most of the world by the 1960s. Franklin Roosevelt's dedication to finding a cure for polio benefited millions of children worldwide, but it was the participation of Americans across the nation in Birthday Balls that made the campaign a success. Their hard work and financial support provided new methods of treatment to improve the lives of those struck with polio and ensured that generations to come would be insulated from the dreaded epidemic. Although the Birthday Balls ended in 1945 with the death of President Roosevelt, his work continues on through the March of Dimes . The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, and the March of Dimes are sponsoring the first President's Birthday Ball since Roosevelt's death on January 39, 2003, Franklin Roosevelt's Birthday. The evening will begin with a reception at the Presidential Library followed by dinner at the American Bounty Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, granddaughter of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt will give the keynote speech. The proceeds of this Birthday Ball will assist the March of Dimes as they work to prevent birth defects and infant mortality, and support educational programs on leadership and democracy sponsored by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. For more information about this event, please call, (845) 454-8850. |
