Mickey Rooney Helped Lead Drive to Send Dimes to White HouseHYDE PARK, N.Y., JAN. 27, 2005 – Stage and screen star Mickey Rooney joined descendants of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the former President's presidential library to kick off a year-long tribute to FDR, the March of Dimes, which he founded, and the development of the polio vaccine.
“It was 1938 and polio was leaving thousands of children across the country dead or paralyzed,” said Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. “So my grandfather founded the March of Dimes, a grass-roots volunteer organization, that funded the work of Dr. Jonas Salk to stop, once and for all, the raging polio epidemics. Thank goodness it did.”
"We're celebrating today because FDR was born in January and he often celebrated with a Birthday Ball fundraiser to fight polio,” said Rooney. “As a young man, I was privileged to help encourage Americans to send a dime to the White House to help the March of Dimes fight polio and today, I continue to support its fight to improve the health of babies.”
Hundreds of students who are members of Key Club International, representing 37 high schools across New York State, also honored FDR by raising more than $10,000 through a “Mile of Dimes” campaign. A mile contains 92,160 dimes. On behalf of all the students, 2nd graders from Chancellor Livingston Elementary School in Rhinebeck, NY presented the dimes to Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president March of Dimes, to help save babies. In February 2005, many of these students will participate in the FDR Student Convocation at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, which seeks to encourage them to pursue biomedical studies as they relate to birth defects.
A highlight of the celebration year will be April 12, 2005, the 50th anniversary of the day the Salk polio vaccine was declared safe and effective – which was also 10 years to the day after FDR's death. A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, Berhing Center entitled “Whatever Happened to Polio?” will open on April 12.
In September 2005, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., plans to name a building for the March of Dimes to honor the millions of volunteers who helped defeat polio.
The March of Dimes, originally known as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, funded Dr. Jonas Salk's groundbreaking work on the polio vaccine and then, through its volunteers and health networks, organized the vaccination clinics, record keeping, parents' meetings, blood samplings, stand-by transportation, and make-up clinics for absentees at clinical trial sites around the country.
The U.S. efforts to promote vaccine use among all children really began after the polio vaccine in 1955. Immunization has been cited as one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the 20th century, with millions of children and cases of disease, disability and death having been prevented.
"Images of America: March of Dimes," a book featuring hundreds of historic photos from the Salk vaccine field trials to celebrities, such as Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Marilyn Monroe, and Lucille Ball, who supported the March of Dimes during the polio years was published last year. More information about the book and March of Dimes Polio Pioneers can be found at marchofdimes.com/polio.
Founded by FDR in 1941, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is the world's leading research center on the New Deal and World War II era. It is our nation's first presidential library and is one of 11 administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. The Library is dedicated to preserving historical material and providing innovative educational programs, community events, and public outreach. It fosters research and education on the life and times of Frankin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt. From more information about the FDR Presidential Library, please call (800) 377-8474 or visit their Website at
fdrlibrary.marist.edu.
