Mothers' March, 2008

A couple months ago I got a call from the March of Dimes, asking me if I would be a Mothers' March coordinator, sending their fundraising letters to some of my neighbors. I did this for the March of Dimes a couple of years ago, and was supposed to last year (but I will confess I think I never got my letters sent). So I said yes. I support the March of Dimes for several reasons, most importantly because of the critical role they played decades ago when they were still the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in supporting development of polio vaccine. That was a different era, when people were terrified of the annual summer epidemics of polio; when ambulances came to summer camps at night to take away the children who were striken during the daytime; when fearful parents would not let their children go to swimming pools. On April 12, 1955, when the results of the Frances Field Trial were released, demonstrating that the Salk vaccine was effective, the bells rang on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Since then, they've gotten more involved in prenatal and infant health issues, with campaigns to prevent prematurity and birth defects. These are really important issues and the March of Dimes continues to support important work; I suppose they are having the same challenges that all nonprofit organizations have, to stay fresh and compelling in the cacophony of competing priorities that we all face every day, to stay relevant, to stay current with how people see themselves and their world.

Which brings me to the Mothers' March. In the early days of the March of Dimes mothers really did walk the neighborhood, collecting spare change. David Oshinsky, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history "Polio: An American Story" spoke at Emory last year and talked about how his mother was a Mothers' March block captain. Since no one wanted to knock on doors and ask people for donations who didn't want to donate, the custom was to leave your porch light on if you were willing to have the Mothers' March volunteer come by. But the Oshinskys lived in an apartment building, and the apartments didn't have porch lights, so people would leave their shoes outside their door if they were willing to have someone come by.

Now, you don't have go door to door, you can do it all by snail mail. The March of Dimes sent me a list of names and addresses (many of which are out of date), preprinted cards, two sets of envelopes (one to mail the card, one for my neighbor to mail their check back), and some larger envelopes to mail everything back to the March of Dimes. When I did this two years ago, I wrote a letter which I mailed to my neighbors, and yesterday morning I went to the Post Office and bought stamps. But it doesn't feel right.

I know almost all the people on this list. They may or may not be readers of this blog. They are all invited to our neighborhood block parties, and most of them come. And the only time I have ever sent anything to most of them in the mail was two years ago, when I did the Mothers' March before.

So here's what I think I'll do. I'll email them the URL for this entry, and I'll take the envelopes door to door. I'll write something for the few people for whom I don't have email addresses, and I'll deliver them in person. If people what to donate something, I'll tell them to bring it to my house, or let me know and I'll send one of my kids to pick it up.

It's the Mothers' March. No need to turn on the porch light or leave your shoes out - I'll be by. See you soon.