March of Dimes is a health charity in United States with a mission of improving the health of babies through prevention of premature birth, birth defects, and infant mortality. The charity was founded in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the National Foundation for infantile paralysis to counteract the epidemic disease poliomyelitis. This paper reviews the healthy charity program with emphasis on its history and activities. It is presumed that the idea of the charity was great and may have influenced other great ideas.

History

During the 20^th century, poliomyelitis (simply known as polio), was among the most dreaded diseases. The disease paralyzed or killed thousands of Americans in the first half of the century alone raising a red flag. Due to this reason, President Roosevelt conceived the idea of initiating the heath charity March of Dimes in January 3, 1938. The charity was aimed at acting as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (Helfard et al, 2001). Interestingly, President Roosevelt himself was paralyzed by what many people thought was polio though it was proved later that this was a mistaken diagnosis.

As the National Foundation dealing with Infantile Paralysis, the main aim of March of Dimes was to raise money for researching on polio and caring for those suffering from the ailment (Helfard et al, 2001). Dime referred to the ten cent coin which was the amount every citizen was urged to contribute to the organization. Therefore, the name “March of Dimes” emphasized on its national and non-partisan nature as opposed to other private foundations established by the wealthy class. The foundation started with an appeal in radio urging everyone in the nation to consider giving a dime to the charity for eradicating polio (Klinenberg & Lewis, 1994).

The name “March of Dimes” became the original name of the fundraising event held annually in January by the foundation (Rose, 2003). Many artists supported the initiative. For instance, an entertainer Eddie Cantor coined the name “March of Dimes” as a play featuring the popular newsreel of the day and called it “March of Time”. Many Broadway, Hollywood, radio and television stars also promoted the charity significantly spreading its campaign. As the person behind the great idea, Roosevelt was commemorated, when he died in office in 1945, by putting his portrait on the dime. Coincidentally, this became the only coin circulating widely and bearing a purely allegoric figure (of liberty) on the obverse. Putting President Roosevelt portrait on any other coin would have entailed displacing a president or a founding father. The name “March of Dimes” continued being synonymous with the charity and was adopted officially in 1979 (Helfard et al, 2001).

Current Activities

Currently, the March of Dimes supports research in fields such as microbiology, biochemistry, genetics, developmental biology, pediatrics and many more through funding. Also, it supports Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) which are designed to treat ailing babies; replacement of surgery for babies having a common heart defect with drug treatment, and folic acid education coupled with food fortification for preventing neural tube defects (Helfard et al, 2001). Since 1970, March of Dimes has been successful in hosting March for Babies, the former Walk America, annually. This has helped in raising more than 1.7 billion U.S. dollars for funding research and programs aimed at preventing premature birth.

Related Organizations

Like the March of Dimes, there are various charity organizations that focus on the plight of children in America. For instance, the Action Medical Research (AMR). This is a charity organization having a heritage of giving support to many medical breakthroughs. During the past 50 years, the charity has funded many studies which have impacted thousands of lives in the U.K. Recently; the charity has supported research into premature birth (the biggest killer of children under one year of age in the U.K. and a significant contributor to disability and morbidity) (Olszawski, 2008). Through its “Stand Up for Tiny Lives Campaign”, the charity calls for the enactment of a Premature Birth Inquiry to lead to the U.K.’s first ten year National Research Strategy aimed at improving people’s understanding of the premature birth causes.