President Franklin D. Roosevelt Is Touched by a Grade School Girl’s Contribution to the Warm Springs Foundation to Help Children with Disabilities
FDR, who was closely affiliated with the Foundation, wants to respond personally to thank her for birthday wishes and the gesture to aid children with disabilities
An uncommon letter thanking a child for caring enough to contribute to help other children
Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1920, contracted polio in 1921. Three years later he visited Warm Springs, Georgia, which lay ten miles from the nearest paved roads and had few modern conveniences. After a...
An uncommon letter thanking a child for caring enough to contribute to help other children
Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1920, contracted polio in 1921. Three years later he visited Warm Springs, Georgia, which lay ten miles from the nearest paved roads and had few modern conveniences. After a few days at the pools, he felt that his legs had improved more than they had in the previous three years. He quickly grew to love the people and the countryside, which he explored by automobile. Other polio patients began to arrive in the spring of 1925, after an article appeared in the Atlanta Journal about Roosevelt “swimming his way to health”. In 1926 Roosevelt invested two-thirds of his savings in property at Warm Springs and incorporated the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation in 1927. An enclosed pool funded by automotive pioneer Henry Ford’s son Edsel was added, and improvements began to be made. Physicians and physiotherapists worked with Roosevelt to develop muscle exercises. The “spirit of Warm Springs” became firmly entrenched as patients relearned to function in society and to laugh and enjoy life.
The word got out and moved grade schooler Madelon Van Hull, who wanted to help. Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, Washington, February 6, 1934, to young Van Hull, who had written him with best wishes on his birthday, and to tell him she had made a contribution to the Warm Springs Foundation to help fellow children. FDR, who was so closely affiliated with the Foundation and its work, was moved by the girl’s gesture. “I want to tell you that I am really deeply touched, not only by your thought of me on my birthday, but also for your letter to the Treasurer of the Warm Springs Foundation, and you will receive a formal acknowledgment of your gift in due time. With sincere thanks…Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
An uncommon letter thanking a child for caring enough to contribute to help other children.
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