72 Years Ago Tonight, Golden mothers went door to door, collecting money to fight polio.
Porchlights to Aid Polio Collections
Turn on your porch light tonight! Mothers of Golden will make their march on polio tonight when the Mother’s March for the March of Dimes will be held from 7 to 8 o’clock. The march will be heralded by the sounding of fire sirens on Golden’s Fire Department trucks which will patrol the streets. If you want to give to the March of Dimes which is a most worthy organization, turn on your porch light so your canvasser will know she may contact you.
Colorado Transcript – January 28, 1954
There was an epidemic of polio beginning in the late 19th century, and thousands of people–mostly children and young adults–were paralyzed. Those anxious mothers, collecting dimes in 1954, could not have known how close they were to ending the scourge.
The first highly effective and widely distributed vaccine came out in 1955, and the incidence of the disease soon plummeted.
According to polioeradication.org: "Wild poliovirus cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries to 12 reported cases in 2023."
