Yesteryear: Infantile Paralysis Fund Campaign
BY Pat Sides
In January of 1944, Vanderburgh County’s 13th annual fund-raising campaign for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis kicked off.
The month-long campaign was chaired by Henry Struby, who is pictured here (second man from the left) with Evansville Shipyard employees. Hoping to surpass the $12,000 raised in the previous year, they were ready to assist with their collection boxes.
The plan was to send volunteers to schools, theaters, businesses, and industries, as well as sports events, to collect donations for polio research, which was spurred by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s own struggle with the disease and the urgent need to assist afflicted soldiers during the war. A successful vaccine was finally introduced in early 1955.
