Why Did People Send Truck Loads of Dimes to the White House?

Zhanna Slor September 7, 12:46 pm

Dimes in front of the White House collage — Adobe Stock

Well, the short answer is: to cure Polio.

It’s no secret now that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the longest-serving president of the United States, had been paralyzed from polio. Vaccines have largely wiped out this horrible disease that was running rampant among children in the early 20th century, but in the 1930s, it was a huge health crisis. And although it wasn’t publicly advertised, Americans did have an idea about the president’s disability. Clearly, the information didn’t work against him; FDR was the only American president to serve four terms, from 1933 to his death in 1945. During that time, on top of dealing with a depression and a war, with the help of many Americans, he also oversaw the cure to polio.

1936: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 - 1945) the 32nd President of the United States from 1933-45. A Democrat, he led his country through the depression of the 1930's and World War II, and was elected for an unprecedented fourth term of office in 1944.

Keystone Features/Getty Images

It began on FDR’s birthday in 1938. There had been various fundraising efforts before, but on that day, so many dimes started flooding into the White House that they created the March of Dimes Foundation to deal with them all.

“Over the past few days bags of mail have been coming, literally by the truck load, to the White House,” he said in a speech on January 30, 1938. “In all the envelopes are dimes and quarters and even dollar bills — gifts from grown-ups and children — mostly from children who want to help other children get well.”

Now that’s the kind of amazing, wholesome story you don’t see much anymore!

Why dimes? Most people could spare one, and eventually they add up. In 1938, a dime was worth what would be about $1.71 now. That first year, FDR received more than two and a half million dimes ($268,000). As the truckloads continued, the money would eventually fund the creation of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin’s vaccines for the virus.

Fun Fact: in 1946, the 32nd president was given the honor of being minted on dimes because of his fight to cure polio and as a memorial for leading America through the Great Depression and much of World War II while he was in office. Neither he lived long enough to see the end of.