Across the River
ROOSEVELT CELEBRATIONS: In 1934, the people of the East Bank of St. James Parish held occasional Roosevelt Celebrations under the sponsorship of the Roosevelt Memorial Committee. In January of that year. a celebration was held on a Sunday night at Romeville School and then two days later at Bourgeois’ Hall in Gramercy. The celebrations were to benefit the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation for the Treatment of Infantile Paralysis. Franklin D. Roosevelt learned about the therapeutic waters at Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1924. In 1926, he used two-thirds of his personal fortune to buy the Warm Springs property. In 1927, he organized the foundation to provide for polio victims. The foundation became the country’s leading polio rehabilitation center. In 1938, Roosevelt created the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, also known as the March of Dimes, which is known for polio research and development. The March of Dimes helped develop a polio vaccine by Jonas Salk in 1955. Polio was eliminated from the Americas in 1994, less than 25 years after the Salk Vaccine was licensed in 1955. The Warm Springs facility is now known as the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. President Roosevelt was diagnosed with poliomyelitis and underwent years of therapy, including hydrotherapy at Warm Springs, Georgia. He remained paralyzed from the waist down and relied on a wheelchair and leg braces for mobility, which he took efforts to conceal when he was out in public. No one is really sure how he contracted the disease, but some think he may have been exposed to the virus at a Boy Scout Camp in New York. He was diagnosed in 1921 after falling overboard from the family yacht into freezing waters. When St. James Parish citizens gathered for the Roosevelt Celebrations, they also helped to celebrate the birthday anniversary of “our great Humanitarian President Franklin Delano Roosevelt” while aiding a worthy cause. The St. John the Baptist 514 Knights of Columbus also joined the nationwide dance program to send proceeds to the Warm Springs facility. In the 1960’s, each student enrolled in the St. James Parish Schools helped to contribute to the fight against polio by participating in the March for Dimes. Students were given a card with special slots to hold all the dimes that their parents and grandparents donated.
