We can thank Mary Emma Allison, who, just before Halloween, passed away at the age of 93.
Six decades ago, on a fall afternoon, a young woman caught sight of a children’s parade. She followed the children, in bright native dress, as they wended their way through the streets of the town. They entered a store, with the woman behind them, and inside the store she encountered a cow. She followed the cow, and she came to a booth.
On account of the children, the cow and the booth, the woman came up with a world-changing plan. ...
The booth was in Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia, and it belonged to Unicef. The parade of costumed children (and the cow) was part of a campaign to send powdered milk to needy children overseas.
The woman was a schoolteacher named Mary Emma Allison. Moved by her chance encounter, she and her husband created Trick-or-Treat for Unicef, a Halloween ritual that celebrates its 60th anniversary on Sunday and has raised tens of millions of dollars for children worldwide.
Here's a little radio piece on Mrs. Allison from NPR. Have a listen.
We used to have quarters on hand along with our trick-or-treat candy every year and I never really realized what it was for until we stopped preparing for it a couple years ago. No one in my neighborhood has collected donations in quite a few years, and it's too bad that the donations have been tapering off. It's really brilliant to combine trick-or-treating with helping to raise money for a great cause. It helps to make children more aware about what is going on in the world, and we all know how important that is.
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