LETTERS: ONE POSTER CHILD TURNED OUT WELL

To the editor:

We do appreciate the article you published Jan. 19 about Jim ("Chaffee man recalls fight against polio"). And on the front page, no less.

I did have one smidgen of regret: that it was not possible to include the pictures of him that appeared in the 1934 magazines, Weekly Reader and most newspapers around the country. However, reporter Ray Owen had warned us it might not be possible to reproduce the copies that we have. We appreciate his article. He spent a great deal of time with us and covered the events well.

All that aside, the two things we most wanted to stress were there. One, that a young mother's first child had been born totally healthy and was stricken at age 3 with a cruel and debilitating disease about which local doctors -- or anyone in the medical community of that time -- knew very little. His mother was frantic to get him help but had no idea where to turn. Franklin Roosevelt's election as president and the subsequent publicity about his own battle with polio was, for her, truly a godsend. Without a moment's hesitation, she wrote Mrs. Roosevelt requesting help for her 6-year-old son. It never occurred to her that many might consider her act to be forward or foolish. Or that Mrs. Roosevelt might ignore her letter or might never even get to see it. She only know her son needed help, and she was fighting to get it.

Second, over the years we have seen pictures of adorable poster children for many different causes, but after their year of fame, a new child surfaces as the next poster child. We never find out what happened to them. Did they get better with the treatments from the money we sent in? Was there, sadly, no improvement? Did they grow up? Were they able to find jobs and have families?

Since Jim is, we believe, the earliest poster child, we wanted people to know how he turned out. His mother had hoped and prayed he would return to her from Warm Springs completely whole. Unfortunately, that did not happen. But he did get braces, got out of a wheelchair, learned to walk with crutches, years later shed one brace and certainly grew up. Shriners Hospital in St. Louis helped him discard the one brace but could never remove the second.

We remember the young school classmates who pulled him the six blocks to and from grade school in his little red wagon, the junior- and senior-high school friends who for six years daily carried him piggyback up the three flights of stairs, Superintendent Fred Lewallen who permitted only Jim to slide down the stair railings on his stomach, and the various teachers who delayed classes in the scattered buildings until he could fly down the sidewalks on his crutches to get there.

It was indeed by the grace of God, his mother's love and fierce determination, help from Warm Springs and the Shriners Hospital that he became an adult, a law-abiding citizen, civic participant, Rotary Club president, Boy Scout commissioner, local and district recipient of the Scout Award of Merit, adult National Wood Badge Leadership training, businessman, loving husband, father and grandfather. On Feb. 14 this year we will observe our 50th wedding anniversary.

So to everyone who donates to the Mothers March on Birth Defects this month or who attends a Shrine Circus or views the Shrine clowns in a parade, you can say to them "Thank you -- yes, I know of a real person whom your organization has helped." Then pat yourself on the back, for your donation and participation have helped Jim and thousands like him to become useful, productive citizens. And you will know there is at least one local family who is eternally grateful to you.

May God bless you all.

JIM and MARLENE STUBBS

Chaffee