Christmas Seals®

This Christmas Seals charity lens has a very special reason to be thankful. It's been blessed by these wonderful Squid Angels:

Kate-Phizackerley
pkmcr
mysticmama
KathyMcGraw

"In the early 20th century, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the U.S. ... tiny Delaware sanitorium would have to close its doors if $300 could not be raised to save it. One of its doctors explained the plight to his cousin, a Red Cross volunteer named Emily Bissell. Bissell was a veteran fundraiser, and she soon came up with a plan based on one that had worked in Denmark: She would design and print special holiday seals and sell them at the post office for a penny each.

By the end of her holiday campaign (and after an endorsement by President Roosevelt), she and a large group of committed volunteers had raised ten times the goal and the American Lung Association Christmas Seals were born."
From: American Lung Association, History of Christmas Seals

Photo: 1958 Christmas Seals by flashbackswiki on Flickr

"Christmas seals ... were introduced to the United States by Emily Bissell in 1907, after she had read about the program in an article by Danish-born Jacob Riis, a muckraking journalist and photographer. Bissell hoped to raise money for a sanitarium on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware.

It grew to a national program in 1908 by the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (NASPT) and the American National Red Cross. The seals were sold at post offices, initially in Delaware at 1 cent each. Net proceeds from the sales would be divided equally between the two organizations. By 1920, the Red Cross withdrew from the arrangement and sales were conducted exclusively by the NASPT, then known as the National Tuberculosis Association (NTA). Various promotional schemes were tried: in 1954 the small town of Saranac Lake, New York (home of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium) won a nationwide competition selling Christmas Seals, the reward for which was hosting the world premiere of the Paul Newman film, The Silver Chalice; the cast participated in a parade in the town's annual winter carnival.

After World War II with the development of the antibiotic streptomycin TB became a curable disease, although it would be decades before it could be considered under control in developed countries. To reflect the expanding scope of the organization's goals, the name was changed to the National Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association in the late 1960s. The NTRDA became the American Lung Association in 1973, though the 1974 seals continue to show the NTRDA inscription on the sheet margin.

Today the Christmas Seals benefit the American Lung Association and other lung related issues. Tuberculosis was declining, but recently has been on the rise. TB is still one of the most common major infectious diseases in the world."

From Wikipedia, Christmas Seal

1944 Christmas Seal Design Picture - flashbackwiki, Flickr

Learn more about Christmas Seals program, the work of the American Lung Association and other lung health related issues they tackle by visiting the official web site or contacting the American Lung Association headquarters or you state divisional office.

American Lung Association
1301 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20004
1-800-LUNG-USA.
T: 202 785 3355 | F: 202 452 1805

website: http://www.lungusa.org
website: http://www.christmasseals.org

This lens is not affiliated with the American Lung Association or Christmas Seals.
Kids can learn more about lung health, download a game or print a coloring page - click the image for free printable Christmas coloring page.

The fight for clean air and research to combat lung diseases get funding from the sales of Christmas Seals. The US program was developed as a critical fundraising effort in 1907, modeled after a successful campaign that began in 1904 in Denmark. My paternal grandmother was a tough Irish nurse from Boston who cared for recovering TB patients and others in her home; I lived there with my parents until I was about 5 years old. No members of my family contracted tuberculosis, although in the fifties both my parents smoked cigarettes. By the sixties they'd both kicked the nicotine habit.

As a child I looked forward to the packet of colorful holiday stamps on perforated sheets - Christmas Seals - that would arrive around Thanksgiving in our mail box. Our family always made a donation to the campaign. I and my 5 siblings enjoyed tearing the stamps apart and sticking them to the backs of holiday card envelopes, packages, gift tags and ornaments.

Today you can purchase Christmas Seals directly from the American Lung Association. They're shipped free of charge when you make a donation to the Christmas Seals campaign.

This link will take you to the Christmas Seals campaign information page where there's a link to their direct donations site. Celebrate your good health and happiness with a gift to the American Lung Association.

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