Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF was a fund raising program sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The event was originally founded by a minister and his wife from the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA in 1950. The Allison’s devised the idea that the children of their local parishes would use decorated milk boxes to collect small change from neighborhood homes in lieu of candy while trick-or-treating ( Mrs. Allison originally got the idea a year earlier when she noticed UNICEF collecting donations to send powdered milk to poor children around the world).
By 1953 the U.S. Committee for UNICEF started actively promoting the Alison’s program. By the 1960’s, the concept had spread throughout the United States; small orange collection boxes, printed with the UNICEF logo, were being distributed to millions of trick-or-treaters to collect donations. In 1965, UNICEF wins the Nobel Peace Prize. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s congratulatory letter to UNICEF extolled the virtues of the program that helped change the once often vandalous holiday into a program of basic training in world citizenship. Lyndon Johnson eventually proclaimed 31 October 1967 “UNICEF DAY”.
In honor of the original UNICEF Day, the following is excerpted from Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1967: Tricky New Costumes: Beware the Halloween animals are on the loose…
Butterick 3193 – child’s costume; small, medium, large - each costume requires one twin-size Stevens sheet in appropriate animal pattern. This pattern used for both lion and leopard.
Butterick 4152 – child’s costume; 6-14 - each costume requires one twin-size Stevens sheet in appropriate animal pattern. This pattern used for both zebra and giraffe.
Download directions HERE.
Thanks to Karen from Oma's Bric-a-Brac for this contribution.
