Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is a fund-raising program for children sponsored by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Started on Halloween 1950 as a local event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the program historically involves the distribution of small orange boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small change donations from the houses they visit. Millions of children in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and Hong Kong participate in Halloween-related fund-raising events for Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, and the program has raised over US $188 million worldwide.

Trick-or-Treat in UNICEF was invented by Mary Emma Allison, the wife of Presbyterian minister Clyde Allison. In 1949, the Allisons were living in Bridesburg, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. When Mrs. Allison saw a UNICEF booth collecting funds to send powdered milk to undernourished children around the world, she thought of getting children to collect donations for UNICEF instead of candy. Reverend Clyde Allison introduced the concept to local Presbyterian churches. On Halloween 1950, the Allisons recruited their own children and their community's to go door-to-door collecting nickels and dimes in decorated milk cartons to aid children in post-World War II Europe. They collected a total of $17 and donated all of it to UNICEF.

In 1953, the United States Committee for UNICEF, now called the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, started actively promoting the program. By the 1960s, the concept had expanded throughout the United States, with small orange collection boxes distributed to millions of trick-or-treaters. When UNICEF won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson said in his congratulatory letter: "Your UNICEF Trick or Treat Day has helped turn a holiday too often marred by youthful vandalism into a program of basic training in world citizenship." In 1967, Johnson declared Halloween, October 31, to be 'UNICEF Day' in the United States; by 1969, 3.5 million American children were trick-or-treating for donations. Children (and adults) in the U.S. have collected more than US $175 million for Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. Donations to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF support UNICEF's global programing, but in 2005, half of the proceeds were targeted to a domestic cause, aiding victims of Hurricane Katrina. In 2008, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF introduced mobile phone text message donations as well as a MySpace and Facebook page. In 2014, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF partnered with Crowdrise to expand the campaign's online presence, allowing participants to create personal fundraising web pages in addition to traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating.

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