The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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WASHINGTON, Friday —Last night a group of us, who used to meet very much more often, got together for dinner and had a very pleasant evening. I thought, however, that I would never get down to them, because I came home from the Office of Civilian Defense a few minutes after 5:00, to find a man with whom I had a 5:00 o'clock appointment had waited for me and had gone. But a gentleman who was due at 6:00 o'clock was somewhat late and left after my dinner guests had arrived!

I spent two hours at the office this morning and at 11:00 o'clock went down to meet with a group of the Agriculture Department Extension people working on the 4-H Club program. They told me what they had developed for their victory work in rural areas and assured me that they would cooperate in the OCD Youth Activities Program in every possible way.

Then we discussed how best the Office of Civilian Defense could help them to carry out a program, which would not only make the community strong now, but leave it stronger at the end of the war to meet postwar problems.

On January 12th, the Victory Book Campaign starts. This is a "nationwide campaign to collect reading materials for many needs, arising from the national defense and war program." Miss Althea Warren has been given four months leave of absence from the Los Angeles Public Library to direct this campaign and she has her offices with the USO in the Empire State Building in New York City. Good books of every kind are needed for the USO reading rooms.

Each club house, of which there are now 400, with many more contemplated, will have space from 500 to 2,000 volumes. There are state directors in practically every state and your state librarian can give you the address of the special directors appointed for these collections. If you do not know where to write in your state, write to Miss Althea Warren, 1630 Empire State Building, New York City, and she will tell you where to send your books.

It is a wonderful thing to feel that in this emergency everyone wants to help. I was glad to hear the the New York Association for the Blind is starting a course for volunteers on January 13th. The course is designed to train volunteer workers for service with the blind.

It will make it possible for them to help the blind to adjust to war conditions, which make even the ordinary occurrences of life more difficult. If you attend one of these courses and learn what modern procedures and policies are in New York City, you can be helpful in you own hometown when you return there.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BYUNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 10, 1942

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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