UNICEF Trick or Treat

Link: http://www.standingupforillinois.org/feature.php?id=169

This Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn will celebrate United Nations Day by joining with costumed trick-or-treaters to remind Illinois citizens that the best part of any Halloween costume is a little orange box.

�Every year kids across the United States help to save the lives of less fortunate children around the world by simply carrying an orange UNICEF collection box,� Quinn said. �This year, we want to encourage every trick-or-treater in the Land of Lincoln to join in the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign.�

More than half a century ago, a group of children in Philadelphia set out on Halloween night with decorated milk cartons to collect money for those left vulnerable after World War II. The $17 that those pioneering Philadelphia trick-or-treaters earned that fateful Halloween night of 1950 was only the beginning.

Today, the little orange UNICEF collection boxes are as much a part of Halloween lore as ghosts, goblins and stale candy corn. And the coins collected in those little boxes make a monster of a difference.

Last year alone, kids, schools and communities raised more than $4.5 million, and the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF � The Original KIDS HELPING KIDS campaign � has raised more than $136 million to date. A single orange box with $1.20 in coins can protect a mother and her newborn against tetanus and $3 can provide a warm blanket for a child in an emergency.

The money raised by trick-or-treaters helps to provide clean water, health care, food and education to children in more than 150 countries. Kids can organize and host fundraisers, collect at their church services on the Sunday before Halloween, or simply carry the boxes on Halloween night.

For more than 60 years, UNICEF has been the world�s leading international children�s organization. UNICEF provides lifesaving nutrition, clean water, education, protection and emergency response, saving more young lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. While millions of children die every year of preventable causes like dehydration, upper respiratory infections and measles, UNICEF, with the support of partnering organizations and donors alike, has the global experience, resources and reach to give children the best hope of survival.

On Oct. 24, 1945, the Charter of the United Nations went into effect. In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a U.S.-sponsored resolution declaring every Oct. 24 to be United Nations Day.

For more information or to order a UNICEF collection box, please visit: www.unicefusa.org/trickortreat .