Lillian D. Wald

Dear Mr. President, To keep the country running smoothly, the citizens must participate in it. If we, the citizens of the United States, don’t do our part, the government will have full reign over OUR society. Essentially meaning that would no longer be a democracy. That is something that we Americans pride ourselves on, being a democracy. We must ensure that we maintain and keep the rights and freedoms that we have. The purpose of this letter is to ask you to consider declaring a new holiday in the name of Lillian Wald. This day wouldn’t just be to recognize her as a person and all of her accomplishments, but what her accomplishments really were- Civil Rights. Lillian Wald’s achievements stretched from the health field to civil rights for children. Her feats have shed a new light on the American society, inspiring to us all. Lillian Wald was a nurse, social worker, public health official, teacher, author, editor, publisher, and most importantly a civil rights activist for peace, women, children, the sick, and many others. She had such an unselfish devotion to humanity, which ultimately made her great. It all started when Wald met a young nurse who inspired her to follow in her footsteps. At the age of 22 she had graduated nursing school and enrolled in the Women’s Medical College to begin studying to become a doctor. During her time in college, she managed to be a volunteer nurse for the poor and less fortunate in New York’s lower east side. While volunteering, Wald saw the need for change. Immediately dropping out of med school, she moved closer to the needy. In 1893 Wald created the Henry Street Settlement. Starting off with the help of 10 nurses, she created a small empire that would expand to 250 nurses that treated 1300 patients per day by 1916. All of this needed some kind of funding. Well Wald took care of that with fund raising and volunteer donations. Also made it a point to make all of this racially integrated.
Lillian Wald, with the help of