Has anyone told you you don’t need permission to be a superhero? Or that you don’t need someone to tell you it’s okay to help other people? There are some amazing stories of people that decided they didn’t want to wait to help the people around them that needed help. These were people that didn’t have advanced degrees or complicated certifications. What they did have was the sense of action and an overwhelming urgency to start making changes in the world around them.
Consider the story of Charles DeForest. Long before people had the ability to make ideas go ‘viral,’ and before we had the internet to rapidly spread a message, he still made these things happen. Charles worked for the National Tuberculosis Association, and was charged with helping curb the spread of this dangerous disease. What did he do in his post?
He made a nationwide program and contest for kids that taught them basic health habits that helped them improve their own health, their hygiene, and the likelihood of staying healthy. He created something that he called the “Modern Health Crusader Leagues,” forming them in major cities beginning in 1916, lasting for over 15 years. The Leagues had a scoring system for daily and weekly activities, ranks, and awards for completion of various levels of the program.
Rather than just simply sit at his desk, publish info, or talk about other people making change, he created a system, and then implemented the system that would help kids across the country learn basic health principles to help keep them safe. What were some examples of the basic activities involved the kids were tasked with tracking in the Leagues?
“I tried hard to sit and stand up straight.”
“I took ten or more slow, deep breaths of fresh air.”
“I drank four glasses of water, some before each meal, and drank no tea, coffee or injurious drink.”
Today, technology allows a program like this to be vastly more easily implemented, compared to the technology of the early 1900’s. What they did have then was the motivation to help people take the actions they needed to in order to improve their health. And that is no different than today. In fact, most people who have had tremendous results in chiropractic were sent there by someone they knew. Someone that saw that they needed help, and that they needed to make a change to get better, and healthier. And one by one, all of those people that made chiropractic the second largest health profession in the world, were sent there by someone who wanted to make a difference for another. Could you do the same, and be the next health hero?
1 http://vintagekidstuff.com/mhc/mhc.html
2 The Modern Health Crusade; A National Program of Health Instruction in Schools; Manual for Teachers, Superintendents and Health Workers. National Tuberculosis Association. 1922.