HOW MAPLEWOOD WON SONNY
Sonny, a big, gentle, and affectionate dog was offered as a prize to the members of the Junior Red Cross by one of the large woman’s magazines of this country. Sonny was to be given to the school children who sent in the best account of the work they had done during the first year of the life of the Junior Red Cross.
The prize dog was sent to the children of Maplewood School, Maplewood, New Jersey, in time to march in their Fourth-of-July parade, and he and the children were very, very proud of themselves and of each other. Everybody cheered them and they had a delightful time.
The Maplewood children decided to send the prize dog to serve in the trenches during the World War. As he was a real police dog, with plenty of courage, this just suited Sonny.
Here is a part of the prize essay:
“We have had a most interesting year of Red Cross work in the Maplewood Grammar School, and we believe that the results have been worth while.
“Our work as a Junior Red Cross unit began twenty-four hours after President Wilson had issued his proclamation.
“In that short time, every child in the school of five hundred and ten pupils had been enlisted in the Junior Red Cross army, dues of one hundred and fifty dollars had been paid, and our officers had been elected.
“We have given our school sewing-periods to the making of games, and posters for Victory Gardens and War Savings Stamps campaigns. On Wednesday afternoons, the whole school is dismissed at two-thirty, and we all do Red Cross work until five o’clock. In addition, we take home extra work and return it completed. As the result of our efforts, we have made 14,975 articles. All of the articles have been made since we became part of the National Junior Red Cross army. We were notified that many of our first articles had been sent to other units to be used as models.
“This is a record of what we have done for the Junior Red Cross. It is only a little compared with what the Junior Red Cross has done for us in teaching us perseverance, thrift and thoughtfulness, and in giving us a fine chance to prove ourselves patriotic.”
—From the Delineator