President's Letter

To the Members of the Harvard Student Body:

To respond to the request that I endorse the objectives of the Harvard combined Charities Drive is a task which I undertake with alacrity.

During the week of December third December eighth a corps of student volunteers will seek to enlist the participation of every member of the Harvard student body in the raising of funds to benefit the many worthwhile causes which help promote the peace and well-being of the Greater Boston area.

The Harvard student is asked only once during the academic year to accept any obligation for the region in which he is spending most of his time during his years of higher education. The Combined Charities Drive emphasizes at the local level two major philanthropic interests which should be of deep concern to all of us. These are the student-sponsored Phillips Brooks House with its hundreds of volunteers and the United Fund of Great-Boston with its 350 member organizations, including hospitals, Red Cross, neighborhood houses and health associations.

I feel personally very strongly that living in a community implies an individual obligation to help advance its welfare. The hard-working student committee directing this effort has given much time and thought to its organization and objectives. I hope that all students of Harvard will respond promptly, understandingly, and generously to the cause and at same time derive a sense of pride in sharing a fundamental responsibility with the welfare agencies of Cambridge and the larger urban area of which Harvard is so much a part.