CHAPTER 404
STATE OF DELAWARE
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS, thousands of lives and many millions of dollars' worth of property are lost each year through fires; and
WHEREAS, a great percentage of these fires are traced to accumulations of rubbish, old clothes, discarded furniture, papers and magazines; and
WHEREAS, cleanup campaigns throughout the nation have proven effective in eliminating disastrous fires from such causes; and
WHEREAS, Delaware with much of its beauty hidden by such accumulations and safe from fire only by the diligent work of its Volunteer Fire Companies and paid City Companies whose tireless efforts have prevented many losses; now
THEREFORE, I, J. CALEB BOGGS, Governor of the State of Delaware, do hereby designate the week beginning May 6, 1957, as
SPRING CLEAN-UP WEEK
I call upon the citizens of all our communities to follow the lead of Miss Bertha Chapman, a Cleveland, Ohio, school teacher, who, 47 years ago presented a particularly unkempt pupil with a bright blue pinafore. As a result of that generous gesture the pupil was transformed into a neat, attractive and pretty child. Such a transformation would have gone unnoticed and modern Clean-Up Week never come to pass had not "lir Miss Pinafore" skipped home to show Mother. And the mother, so the story goes, decided then and there to do a little cleaning up around the place. This encouraged neighbors to do likewise. This began a clean-up campaign that spread throughout the community and eventually the nation.
I urge also all Chambers of Commerce, business, labor and farm organizations as well as schools, civic groups and public information agencies, to actively join in Clean-Up Week. I also direct our Acting Fire Marshal and other appropriate agencies in the State to assist in the effort to reduce loss of life and property from fires originating from such causes.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I, J. Caleb Boggs, Governor of the State of Delaware, have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the said State to be hereunto affixed at Dover this Twenty-fifth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and eighty-first.
(GREAT SEAL)
J. CALEB BOGGS, Governor
JOHN N. McDOWELL, Secretary of State