Local News: Worthy of the Smithsonian (6/26/19) - Le Mars Daily Sentinel

Local News: Worthy of the Smithsonian (6/26/19) - Le Mars Daily Sentinel

Local News: Worthy of the Smithsonian (6/26/19) - Le Mars Daily Sentinel

Posted: 25 Jun 2019 10:00 PM PDT

(Photo Contributed) Emma DeRuyter of Le Mars Community stands with her National History Day (NHD) board entitled, "The Disease That Paralyzed Our Nation: The Tragedy of Poliomyelitis and Its Triumphant Defeat." Her board was chosen to advance from the state competition to the national competition, as well as was chosen to represent the State of Iowa at the Smithsonian's one day presentation of NHD projects.

LE MARS — When Emma DeRuyter's National History Day project advanced from state competition to national competition in April, she received an extra bonus.

Her exhibit, "The Disease That Paralyzed Our Nation: The Tragedy of Poliomyelitis and Its Triumphant Defeat," was chosen to represent Iowa at the Smithsonian as part of a one-day presentation of National History Day (NHD) projects.

Emma, her parents Dave and Becky, and brother traveled to the competition which was held June 9-13 at the University of Maryland.

This year's overall theme was "Triumph and Tragedy in History."

Emma said she chose her topic because vaccines were a big topic in the news.

"NHD gives out a list of ideas, I thought it was interesting. And when it doesn't go so far back, it's easier to find primary sources such as newspapers and things," she said.

One of Emma's primary sources was an interview with a polio survivor in Le Mars.

"I was able to talk to a few polio survivors throughout my research. The first one was Dixie Kooiker from Le Mars. She was a fantastic help to me and gave me so many primary resources that were needed to give a personal account," Emma had said in an earlier interview.

Emma's project is a requirement for her class at Le Mars Community Middle School in the Challenge program. Her teacher is Jakki Gamble.

This is Emma's second year doing a NHD project, now a seventh grader.

Last year, she placed third out of 25 entries at the district to advance.

"She was kind of determined this year," said Becky.

Emma spent a lot of time making changes and modifications to her exhibit board between the district and state competition and then state and national competition.

From district to state, she added more primary sources and changes to wording.

"For nationals, I added a whole other board, a section of my board about Sioux City because they were impacted very heavily by polio, and I changed all of my captions that I made with my own words to silver paper so you could just read those and get the main story, and then read the other things to fill in. And I doubled my sources in general," Emma said. She went from 20, to 24 to finally 56 sources.

An exhibit can be at the maximum, 6 feet tall, 40 inches wide and 30 inches deep.

Part of her exhibit included pictures Kooiker shared of her time in the hospital, being treated by Sister Kenny, who developed a controversial approach to polio treatment for patients.

"Emma spent a lot of time working, especially from when school got out to nationals. It was a little frustrating, she felt like she gave up her summer time, but in the long run, she wanted to give it her all to go to nationals. She worked really hard," Becky said.

Emma's judging was held on Monday, June 10, as were all junior NHD projects. The senior division was judged on Tuesday.

Wednesday, June 12, was the day at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History Behring Center.

She was excited to go to the Smithsonian, as it was one of the first websites she consulted for her project.

Emma and Becky set up the exhibit after 9 a.m. Starting at 10 a.m., Emma and the other students talked about their project with visitors to the Smithsonian until 5:30 p.m.

"It was really fun," Emma said of the Smithsonian experience.

"There were a lot of people who were really interested. They would walk up and start asking questions. It was easy to talk to them. I got a lot of stories about people who had gotten vaccines, or they remembered it and shared a lot of perspectives.

"One lady was working for the state and she wanted to talk about the vaccine and its importance.

Somebody was in the Army and part of the Salk trials in the military, and somebody was giving them vaccines in other countries," she explained.

"I learned a lot. People had different stories I hadn't heard before. I talked with the other kids, too," Emma said.

Emma explained she was interested in the local impact of polio and learned a lot from a trip to the Sioux City Museum. For instances, she was able to see an iron lung, which was used for treatment.

"Sioux City was one of the sites for the Salk trials," she said. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio which was tested in the early 1950s.

One of the things she learned at that time, an epidemic was considered 20 cases out of 100,000 people with the disease. Sioux City had 402 cases out of 100,000, the highest rate in the country in 1952.

Emma was also able to find several items relating to polio on eBay, such as a container used in the March of Dimes campaign to raise funds to treat polio, some leaflets, and a crutch on which she put a timeline of polio and its treatment.

"I like pulling it all together and seeing all the information coming in," Emma said of her project.

Her experience at the Smithsonian is special, too.

"I just really liked talking to people and telling them the story," she said.

Becky added, "A lot of people had comments about FDR (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt), too. He was struck with polio."

"It was fun as a parent to sit back and watch her talking to folks, too, because a lot really had an interest. Most people if they're above a certain age, had some kind of experience with polio that they knew somebody, or the vaccination. A lot who talked to her were in their 50s, 60s and up," Becky said.

After closing Wednesday, the Smithsonian opened an exhibit on the first floor of the museum for NHD students only. They brought out artifacts that they don't usually have out, Emma explained.

"There was a section on polio that they had there. Original posters, vials of the original vaccine, and other neat stuff," Emma said.

Emma is already thinking about a topic for her NHD project as an eighth grader. The theme is "Breaking Barriers." Right now, however, she is taking a break from the hard work she put in on her exhibit.

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