'Trick-Or-Treat For UNICEF' Founder Dies At 93

'Trick-Or-Treat For UNICEF' Founder Dies At 93

Just a few days shy of the 60th anniversary of "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF," the program's founder Mary Emma Allison died at her home.

The 93-year-old woman was responsible for the popular Halloween campaign that has raised $160 million to help children around the world.

The Allisons, who then lived in the Philadelphia suburbs, had long been concerned with social responsibility. In 1947, they began collecting clothes for children in postwar Europe. As that program drew to a close, they decided to come up with a plan, centered on Halloween, by which American children might help less fortunate ones abroad.

Each year, children collect coin donations in orange cardboard boxes as they pass from house to house gathering candy. The funds raised go to provide food, medicine and other necessities for impoverished children in other countries.

NBC Nightly News takes a look at the 2010 incarnation of the "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" campaign.

WATCH:

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot