2024 is the 91st anniversary of the New Deal and so March 31st is the 91st anniversary of one of the first-funded, and longest-lasting New Deal relief programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps.
“Idle through no fault of your own, you were enrolled from city and rural homes and offered an opportunity to engage in healthful, outdoor work on forest, park and soil conservation projects of definite practical value to all the people of the nation. The promptness with which you seized the opportunity to engage in honest work, the willingness with which you have performed your daily tasks and the fine spirit you have shown in winning the respect of the communities in which your camps have been located, merits the admiration of the entire country. You, and the men who have guided and supervised your efforts, have cause to be proud of the record the CCC has made in the development of sturdy manhood and in the initiation and prosecution of a conservation program of unprecedented proportions.”
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, radio message to CCC enrollees, April 17, 1936
