“Never doubt that a small group of dedicated individuals can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

This month marks the 75th anniversary of Variety the Children’s Charity, an organization devoted to helping children with special needs. You may know it as the charity that solicits for donations in movie theaters across the country. My grandfather, John M. Morin, Jr. was a founding member along with ten other Pittsburgh businessmen, most of whom were involved in show business in the post-vaudeville era.

They got together after work, which for most of them was near midnight, being in the business of other people’s pleasure. Over martinis and storytelling, (not yet a found art, never having been lost) they formed a kind of social action organization with a loose focus of raising money for charity causes.

The first fundraising event the group held, in November 1928, was a model of showmanship. Having sold too many tickets for the small room the group had reserved at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, the men reserved the grand ballroom, their only option on short notice. Fearing the room would dwarf their numbers, they planned an indoor circus, complete with giant tents and circus acts and sawdust on the floor. It was a huge success and the talk of society for years to come.

The organization’s focus was sharpened soon after, on Christmas Eve, when a member of the group found a baby girl abandoned in the Sheridan Square Theater in Pittsburgh. A note attached to the infant identified her only as “Catherine” and called upon the “goodness of show people” to care for her. She had been born into a large family on Thanksgiving Day, the note said, and her “heart-broken” mother had an unemployed husband and eight other children to care for. This galvanized the men. They informally adopted the baby who became known as Catherine Variety Sheridan, an allusion to her origins.

Eventually the child was formally adopted by a couple who agreed to keep her identity a secret to protect her privacy. Years later, the adult Catherine resurfaced to publicly thank her show-biz “fathers” for their support and caring.

Since 1928, Variety has grown into a worldwide charitable organization and has raised over a billion dollars for children’s causes. Changing the world takes time and hard work, and lots of money. Much of the hard work is accomplished by volunteers, like my grandfather, who look for a sense of purpose to balance their sense of well-being.

But humanitarian causes can seem anachronistic today. A lot of work for the net result. Injustice now is more likely to breed a terrorist than a humanitarian.

Margaret Mead’s message about a small group of dedicated individuals has a double edge in this age of both organized and freelance terror. Whether it’s suicide bombers wreaking havoc on innocent people or a pair of snipers roaming the beltway in Maryland picking off ordinary citizens like lint from a coat, the concept of dedication to a cause has a new dimension.

Huge segments of the world’s population feel so disenfranchised that they are driven to abominable violence against humanity.

We have come too far from the days when people like my grandfather, fueled by a few martinis and a sense of duty, joined in friendship to form an organization dedicated to changing the world, one child at a time.