To Participants of the Conference on Fitness of American Youth:
Your willingness to participate in this Conference shows that you share my concern about the fitness of our American youth. It is certain that we can and should do more than we are now doing to help our young people become physically fit and therefore better qualified, in all respects, to face the requirements of modern life.
I very much appreciate your interest. Your conference deliberations will help guide the efforts of all of us who are interested in improving the total fitness of all our children and youth.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Note:
The President suffered a heart attack early in the morning of September 24 while staying at the home of Mrs. Eisenhower's mother, Mrs. John Sheldon Doud, in Denver, Colo.
Information concerning the President' s illness was made available at Fitzsimons Army Hospital usually by oral statements by Press Secretary James C. Hagerty or by Assistant Press Secretary Murray Snyder.
During the President's illness, Vice President Nixon presided over the meetings of the Cabinet and the National Security Council. Members of the Cabinet and other officials made frequent trips to Denver to consult with the President.
The President's first official act following the onset of his illness was the initialing on September 30 of two lists of recess appointments of foreign service officers. His recovery was without complication and on November 11 he was able to fly back to Washington. From that city he went to his farm at Gettysburg, Pa., to continue his convalescence. On November 22 the President attended his first Cabinet meeting following his illness. This was held at Camp David, the Presidential camp in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Message Prepared for the Conference on Fitness of American Youth. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233602