United Cerebral Palsy
In 1947, Revere Copper & Brass Inc. sponsored an episode of the Mutual Broadcasting System's series Exploring the Unknown titled, "Love is the Doctor." Boretz wrote the script about a young couple discovering their son has Cerebral Palsy (CP) in the wake of his young son Steven's diagnosis. With his personal connection to the storyline, Boretz hoped to bring comfort to parents facing similar struggles while simultaneously educating his audience with real medical knowledge on the condition. In the process of his son's diagnosis, Boretz and his wife Lucille had consulted with a variety of medical professionals on Cerebral Palsy with varying degrees of success. By crafting relatable characters and exploring the complicated medical decisions that parents must make for their children, Boretz was about to produce a radio episode with a wider impact than ever expected.
According to a 1950 annual report from the United Cerebral Palsy Association detailing their history, after "Love is the Doctor" aired on the radio, so many inquiries from listeners and supporters flooded into the Mutual Broadcasting System's office that the episode's sponsor agreed to commission a small pamphlet on Cerebral Palsy from the editors of Science Illustrated. With a wider distribution of information about CP, families began to keep in touch and organize, eventually growing large enough to create a national conference on CP in February 1949. By July, the organization had enough money to officially found the National Foundation for Cerebral Palsy, later changed to United Cerebral Palsy Association Inc.
The final line of the UCPA's forward of the annual report is that with Boretz's episode, "the heartbreak that rode the air waves had generated a love in action." This willingness to expose his parental grief and struggles made it possible for other families sharing the same burdens to unite in a larger cause that would go on to provide support, education, and treatment to the nation. Boretz became an original member of the UCPA, and throughout his career, he returned to medicine as the basis for his stories to explore and explore less-discussed topics to even larger audiences.