HOULTON, Maine — On Saturday, Oct 24, 2015, Rotarians around the world will observe World Polio Day. The timing honors the birthday of Doctor Jonas Salk who led the first team to develop the polio vaccine. This year’s official activities will be streamed live from the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City.
Today, only two countries still have the world’s final reservoir of endemic polio virus – Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rotary International has been working diligently at removing polio’s plague to humanity. Hundreds of millions of children are being vaccinated to continue the effort to eradicate polio.
Jim and Roberta Graham of District 6560 in Indiana, both 81 years of age and members of the Rotary Club of Brownsburg, Ind. traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan to assist with polio immunizations. As Jim said the Rotary effort at eradication can be compared to driving one hundred miles trip in a car and not having the gas to go the last two miles. That is how close to ending polio we are.
The Houlton Rotary Club is making an effort to be 100 percent in its donations by members of the club. The request is for $100 and the donor’s name will be added to the plaque in Watson Hall where the club has its meetings. Rotary and The Bill and Linda Gates Foundation have extended their partnership in the Global Eradication Initiative from 2013 to 2018. Every US dollar that Rotary raises is matched three to one by the Gates Foundation. Non members are welcome to donate as well.
As the President of Rotary International K.R. Kavindran wrote in the October issue of the Rotary magazine, global cases of polio in 2015 numbered only a few dozen. He says that the end is in sight and could happen not in years but in months. He also said that the effort must not subside or years of work will be undone. Visit endpolio.org for ideas, tools, and ways to donate to the cause. For the Houlton Club, all members are encouraged to have their name on the plaque by donating one hundred dollars if they have not already donated. As Ravi says be a “gift to the world”.
