Foundation 101 - Rotary's Finest Hour
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Chapter 8
In the 40's and 50's polio was a dreaded disease, feared in much of the developed world. Approximately one out of ten who contracted polio would die, while two or three were paralyzed for life. In 1955, after a wide spread test of almost 2 million children, the polio vaccine, invented by Dr. Jonas Salk, was pronounced "safe and effective."
When Dr. Carlos Canseco became RI President in 1984, he wasted no time in forming a committee called Polio 2005; the beginnings of a worldwide polio eradication campaign. Canseco was advocating for mass immunizations, rather than the current method of gradually administering doses through a network of health providers. Together with his new committee and UNICEF, they calculated that eradication of 100 million newborn children in the 125 polio-endemic countries would need six doses of oral vaccine for five consecutive years. At this, the estimated price tag was $120 million. Rotary had never fund-raised 1/10th the amount. But the Polio 2005 Committee approved the twenty year plan. When it was presented at the 1984 RI convention in Birmingham, England, UNICEF leader James Grant spoke to attendees saying, "This is an historic moment for all civilization. Polio 2005 will rank among the great 'people' revolutions of all time. And the character of this revolution will not be violence and upheaval; it will be health, stability and realization of the full potential of millions of human beings. The challenge is yours... the world's children - our most precious heritage for the future - need you."
Planning evolved and the Committee was renamed. It would now be known as PolioPlus. Committee members grew impatient with the long term of the plan and forged ahead to "do it now." They decided to make the RI convention of 1988 their goal. At the end of it - the United States alone had raised $119,186,869, with an additional $127 million from around the globe. The results were stunning. No doubt remained as to the commitment that Rotary was able to deliver to humankind. Then RI President, Charles Keller called it Rotary's "finest hour."