Beaver Dam Rotary President Evonne Boettge, left, stands with Rotary's District Governor Joe Ruskey. The theme of Ruskey's presentation at a recent Rotary luncheon meeting was that Rotarians should "tell our story." Rotary has 1.2 million members worldwide in over 200 countries. The United Nations comes to Rotary to ask how to get waring nations to cease fire. Rotary routinely convinces waring factions to stop their conflicts in order for Rotary volunteers to immunize their children against polio. Indeed, Rotary has prepared a world renowned curriculum for a degree in Peace and Conflict Resolution and gives scholarships to the program.
In 1985 there were 350,000 new cases of polio a year. That is the year that Rotary set out to eradicate polio. Many people said that it couldn't be done. This year there have been 9 new cases since January First. In 2003 Bill and Melinda Gates got behind Rotary and started giving matching funds. Now for every dollar raised by Rotary to fight polio, Bill and Melinda Gates donate two dollars.
Rotary is a well respected worldwide charity and is rated 97.89 by charitynavigator.org meaning that only a very small percentage of donations go to administration costs. Locally the money goes to projects such as the Rotary River Walk in Downtown Beaver Dam, Internationally polio eradication or and much more. The work of Rotary is done by volunteers who have a desire to give back to their community and to the world. See rotary.org for more information or google “Beaver Dam Rotary”