Ending a disease is a massive effort and Rotary and our partners can’t do it alone. Learn how you can join us in our efforts to end polio.
Donate Your Funds
We’re closer than ever to eradicating polio but we’re not done yet. We still need funds to continue immunizations and surveillance efforts. Your gift will get us closer to the finish line.
Donate Your Voice
We need your voice to help us end polio now. Get involved and spread the message so that we can end the second human disease in history.
Donate Your Time
Ending a disease is a massive effort and Rotary and our partners can’t do it alone. Learn how you can join us in our efforts to end polio.
Donate Your Funds
We’re closer than ever to eradicating polio but we’re not done yet. We still need funds to continue immunizations and surveillance efforts. Your gift will get us closer to the finish line.
Donate Your Voice
We need your voice to help us end polio now. Get involved and spread the message so that we can end the second human disease in history.
This story originally appeared in the October 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.
Canada
Vancouver Rotarians plugged in to their local connections to spotlight End Polio Now in British Columbia. Three landmarks — BC Place Stadium, the geodesic dome of Science World, and the City Hall clock tower — were set aglow for World Polio Day in 2021. Ron Suzuki, a member of the Rotary Club of Vancouver Sunrise and a retired city recreation director, used his connections to line up support from city leaders, including Mayor Kennedy Stewart, who recognized the day by proclamation. As a college student in the early 1970s, Suzuki undertook fieldwork in the polio wing of a hospital. “I got to know all the patients and was inspired by their courage and how they coped with this horrible disease,” Suzuki says. “Till this day I am still haunted by the sounds of the machines that helped them breathe.”
United States
The Interact club at Honesdale High School in Pennsylvania held its Purple Pinkie Project in February to spread the word about polio eradication. Club members went live on the radio, canvassed local businesses for contributions, and solicited dollar donations in exchange for coloring pinkies purple during school lunch breaks and basketball games. The club raised $1,000, and members of the Rotary Club of Honesdale added $500 for the cause. An online “twinning” with the Interact Club of Chubby Cheeks Spring Valley in Goa, India, allowed the clubs to exchange tips on matters purple pinkie and beyond. “These students are networked and organized,” says Brian Fulp, the Interact club’s adviser, “and the community responds through donations.”
United Kingdom
In October 2021, staff and students of Felpham Community College in West Sussex planted more than 4,000 crocuses provided by the Rotary Club of Bognor Regis as part of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland’s annual Purple4Polio campaign. In February, as the flowers began to bloom, the college convened students from the ecology club and other school groups for a tea party. “This was a chance to have a hot drink and some homemade sweet treats, celebrate the crocuses coming into bloom, and thank our students for the hard work they put in above and beyond their day-to-day learning,” says Michelle Kelly, a deputy head teacher. The Bognor Regis club and the school have partnered on the project for more than 10 years.
New Zealand
Seeking a hallmark project to boost attention and money for PolioPlus during his year as governor of District 9980, Nick Wood picked pumpkins — a variety called the Atlantic Giant, to be specific. Fifty-five Rotarians, family members, and friends competed to grow the greatest gourd from plants that Wood started and distributed beginning in late October of last year. The goal: “to have fun, and this was heaps of fun,” Wood says. The grand weigh-in in late April required a forklift when the Rotary Club of Wanaka’s winning pumpkin tipped the scales at more than 357 pounds. With sponsors donating a set amount for each kilogram, the competition yielded more than US$31,000 at current exchange rates, topped with a District Designated Fund contribution of about $6,200, all matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “The biggest success was the almost doubling of our club and personal contributions to polio from the previous year,” says Wood.
Our club needs volunteers (and donors) from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at to participate in the annual blood drive. We will need coordinators and donors at the Bloodmobile at Culver’s of Northbrook, 4105 Dundee Rd. All presenting donors will receive a coupon for a pint of frozen yogurt from Culver’s.
To schedule an appointment please call 877.258.4825 or visit vitalant.org and search by
account code ORD0NV32
Appointments Recommended. Walk-ins Welcome. PREPARE: EAT WELL, HYDRATE, and BRING ID. Contact Gary for details to volunteer.
NOTICE NO LUNCH MEETING THIS WEEK Please read this:
Tuesday, October 25, our weekly Rotary meeting will be at D'Agostino's Pizza and Pub, located at 241 S Milwaukee Ave (on the east side of the street, about 1/8 mile south of Dundee Rd), in Wheeling.
We will meet to socialize at 5:30 PM with formal meeting to begin about 5:45 PM
In addition to each other's company, we will enjoy assorted pizzas, soft drinks and garden salad, with coffee, tea, cookies and brownies for desert. Alcoholic beverages will also be available for you to purchase.
As for any meeting, you are encouraged to invite guests.
Following the meeting, everyone is invited to stay for Trivia Night Games from 7:00 PM to 8:45 PM !!
Advance Notice regarding Guests:
When you invite guests, let Helen know so she has a member lead, and Mike know with the lunch order. Guests can pay online in advance using out donate link.
Notify Mike for their lunch/food choice the Sunday prior to the meeting.
Meeting dates and times may change, always check our website for updates.
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