Lee Harman's Miss Vicky Polio Plus Road Campaign

                                                                     Dr. Lee Harman

Lee and his partner, Bill, decided to undertake the Peking to Paris motor drive in Miss Vicky.  It is a big deal for car enthusiasts.  Miss Vicky is a 1938 Model A Ford.  They used this because there are a lot of them around and it is easy to find parts if something happens since Lee and his Partner Bill have to take care of the car on their own while on the journey. 

The Journey is 10,000 miles and started in 1907.  Their venture will be in June of 2019 to Bejing, to Moscow to Sweden and eventually to Paris.  There are 3 different classifications, Miss Vicky is in the vintage classification. 

Bill is a retired Major from the US Army and a friend of Lee’s.  Lee wanted to help make people aware of Rotary trying to eradicate Polio.  Their goal is to raise 1 million dollars.  They want to dedicate this trip to the final mile in in the 34-year journey of Rotary working toward eradicating Polio.

Polio is an ancient, crippling disease that is worldwide and preventable.  From 1900 to 1956 was the worst time for polio worldwide.  The US epidemic was in 1948-1956.  This led to the era of the iron lung.  The polio virus can only lve in the dirt for 10-14 days.  Virus is ingested by kids playing in the dirt.  Kids play in the dirt and ingest the dirt, so kids have flu like symptoms and others the virus moves into their bodies.  The virus dies in 10-14 days if it can’t find an unimmunized child, therefore all children need to be immunized.

Polio Plus is Rotary working toward Eradicating polio.  In 1984 Rotary committed $100 million to inoculate 160 million kids at 650,000 vaccination booths, each booth desiring to inoculate 247 kids!  This was Rotary collaborating with the CDC, World Health, UNICEF and 125 countries worldwide.  This lead to the beginning of National Immunization Days with the goal of inoculating children worldwide.  In 1984 there were 125 endemic nations and 350,000 per year contracted the disease. Contrast this to 2016-2 endemic nations 38 cases. From the 38 cases only 8 were from the actual polio virus.  30 were from the polio vaccine itself.  The estimated chances are that 1 in 4 will get the virus.  Now people get the injected virus instead of the oral because you cannot become paralyzed through the injected vaccine.  Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only nations that still have Polio. 

There is still a risk because children that are still being born and children are not being immunized.  Until the world is free of polio for 3 years the risk of Polio is still a plane ride away.  Rotary hasn’t fulfilled the goal until the world is polio free for 3 years.

The Current challenge in 2018 is that Rotary raises $50 Billion.  World Wide Rotary has raised $14.6 Billion. District 50/50 is the 4^th highest ranking district in giving to Polio Plus. The cost to finish is predicted to be $1.6 Billion.  The money has been pledged.  We just need to do it. 

Miss Vicky is dedicated to bringing public awareness to rotary’s grandest achievement of Polio eradication throughout the world.  We can help by helping spread the world. Visit the Miss Vicky website at www.missvicky4polioplus.com and “Like Us” on Facebook and help to share this project on social media and with friends, neighbors and relatives.  They need our help to make this happen. 

There are many reasons to continue, it is the children that we are helping and the lives that we are impacting.