Welcome: Denise Haynes, president of Bakersfield Breakfast

Invocation: our president Steve Roach

Flag Salute: Jeanne Tunnicliffe, president of Bakersfield Twilight

Song: Our own Garro Ellis

Introductions: Tom Gordon, president Bakersfield West

Announcements:

• Kern YES Program headed up by Steve & Lee Gibbs was a big success.
• May 5th is an All Club Service project, they'll be packaging 5000 packages of 6 meals to be given to various local distribution centers. All hands on deck!

PROGRAM:

The All Club meeting this week featured guest speaker Joan Toone, president of Rotary Club of Victoria. Joan was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and contracted polio during the 1951 epidemics. Thirty years after acute polio, Joan began to experience cold intolerance, muscle weakness and extreme fatigue.  She was diagnosed with Post Polio Syndrome which is an after-effect of polio.  She then began the long journey of surgeries and rehabilitation.

When Rotary International began their number one priority of eradicating polio, she became an avid supporter, speaking to Rotarians about polio and Post Polio Syndrome.

Joan emphasizes the necessity of vaccines when speaking with younger people who often get conflicting information and presents herself as a first-hand example of what immunizations can prevent.

Joan deeply admires Rotary’s commitment to the children of our world.  Joan and Terry have worked for polio eradication for many years and feel privileged they will see the end of polio in this world very soon.  Joan says that to have been a small part of that is simply outstanding.

Although it currently circulates in only a few countries, polio is highly infectious and spreads rapidly. The disease, which afflicts mainly children, is transmitted via contaminated water and food supplies. Five to 10 percent of cases are fatal. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere are at risk. Only the global eradication of polio will ensure that no child ever again suffers its devastating effects.

Polio Facts:

• Back in the late 50's, children that contracted polio were isolated. no toys, no pets and no visitors, not even their parents.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt was the founder of the March of Dimes. Believing everyone could afford donating a dime, even during the Great Depression. By 1953, just 15 years after the first March of Dimes, the annual appeals had raised more than $50 million. As a tribute, he is the face of the US dime.
• Because of Rotary's commitment to eradicating Polio, deaths from the disease went from 1000's a day (1978) to only 27 total in 2017.
• On average, a child can be fully protected against polio for 3 US dollars.
• A study published in 2010 in the medical journal "Vaccine" estimates the economic benefit of polio eradication as $40-$50 billion.