PolioPlus: A Musical Celebration

Event Details

5:30     Doors to McIntyre Hall open
            Gourmet dinner and beverages included.
            Come hungry and thirsty - Dine and socialize

7:30     Doors to theatre open.
            Keynote speaker, Ray Klinginsmith, followed by musical performances

9:45     Curtain

The Gates Foundation challenged Rotary to raise $200 Million to match funds that they were putting up for the PolioPlus campaign.

Rotary District 5050 was asked to raise $330,000 over a three year period as our share of the Gates Foundation Challenge.

Rotarians from Everett, Washington to Hope, BC met that challenge in just over one year and then continued fundraising to ensure the eradication of polio and the completion of a task started over 25 years ago.

By this past June, at the end of the three year challenge, our Rotarians had more than tripled the goal - raising over $960,000!

With two big fundraisers over the next month - Golfun and the PolioPlus Musical Celebration - we will easily be over $1 Million.

Let me repeat that: Over $1 Million raised by just under 3,000 Rotarians in District 5050.

Join us for the PolioPlus Musical Celebration on Friday, September 7, 2012.

To request tickets and make donations, CLICK HERE

For more information, please visit: www.PolioPlusCelebration.org

Our special guest and keynote speaker is Past Rotary International President, Ray Klingingsmith.

Rotary embraced President Ray’s theme of "Building Communities, Bridging Continents" and his personal challenge to make Rotary "Bigger, Better & Bolder".

For the Celebration, composer Rick Vale, will return for an encore of last year’s successful "Remembering 9/11 Project" commemorating the 10^th Anniversary of that date with an original musical creation which included a 112-member chorus, a 62-piece orchestra, a bagpiper and a children's chorus. This year, the Skagit Symphony will be joined by Mr. O’Canada, Mark Donnelly.

This black-tie optional event will take place at the beautiful McIntyre Hall located in Mt Vernon, WA and will include gourmet foods and beverages.

All ticket sales (that’s 100%!) will benefit The Rotary Foundation’s PolioPlus campaign.

ABOUT POLIO

Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease that mainly strikes children under the age of 5.

At the height of the polio epidemic in 1952, nearly 60,000 cases with more than 3,000 deaths were reported in the United States alone. However, in 1955, Jonas Salk created a vaccine that virtually eliminated polio from the Western Hemisphere.

When Rotary began its mission in 1985, more than 350,000 children were stricken with Polio every year and nearly 1,000 people were affected by the crippling disease daily. Since then, Polio cases have been reduced by 99%!

Due to the efforts of Rotary and its partners, we are on the threshold of ending Polio forever - making it only the second disease after smallpox to be eradicated.

The fight is not over until the last case of polio is diagnosed. The disease remains in the war torn countries of Pakistan and Afganistan and in the remote areas of Nigeria, and is as close to any other country in the world by a simple plane ride.

For more information, visit Rotary's new End Polio website:  http://www.endpolio.org