35W Bridge Lighting & RI Polio Funding
 

 
The I-35W bridge was lit in shades of red and yellow on October 24 to honor Rotary International’s fight to end polio with its 30-year long initiative, End Polio Now.
City Councils in Minneapolis, Edina, Burnsville, and Apple Valley declared October 24 as World Polio Day in their cities.
Rotary International announced it would give an additional $40.4 million to the global effort to end polio. Click to read: World Polio Day Plans.
 
Rotary International and the Rotary Clubs of District 5950 in the Minneapolis area and central Minnesota have been engaged in a 30-year campaign to eradicate polio worldwide. When Rotary launched its eradication effort in 1985, more than 350,000 children in 125 countries were stricken with polio every year. Since then, polio cases have dropped by 99% to 359 cases in 2014.  As of the end of September, 44 cases of wild poliovirus had been reported in 2015 in two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Africa recently marked one year without wild polio.
 
Polio will be only the second disease after smallpox to be eradicated. The world is on the threshold of ending polio forever due to the efforts of Rotary and its partners, the World Health Organization, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF.
 
For more information, contact Rotary District 5950 End Polio Now Chair Tim Mulcrone at 952-239-1594 or timmulcrone@aol.com.
Click here for sample press release to local media which PR chairs can adapt to highlight community efforts.
To get End Polio Now toolkit, graphics and other resources, click on  http://www.endpolio.org/worldpolioday
 
Here's a photo of the Rotarians who were at the Guthrie to get a great view of the bridge being lit.