More than 60 people were at this week’s Sycamore Rotary meeting to take part in a taste testing fundraiser to support polio eradication. Working with club Foundation Chair Paul Stromborg, Rotarian Heidi Wright, recently retired from the Suter Company, proposed that Suter donate money to Rotary that would normally go for taste testers in exchange for a controlled sampling of two chicken salad formulations. Rotarians were asked to rate several key ingredients for the two products using a 1 to 9 scale (with 9 being the best) employing their senses of site, smell, and taste.
During the meeting, Foundation Chair Stromborg explained that after an initial successful trial in the Philippines, Rotary International began a full-scale commitment to eradicate polio in 1985. Since that time, the Polio Plus campaign has raised more than $2.6 billion to fight polio. When launched, there about 350,000 cases of polio each year. Today the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent. However, the wild polio virus remains active in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Recently, Rotary announced a continued matching dollar partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Rotary will contribute $50 million a year over the next three years with every dollar matched by two additional dollars from the Gates Foundation. This translates into $450 million in the ongoing battle against polio. Donations that qualify for the 2 to 1 match may be given at www.endpolio.org.