District Governor Mike Kloss with President Mike True and Past President Steve Fine. Madison South Rotary earned the distinction of being the #1 Club in District 6250 for contributions to The Rotary Foundation! Our Club also earned recognition for 100% participation in Every Rotarian Every Year, with at least a $100 annual contribution.
“This is quite a club,” remarked District 6250 Governor Mike Kloss, noting the massive turnout for this meeting and the vibrant nature of Madison South (strong membership, growing numbers, outsize fundraising efforts, etc.). Our club leads in fundraising, earning the top spot in the District for contributions to The Rotary Foundation. He also mentioned Aaron Frank's continued efforts as Assistant Governor, and predicted Aaron was on track to lead the District as Governor sometime in the near future!
Having been deeply involved in the Boy Scouts, Koss says he really appreciated the value of community service. Twelve kids in his troop earned Eagle Scout status!
Koss says he is committed to improving the District in various ways:
- Strategic Planning--goal setting to ensure alignment with RI's goals.
- Grant Management Seminars--maximize the impact of grants to make sure we get the most out of our investments.
- Public Image--Help the public understand who we are so we can grow membership.
- Multi-District Collaboration--Promote TriCon and other meetings that foster collaborative efforts.
Koss says the District is looking for Big Ideas, so please consider getting involved at the District level. There are openings for Assistant Governors, Public Image and Disctrict Chairs.
Poliomyelitis - Then and Now with Randy Sproule
By Ed Fink
You could see it in his eyes, and hear it in his voice, when Rotarian Randy Sproule stepped up to the podium at a recent meeting of The Rotary Club of Madison West Middleton. Sproule had a story to tell, which was both personal and of grave import. It was a tale about a four year old boy named Warren, a child who, years later, would become Sproule’s dad. The little boy, of whom Randy Sproule spoke, awoke one day, only to discover he couldn’t move his legs. Naturally, the child cried out for his parents. But, there was nothing they could immediately offer. The boy’s diagnosis was the dreaded poliomyelitis (polio). Though crutches might have been of some help, the boy’s lack of strength made using them problematic. The cost of a wheel chair was out of reach. After about six months, the child was able to recover some abilities to move, resorting to simply crawling. Eventually, despite some body atrophication, the youngster re-learned the ability to walk. A leg and a foot were compromised. One leg was an inch shorter than the other. The disease and its crippling impact was bad enough, but the boy couldn’t play sports like his classmates, and had to suffer their slights and taunts. According to one source, the 1940’s and 1950’s saw the worldwide peak of the virus. During those times, polio paralyzed or killed more than a half a million people.
Rotarian Sproule has become an important voice in Rotary International’s effort to eradicate polio from the face of the earth. His presentation to The Rotary Club of Madison West Middleton was Sproule’s 157th, over a period of several years to various organizations!
According to the speaker, Rotary began its fight against polio in 1979, when it decided to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines. Rotary International’s then president, James L. Bomar Jr., launched the effort. The cost to place the oral vaccine in the mouths of Filipino children was approximately $760,000. Bonner and his fellow Rotarians delivered on the organization’s pledge to that country’s minister of health.
The next big Rotary assault on the disease was initiated in 1985, when Rotary launched “Polio Plus.” (The ‘“Plus” in the name stands for supplementary benefits, sometimes given to the vaccinated). Since that time, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent. In addition, Rotary members have donated more than $2.1 billion in the war on the virus. According to the Rotary International website, nearly 3 billion children have been vaccinated during the ensuing years, with countless Rotarians spending hours and hours traveling from remote village to remote village, administering the oral vaccine.
The fight against polio by Rotary International and their allies in the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative include the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Gates Foundation and GAVI (the vaccine alliance). Led by national governments, this army of disease fighters is truly a public/private partnership. While getting close to total eradication, the goal remains a bit elusive. Today, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two endemic countries. The battle continues!
Discussing a current Polio Plus fundraising push by Rotary, Sproule specifically emphasized an offer to match by the Gates Foundation, something Gates has been doing since 2007. Each year, Gates pledges to match Rotary’s $50 million with $100 million. To date, Rotary has always received the full commitment of the Gates Foundation, now over $1.8 billion. In his personal
support for the cause, Sproule threw out a generous personal challenge to local Rotarians.
When Randy Sproule was asked what happened to his dad in the years following his
polio diagnosis, he responded: “When Dad was 10 years old, his father died. In an effort to help pay the family bills (this was during the Depression), Dad had two paper routes. Although delivering the papers on those routes must have been quite difficult (given the residual effects of the polio), it was probably the best physical therapy he could have received. Dad tried to enlist in the Navy when he was 17 years old (during WW II), but was rejected because of the residual effects of polio. The Navy recruiter told him he should try the Merchant Marines because, as the recruiter said: "The Merchant Marines will take anybody." He then enlisted in the Merchant Marines and served for two years. (As a side note, the Merchant Marines had the highest casualty rates of any of the military branches during WW II. They carried munitions and supplies and, when unescorted by destroyers, were sitting ducks for German submarines). He returned home after the war and earned his high school diploma. He then ran a Pure Oil gas station for 13 years. He was on his feet 10 hours a day, six days a week. I will never understand how he was able to do that, given the residual effects of polio. He later became a sales representative for Pure Oil.”
“Dad and I spoke often about Rotary’s efforts and my participation. It wasn't his words that inspired me, it was the challenges that were part of his post-polio life and the dignity with which he faced those challenges. I know that he must have been exhausted after working at the gas station all day, but he never complained. Rather than complain about the fact that he had contracted polio, Dad celebrated the fact that, in his mind, he had beaten polio.”
Randy Sproule is an attorney and Administrator, Wisconsin Supreme Court. He is a member of The Rotary Club of Madison South and its former president. Sproule currently is also listed as Polio Plus Co-Chair for Rotary District 6250.