Dinners hosted by Club Rotarians Diane and Jim Ives raised a total of $20,250 to support global polio eradication.
The two fundraising dinners on November 7th and 8th welcomed 35 guests who donated $6,750. These funds were matched 2-to-1 by the Gates Foundation, tripling the impact and bringing the total to $20,250. All money raised will go directly toward providing vaccines and supporting strategies to eliminate polio in the remaining endemic regions.
Polio is a highly infectious and potentially deadly disease that primarily affects children under the age of five. It spreads through contaminated water and can cause irreversible paralysis by attacking the nervous system.
Rotary International has been at the forefront of the global polio eradication movement for over 35 years. As a founding member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), Rotary has helped reduce polio cases by 99.9% since 1979.
The GPEI is a public-private partnership led by national governments and six core partners: the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, Gavi—the Vaccine Alliance, and Rotary International. Together, they are working to ensure that no child anywhere in the world will ever again suffer from polio.
While polio remains endemic in only two countries—Afghanistan and Pakistan—the fight is not over. Experts warn that if eradication efforts were to stop now, the disease could rebound, potentially paralyzing up to 200,000 children annually within a decade.
The St. Clair Rotary Club remains committed to this cause and encourages community members to join the effort to end polio for good. If you would like to contribute to end polio, go to Rotary.org, click the donate button, and select the Polio Plus Fund. Or please make your check out to the St. Clair Rotary Club, write Polio on the memo line, and mail it to PO Box 441, St. Clair, MI 48079.
Jim Ives, Mark and Julie Fullmer, Diane Ives