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MARQUETTE --The Rotary Club of Marquette raised S1,201 last fall to support Rotary International's Stop Polio campaign.
Chuck Blaksmith (left) led the Club's efforts in "Pints for Polio" and Russ Magnaghi (center) coordinated the "Pennies for Polio" collection. President Erica Huss (right) arranged auctions within the Club.
The contribution will be matched 2-1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years.
Its goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever. As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, polio cases have been reduced by 99.9 percent since Rotary's first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Internationally, Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary's advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
But it's crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.
More information is available at https://www.rotary.org/en/our-causes/ending-polio.