November 3, 2011, Moneta, VA — Several years ago, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation issued a long-term challenge to 34,000 Rotary Clubs worldwide. If those clubs can together raise and donate $200 million to Rotary International’s “End Polio Now” campaign, the Gates Foundation will donate another $355 million.
Two months ago, the 32-member Rotary Club of Smith Mountain Lake set a 2011 club goal of $3,000 for the campaign. Members Pidge Morgan and Case Pieterman (shown in photo with check) shaved their heads to call local attention to the challenge.
The SML Rotary Club exceeded its 2011 goal by 25% and donated $3,750 to the international organization’s project. Local club members and generous lake residents donated the funds, and the two members’ hair is now reemerging from their scalps.
Rotary International has worked closely with governments and other organizations in its 25-year effort to eradicate polio worldwide. They have nearly achieved that goal, with just four countries to go.
Rotary’s 1.2 million worldwide members hope that the combined $555 million will help finish the job. Those funds support immunization campaigns in the remaining countries where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.
For as little as 60 cents worth of oral vaccine, a child can be protected for life. Progress has been steady since the project began. Most recently, the number of cases reported in the first eight months of 2011 has declined 40% compared the same eight months in 2010.
A total international investment of $8 billion to date has polio on the verge of becoming only the second human disease ever eradicated. Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1979.
Bill Gates is a Rotarian and a major supporter of the “End Polio Now” campaign. For more information about the Rotary Club of Smith Mountain Lake, call its President Case Pieterman, at 540-586-8464.
