Our club can take great credit for raising $1,002.35 over the five weeks of the campaign which ended with the presentation on polio by Matt Boulton of the U-M School of Public Health on October 22. With the generous 2:1 match from the Gates Foundation and the cost $0.60 per dose, our efforts will pay for about 5,000 immunizations!

Here’s the breakdown:

$383.25 in pennies!
$51.35 in nickels
$53.00 in dimes
$18.75 in quarters
$221.00 in currency
$275.00 in checks

Thanks to our 68 and all the Rotarians who shared how polio and/or its eradication has touched their lives. Special appreciation goes to Jamie York and his colleagues at the First Merchants Bank for processing an estimated 227 pounds of pennies and other coins. The rest of the committee included Linda Wallis, Rona Hu, Rosemarie Rowney, and John White.

Stragglers are invited to see John at our club’s luncheon on October 29. We will close the books after that meeting and our club will send in a check to The Rotary Foundation. The Paul Harris Fellowship accounts of individual donors will be credited in accordance with their wishes as expressed at the check-in table.

p.s. Want to learn more about polio and its eradication?:
• The background on the development of the polio vaccine is reported in this 66-minute documentary, “The Shot Felt ‘Round the World.”
• “Polio: An American Story” by David Oshinsky is an award-winning book recounting America’s 1950s polio crisis. It is available in several formats.
• A wealth of information, including current statistics, is on endpolionow.org
• Refer to the attached handouts (links below) about polio from presentations at recent luncheon meetings.
• Make note of October 24 as World Polio Day and keep aware of news, activities, and events related to polio and its final eradication.

PolioSlidesBeforeRotary250305HandoutB&W

PolioSlidesAfterRotary250903HandoutB&W