OCT. 24 ROTARY WORLD POLIO DAY: ONE DAY. ONE GOAL. ENDING POLIO

WORLD — Polio was the COVID-19 of its day decades before the pandemic.

Children under age 5 were ravaged by the debilitating, life-threatening disease that sent panic through families in the 1950s.

And thankfully today — World Polio Day — it is “this close …” to being eradicated, thanks to more than one million Rotarians around the world and hundreds of thousands of volunteers.

With Rotary International’s help 2.5 billion vaccines have distributed — one drop at a time.

But COVID-19 has threatened ongoing global efforts to provide this free program.

So Oct. 24 is set aside each year to raise awareness and more importantly money for their worldwide campaign: One Day. One Focus. Ending Polio.

If you can help, contact any Rotarian, or to arrange a donation in Muskoka you can email the Gravenhurst Rotary Club’s Foundation chair, Mark Clairmont, at mark@muskokatoday.com Or you can call him at 705-687-2103.

More than 1.2 million Rotarians around the world are raising money today to fight the debilitating, life-threatening disease.
Rotary has helped to all but eliminate polio globally by distributing 2.5 billion vaccine doses one drop at a time.
Each year on Oct. 24 Rotarians raise awareness and money to keep their worldwide campaign alive to vaccinate children from polio.