[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 1026

[Garry & Anne Krischock]

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Messages In This Digest (1 Message) 


1.  1893 : Small club scores big with end polio effort From: Sunil 


Posted by: "Sunil"
<mailto:sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk?Subject=%20Re%3A1893%20%3A%20Small%20club%20s
cores%20big%20with%20end%20polio%20effort> sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk
<http://profiles.yahoo.com/sunilkzach> sunilkzach 


Tue Jun 8, 2010 7:44 pm (PDT) 


In the past nine months, the residents of Bribie Island, Queensland,
Australia, have learned a lot about polio and the global effort to
eradicate the disease.

Led by the town's Rotarians, they've also given a lot back.

In September, the Rotary Club of Bribie Island embarked on Project
Eradication, aimed at raising A$1 (about US$0.80) for each one of the
community's 19,490 residents.

"One club member had lost his brother to polio many years before,
and several others had been touched by polio in their youth or through
friends and family," said Bribie Island Rotarian Barry Clark,
reflecting on the inspiration for the project.

Over the next several months, the 25-member club organized a raffle, a
children's coloring competition, wine sales, monthly food markets, a
movie night, an Australia Day Ball, a golf day, and a 10-kilometer fun
run/walk. Local newspapers were briefed about the effort in advance and
agreed to publish monthly feature articles about the events.

The club also obtained support from the town's polio survivors. One
drew the winning tickets for the raffle and took part in the run/walk,
pushed in a wheelchair by a Rotarian. Another gave an interview to area
newspapers and reinforced the message that some parents in Australia
still weren't getting their children immunized. Yet another, who
walked with a limp, began the dancing at the Australia Day Ball. A
fourth spoke at a meeting of the Bribie Island club, inspiring members
with his personal story of determination.

As the fundraisers unfolded, the project gained increasing visibility in
the community and media. The club also sent out news releases about the
work of Jenny Horton -- a nurse and member of the Rotary Club of
Kenmore, Queensland -- in the polio immunization effort in India.

The publicity helped generate significant donations from residents and
groups such as the Lions club, Bowls club, and community orchestra. The
Bribie Island club also gained 12 new members.

On 13 May, Bribie Island Rotarians presented a check for A$20,000 (about
US$16,600) for Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge 
< <http://www.rotary.org/en/EndPolio/Pages/ridefault.aspx>
http://www.rotary.org/en/EndPolio/Pages/ridefault.aspx> to Past RI
President Clem Renouf at a celebration in Nambour. Another US$4,200 came
from the Rotary Club of Toowong. Renouf and Past District Governor John
Sever, former chief of the infectious diseases branch of the U.S.
National Institutes of Health, were instrumental in laying the
groundwork for PolioPlus.

Renouf offered high praise for Horton, who also attended the
celebration. Horton has worked for the Stop Transmission of Polio
program in Botswana, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. The program
was established in 1999 by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and has received
$681,900 in grants from PolioPlus for volunteers' stipends.

"Someone once said, `If you want to send a message, wrap it in a
person,'" Renouf noted. "Jenny is the ideal wrapping for our
story at this stage of the war [against polio], not from command
headquarters but from the front line."

"It's amazing to be part of a program which will eradicate a
disease from the world," Horton said.

Source : Rotary International News / Courtesy : eFlash_Rotary

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