End Polio Now

Rotary members have been at the center of the worldwide effort to eradicate polio for more than three decades. Rotary launched PolioPlus in 1985 and helped found the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. At that time, wild poliovirus paralyzed hundreds of children every day, with an estimated 350,000 polio cases across more than 125 countries in one year. Since then, cases have plummeted more than 99.9%, sparing more than 20 million people from paralysis.

But as recent polio detections have revealed, polio remains a threat everywhere as long as it exists anywhere. In the days and weeks leading up to World Polio Day, 24 October, Rotary members around the world are holding events to raise awareness of the need to End Polio Now. Below are a few of those efforts.

Australia: Ride the train to end polio

Mark and Dave Anderson, members of the Rotary Club of Beecroft, will travel the entire train system in Sydney, visiting more than 189 stations on 24 October in an effort to raise funds and awareness for End Polio Now. They have conducted the challenge each of the past four years, raising more than $450,000, matched two to one by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Their goal this year is to raise another $200,000. You can help out by riding the train with the dynamic duo if you are in Australia or by donating to support their challenge.

Japan: Decorated buses

Rotary members in District 2630, Japan, worked with local transportation companies to decorate buses with End Polio Now colors. They used red (a color in the EPN logo); purple (the color used to mark the little finger of children who receive the polio drops during immunization days); and yellow (the color of vests warn by vaccination volunteers).  In addition, End Polio Now appears above the entrance of the buses.

Korea: Walking to end polio

Hwamun Park, a member of the Rotary Club of Incheon Sinsegae, has been carrying an End Polio Now flag along the Camino de Santiago, a network of pilgrimages leading to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwest Spain. As a hiker, completing the pilgrimage has been on her bucket list. A fellow Rotarian offered to donate a dollar for every mile that Park walked. She walked more than 1,000 miles between May and July, talking to many people she met about Rotary’s top priority. “Integrating Rotary’s initiatives with what you want to do in life, that’s how Rotarians live,” Park says.

France: Marathon

Michel Porhel, a member of the Rotary Club of Laval Ambroise Paré, is planning to repeat his 2019 fundraising effort, when he competed in the Marathon des Sables, raising €5,000 (roughly $4,800) for polio eradication. On 21 April, he will set off on the 240-kilometer event (about 150 miles) with an even more ambitious fundraising goal, supported by members of his club and other Rotarians in District 1650.

Austria: Ultra Cyclist raises $1.2 million

Eleven days, six hours, 45 minutes. That’s the time it took Kurt Matzler, a member of the Austrian Rotary Club Innsbruck-Goldenes Dachl, to cycle 3,000 miles across the United States during the Race Across America in June, raising $1.2 million for End Polio Now.

Matzler finished sixth among individual cyclists and crossed 175,000 feet of elevation change, with temperatures up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit in the Mojave Desert. He only allowed himself four hours rest a day. Matzler, who has completed the same race previously with cycling teams, had a particularly rough time of it this go around, having to detour due to wildfires increasing the amount of elevation change, and facing both cold and wet conditions in the Rockies. He also overcame several bike repairs to complete his goal.

To learn more about Rotary's efforts to end polio and how we are celebrating World Polio Day on 24 October, go to https://www.endpolio.org/

Links:

• Visit the End Polio website to learn more about World Polio Day

On May 3, 2022, Ralph Zuke, member of the St. Louis Civilians Satellite Rotary Club set off on his homemade ‘Barcalounger Rickshaw’ for a 31-day journey to Houston to raise funds for Rotary’s PolioPlus program aimed at eradicating polio. The disabling and life-threatening disease is easily preventable by the polio vaccine. 

A retired high school health teacher and carpenter, Zuke fashioned his 113-pound rickshaw out of a 1950s-style recliner. Zuke arrived in Houston on June 3, to attend Rotary’s 113^th annual international convention, taking place June 4 – 8, 2022 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Along the way, he collected donations for the cause, giving rides, and meeting local elected officials, Rotary clubs and others, sharing the story of Rotary’s quest to eradicate polio. He cycled all day and rested in the homes of Rotary members along the way or motels sponsored by local Rotary clubs. 

Along his 703-mile trek, Zuke offered his Rotarian host families and other people short rides in the rickshaw, sometimes pulling 50 or 60 passengers in a day. “It was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had,” he says. “I met the most incredible people.”

 Ralph completed the same trip in advance of the Rotary convention in Toronto in 2017. On that 22-day trip, he had aimed to raise $22,000 — symbolizing the 22 cases of polio reported in 2017. With pledges from Rotarians and people he met along the route, Zuke raised just under $24,000. The 2-to-1 match from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation brought the total to nearly $72,000. Zuke's fundraising effort is just one of thousands of creative projects that Rotarians undertake every year to help raise funds for polio.

For more than 30 years, Rotary has been the driving force in the effort to end polio worldwide, having launched its polio immunization program, PolioPlus, in 1985. With its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary has achieved a 99.9 percent reduction in polio cases, with just six cases of wild polio reported in 2021 compared with 350,000 a year in the late 1980s.

Rotary members have contributed $2.4 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Today, just two countries continue to report endemic transmission of wild poliovirus: Afghanistan and Pakistan. With the infrastructure Rotary International helped create to end polio, the international non-profit organization has built a lasting global health legacy that is now used to protect millions of people from other diseases such as COVID-19.