ERADICATE POLIO
Let's Do It!
Boulder City Sunrise Rotarians are focusing on Polio Plus by Community Awareness and “fun”raising.
We have named our Polio Pig, “Franklin”. After Franklin D. Roosevelt who said, “once you’ve spent two years trying to wiggle one toe, everything is in proportion.”
Franklin Roosevelt brought more people’s attention to the misery of Polio than anyone else, but he also showed how to live a full life while living with the effects of polio.
After finding a mouse at our weekly meeting place and even after he had made breakfast of our Sunrise Rotary Banner we have still honored him and decided to use him to our advantage. The President shouts “Is there a rat in the house” at each meeting. Members pay $1.00 to rat on another member for leaving their wives shoes at a local bar, or for taking a nap before the party is over. Those dollars go into the Polio Pig.
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Franklin
Boulder City Sunrise Rotary’s Polio Pig
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We have a “Take the pig to work” campaign. “Franklin” is passed weekly from member to member to be taken to work , to meeting and events during the week. At the next meeting the amount collected is announced and Franklin is passed on. The new keeper gives an elevator speech and takes the pig. Some members have opted to keep “Juan” in there office instead (that’s Juan of the other little Polio Piggies we have!) And others have decided to make a cash donation but everyone is involved.
I, as President, have my own pig to take to businesses, churches and organizations, to speak at City Council meetings, and open houses and to meet with the principals at local schools to raise polio awareness through reading programs. The Polio Pigs have been seen on the local TV station and in newspapers.
On a more serious note, Sunrise Rotary will partner with the Boulder City Hospital for more awareness and we will man a booth at the Chamber of Commerce’s Spring Jamboree in May. On April 17th, will hold a “Polio Shoot and BBQ” fundraiser planned at the local Desert Lakes Shooting Club.
Before District Conference we will have a “hog calling” to gather the piggy banks and count the money. We will then celebrate our efforts and make a check to join others in the Polio Plus campaign. By that time we will have certainly made our community aware of Rotary’s polio efforts and will have lots of fun and zany memories and lots of fuel for my debunking!
Chamber CEO gets busted!
Boulder City Chamber of Commerce CEO Jill Lagan collected $250 by hosting Franklin for the week. However, Jill was fined $5.00 more for leaving the pig on the front seat of her car. Rotarians do not leave animals unattended in the car!
Waiting to be the “Juan” adopted!
Rotarians chose just Juan of the 25 polio pig banks from the stye, to be taken into the community for donations.
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ERADICATE POLIO
Let's Do It!
“PolioPlus” is Rotary's only corporate program, and Rotary believes the Family of Rotary will want to be involved in sharing the legacy of eradicating polio that has caused so much disability and death worldwide.
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Rotary International has made it a number-one priority when it began the PolioPlus Program in 1985 as the first and largest internationally-coordinated private sector support of a public health campaign. The program’s goal was to have a polio free world by the year 2000, a goal set in 1988. This did not happen! As a result of the efforts of Rotary International and its global partners over 2 billion children have received oral polio vaccine.
Rotary has received a $100 Million Challenge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as a $3.5 Million Challenge from the Google Foundation. There are others who have and will join in our fight to stamp out this crippling disease.
Each and every Rotary Club is being asked to contribute at least $1,000 annually for the next three years. With the nearly 33,000 clubs around the world this should result in almost a full match of $100 million. These efforts will be a vital catalyst in support of polio eradication, however, more will be needed to finish the job. Rotary, along with its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others will continue the fight until the job is done.
What is Boulder City Sunrise Rotary’s part? Sunrise Rotary’s vision for the 2008-2009 year will be to buy into this three year project. First with making our own club aware of polio and the PolioPlus project. Second, a community awareness program and then with fundraising efforts in our immediate club, our family of Rotary and in our community.
(Information has been taken from Rotary Internationals website and other Rotary informational sources.)
ERADICATE POLIO
Let's Do It!
