Interact Club Donates To Polio Cause

Middle school student Olga Virgalla presented Dorothy Baumert, Newtown Rotary chairperson of the Polio fund drive, with a check for $900 to assist in the Rotary Polio Plus campaign promise to eliminate polio from the face of the earth by the year 2005. In 1985, Rotary International unveiled their worldwide program “Polio Plus.” The first step was to raise $120 million through the 29,000 Rotary clubs worldwide. The amount raised was $247 million to cover the cost of the vaccine. The distribution and administering of the vaccine was to be done by volunteer Rotarians.

Rotary was immediately joined by the World Health Organization, the Atlanta Center for Disease Control, The Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, and many other health organizations in the world. In 1988 there were more than 350,000 reported cased of polio in the world and in 2001 the number reported was less than a thousand.

More than two billion children have been immunized so far and only ten countries are left to be certified as polio-free, most of which are third-world nations in Africa where transportation and communication are difficult. It was estimated that a final $300 million was needed to completely wipe out the polio virus.

Rotary International has pledged to raise $80 million through contributions and fundraisers of the 31,000 Rotary Clubs in the world today. Newtown Rotary has pledged to raise $8,000 and the Newtown Middle School Rotary sponsored Interact Club raised $900 for this purpose.

Anyone wishing to help accomplish this goal should to call Dot Baumert at 426-8895 or Rotarian president Bill Wiemels at 270-7608.