Union County District Polio Walk-a-Thon

Participated in Union County District Polio Walk-a-Thon. Our club raised 410.00 for this cause with pledges. Press clip from Courier News below.

Rotary Clubs of Union County Walk-a-Thon for Polio:

Sunday, October 3, 2010, Several Rotary Clubs from Union County, NJ participated in a County Wide Walk a Thon for Polio. The purpose was to raise awareness of what Rotary International is doing to help eradicate the disease worldwide. The clubs which participated were the Rotary Clubs of Elizabeth, Roselle-Roselle Park ; Union, and Westfield. The walk took place at Warinanco Park in Roselle . The funds raised were donated to the Rotary Foundation for the purpose of eradicating polio.

Polio is: A crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease, polio (poliomyelitis) still strikes children mainly under the age of five in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East .Polio can cause paralysis and sometimes death. Because there is no cure for polio, the best protection is prevention. For as little as US$0.60 worth of vaccine, a child can be protected against this crippling disease for life. It can cause paralysis within hours, and polio paralysis is almost always irreversible. In the most severe cases, polio attacks the motor neurons of the brain stem, causing breathing difficulty or even death. Historically, polio has been the world’s greatest cause of disability.

Rotary International started a campaign against Polio in 1985, when the country of the Phillipines was closed down for a full day, and ran a "National Immunization Day", in which every single child in the entire country was immunized agianst polio. Since the campaign began, other vaccines were added into the liquid drops, so the children are being immunized against a number of dieseases. To reflect this increased health effort, the campaign is called "Polio Plus". To date, Rotary has raised $700 million dollars and has immunized two billion children in 122 countries. The rate of the disease has dropped by 99%, dropping from 350,000 new cases per year to less than 3,000 cases last year. The only endemic countries left are Nigeria , India , Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Once the disease is eradicated, it will never return, since it can only live in humans. The only other disease to be completely eliminated worldwide is smallpox. Three other organizations have joined Rotary in this effort: The World Health Organization, UNICEF; and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta , Ga , USA . Bill Gates of Microsoft donated a $350 million matching grant to Rotary to help in this effort.

The Rotary clubs in Union County are part of Rotary District 7510, which covers the central part of New Jersey . Rotarian Bill Mealia is a polio survivor, and has been in the forefront of Polio education and eradication. He recently received a prestigious international award from Rotary for his work.

Rotary Clubs are composed of successful business men and women who wish to serve their communities. There are 33,000 rotary Clubs in 200 countries of the world, and guests are always welcome. To find a Rotary club near you, go to the District 7510 website which is www.rotarynj.org.