On World Polio Day, Oct. 24, the proceeds from Rotary Club of Ladner's Pumpkins for Polio sales event will spare 857 children in the world under the age of five from a lifetime of being crippled, sometimes severely, and even death, because of polio.
Those children can survive and grow up to be healthy, fully active adults because every US$3 raised will protect a child from polio with oral vaccines, given the event's having raised US$860, which will be matched twice by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for a total of US$2,580.
Thank you to Rotary members and Delta residents for the funds raised, Backroads Family Farm Market and the Guichon family for their donation of pumpkins and Tsawwassen Mills shopping centre for use of their parking lot in achieving this successful outcome.
“While the health system rid our nation of polio long ago, it still ravages the lives of people in other parts of the world,” said Peter Roaf, president, Rotary Club of Ladner. “One lady who showed up Saturday grew up many years ago in a community in the B.C. Interior where her older sister died of polio at age 14. Another lady who dropped by, with her single crutch, is a polio survivor.
“These people may have been counted among the 350,000 cases of polio reported each year by 120 countries 35 and more years ago when Rotary International launched the global campaign to end polio, since joined by foundations, world health organizations and governments.”
More information about Rotary's battle with partners to rid the world of polio can be found at: www.rotaryladner.org.
