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The Bellefontaine Rotary Club recently teamed up with Mary Rutan Hospital to help eradicate polio worldwide.
After hearing presentations from local polio survivors, Mitzi Knull of St Paris and Steve Strickland of DeGraff, in observance of World Polio Day in late October, club members donated a total of $836 over the next few weeks. Mary Rutan Hospital pledged to match the total donations, nearly doubling the amount to $1,572. An additional corporate donation of $100 brought the local total to $1,672. The money has been sent to Rotary Polio Plus, where the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will triple the total to $5,016.
Rotary Club member Laura Miller, who is vice president of marketing and communications at Mary Rutan Hospital, said, “With the help of several health organizations, Rotary International is on the verge of one of the greatest achievements in public health, the worldwide eradication of polio. We (MRH) are pleased to be a small part of that.”
Rotary International efforts to vaccinate children in every country began in 1985. After teaming up with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and several countries, the world is nearly free of the debilitating disease.
To learn more, visit endpolionow.org.