In the fight to eradicate poliomyelitis from the globe, Rotary sets an annual fundraising target of US$50 million. This goal enables Rotary to receive the maximum 2:1 match of US$100 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To reach this goal, Rotary seeks donations from Rotary districts, clubs, and individuals. If you make a personal contribution, you are helping Rotary and its partners to reach the historic milestone of polio becoming only the second disease, after smallpox, to be eradicated in the world completely.

Article by PDG Murray Verso, End Polio Now Coordinator

In September 1986, Australians PDG Les Whitcroft AM, and his wife Shirley, made the first major gift to PolioPlus in the world. Les was the chair of the national PolioPlus campaign committee for Australia and Papua New Guinea. Their gift of US$250,000 made them the first Arch Klumpf Society members in Australia but their gift had a deeper motivation. Shirley had fallen ill with polio as a young mother in the late 1940s. She was confined to bed for nearly two years and for the rest of her life wore callipers on her legs and walked with a cane.

Since those early days of the polio eradication campaign, there have been many generous individuals contributing to the cause, at whatever level is within their means. The growing popularity of PolioPlus Societies (PPS) provides an excellent mechanism for personal contributions. More than half the districts in our zone now have a PPS with members committed to donating US$100 each year until the world is declared polio free (see PPS - An idea that works).

Earlier this month, Rotary Foundation Chair, Barry Rassin, attended dinners in Christchurch, Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane to thank and acknowledge major donors to the Foundation and PolioPlus. His inspirational addresses at each dinner motivated others to donate.

In Auckland, TRF Chair Barry met and thanked our most recent Arch Klumpf Society (AKS) member, Pat Anselmi. Pat is a long serving member of the Rotary Club of Pukekohe, New Zealand and he decided to donate US$250,000 to PolioPlus because he believed that Rotary’s number one service priority was the most important and worthwhile program that Rotary has undertaken.

Not everyone can afford to donate enough money to become an AKS member but every donation, at whatever level is helpful. If every district every club and every Rotarian donated, we would have no trouble reaching our US$50million goal. Why not play your part in the countdown to history by making a personal contribution, or by joining your district’s PolioPlus Society? 

Except for New Zealanders, where donations are made through your district Foundation accounts, donations can be made online via End Polio Donate.