Jamestown Rotarian David Troxell prepares to administer the polio vaccine to a child in Karachi, Pakistan, where the Jamestown Club refurbished a vaccination site for the local community.

Members of the Rotary Club of Jamestown are asking everyone to join the 1.2 million other Rotarians in more than 32,000 clubs worldwide to support their efforts to eradicate polio from the earth.

Rotary helped lead this battle in 1985 when it launched its Polio Plus program, the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication through the mass vaccination of children. Rotary went on to become a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative which has reduced polio cases by 99.9% since its first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979. Rotary has contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize more than 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease.

Only seven polio cases have been reported in the world (Afghanistan and Pakistan) this year and Rotary Clubs across the world have said they will continue to work to eradicate polio. Once there are no more new cases, children will continue to need to be vaccinated for three years to ensure the virus does not return.

“We have never been this close. And we can’t take our foot off the gas because billions of children will be vulnerable if we don’t continue,” said Jennifer Jones, past Rotary International president.

The Rotary Foundation is committed to raising $50 million per year over the next three years, with every dollar matched with two additional dollars from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The expanded agreement will translate into up to a total of $450 million to support the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Through this fundraising partnership with the Gates Foundation, Rotary commits $150 million to fighting polio every year.

Clubs are holding fundraisers of all types to raise money to continue the eradication efforts. Locally, the Rotary Club of Jamestown has pledged the honorarium awarded each week to the speakers that address their meeting to be donated to the Polio eradication efforts. This total gift will be sent to the Rotary Foundation today along with members’ personal donations. The club invites all those who have a desire to help with this tremendous effort to send their donation to endpolio.org/donate or send a check made out to END POLIO NOW to The Rotary Club of Jamestown, PO Box 454, Jamestown, NY 14702-0454 and the club will submit it.