Stars are Born as Club 21 Says "We are This Close" - Joins Worlds's Biggest Commercial

For most of us, the disease of polio is a distant memory, and for the younger generations, a disease of the past.  But if you’ve ever met someone who has suffered from this crippling and often fatal infectious disease and heard their story, then you know of its devastation.  Many of us saw the effects of polio first hand when Rameesh Farris spoke to us last year.  He crawled across the room to the stage before telling us the story of how he contracted polio and was crippled for life.

In 1985, Rotary launched its PolioPlus program to eradicate polio.  Since then, we have helped reduce the number of annual cases from 350,000 to fewer than 250 and will stay on this commitment until every child is safe from the disease.  Rotary has contributed more than $1.2 billion, and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 2 billion children in 122 countries.

The world is now 99 percent polio free.  We are closer than ever.  But, the fight isn’t over yet!  For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected against the virus for life.  If we don’t finish the fight, more than 10 million children under the age of five could be paralyzed by polio in the next 40 years.

Rotary Club 21 is helping to get the word out!  Members became stars on October 24^th as they joined the World's Biggest Commercial …Rotary’s “We are this close” campaign.  President Church and Rotarian Greg Montalbano loaded you to the live site right after the meeting!  Visit the “End Polio Now” site at Rotary.org and it can be found by entering "Michael Church" or "Club 21 Spokane", or just look below!