Rotary Club generates $17,259 to fight Polio

Enhanced by a two-to-one matching grant, Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley recently generated $17,259 to contribute to the global fight to end polio — a fight that the world is “this close” to winning.

Susan Kopp Hoeffel, the club’s president, hosted local Rotarians for a movie night augmented by Sonoma wines. In the process, the club raised $1,700. The club also donated its share of the profits from hot dog and turkey drumstick sales in the plaza during the 4th of July celebration. Additionally, some local Rotarians directed personal charitable contributions to Polio Plus, the Rotary International effort to end polio.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation matched all those contributions, to total $17,259.

“Because as little as 60 cents worth of vaccine can protect a person against polio,” Hoeffel said, “the money will be used to vaccinate as many as 28,765 people in the few countries where polio still exists or help keep other at-risk countries polio-free.”

The local and international Rotary efforts come at an important time in the fight against polio, which would be only the second human disease to be eradicated, after smallpox. In September, the World Health Organization declared Africa’s last polio-endemic country, Nigeria, polio-free, leaving only two countries that have never stopped the virus: Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“With just two countries left to stop the virus in, we truly are ‘this close’ to eradicating the disease,” Hoeffel said.

In 1988, when Rotary and its partners committed to eradicating the disease, polio paralyzed more than 350,000 children per year in 125 countries, more than 1,000 people per day. The number of polio cases has been reduced to fewer than 50 cases to date in 2015.

The local Rotary group is a network of volunteers dedicated to improving life for residents of and visitors to Sonoma. sonomavalleyrotary.org