Starting the celebration of World Polio Day (Oct. 24) a little early, Rotary Club of Lewiston/Niagara-on-the-Lake Secretary Tom Gerbasi, left, presented the club's annual contribution to District 7090 Gov. Reg Madison. Funds will be used in Polio Plus-Rotary's efforts to eradicate polio.
Rotary International stated "Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. In 2007, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joined Rotary in its commitment to ending polio.
"Since 2013, the Gates Foundation has matched every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication 2-to-1, up to $35 million per year. Rotary, with matching funds from the Gates Foundation, has contributed more than $1.6 billion to end polio."
Since Rotary began working to eradicate polio, the number of polio cases has decreased by 99.9 percent, with more than 2.5 billion children receiving the vaccine.
