The Ninth Annual End Polio Now Walk was sponsored this year by the Rotary clubs of the Sauk Valley Area: Dixon, Morrison, Rock Falls, Sterling Noon, and Twin Cities Sunrise. Twenty five Rotarians and guests walked the Hennepin Canal site to the Rock River and back on October 12 th in an awareness of the need to eradicate polio as a disease from our world. Since 1988 Rotary has been involved in the eradication of polio along with WHO, Gates Foundation, and other entities. In that year over 250,000 persons annually worldwide would be diagnosed with polio and for many it was a death sentence. Today in 2024 only a worldwide total of a handful of wild polio virus cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been recorded, so the reduction in cases has been 99.99% successful. But it is these very last cases that need to be stamped out to eradicate fully polio as a disease. We are truly that close!

 

Rotarians are asked to donate to the Rotary Foundation program of Polio Plus which is the source of Rotary funding the worldwide effort. All sponsoring club donations to Polio Plus from July 1 through the end of October were encouraged to support the eradication effort which culminates on World Polio Day on October 24. At this time the total donation of the members of the five sponsoring Rotary clubs is $4,300 which will be tripled by the Gates Foundation matching monies for a total of $12,900.

The public is always invited to join in the walk and the Tenth Annual End Polio Now Walk will be scheduled for October 11, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. at Centennial Park in Rock Falls.

 

 

 

Twenty five Rotary Club members and guests gathered on Saturday, October 12 at Centennial Park in Rock Falls to create an awareness on the need to
eradicate polio in our lifetime. Rotarians of the sponsoring clubs donated a total of $4,300 to the Polio Plus Rotary Foundation program which the Gates Foundation then tripled into $12,900.