2016 Walk for Polio Summary
Posted on Apr 26, 2016
Centennial Event: 6th Annual Walk for Polio
From the crippling worldwide pandemic in the 1950s to Rotary and its partners’ promise in 1985 to less than a dozen cases of polio in 2016, “oh my gosh, we are so close!”
These were the final remarks of Rotary International Director Elect Dean Rohrs in her presentation on history and importance of eradicating polio to all attendees of the first annual Rotary International District 5370 Youth Summit. We walked from the Shaw Conference Centre over to City Hall Plaza where some youth assisted District Governor Elect Laura Morie to unload an iron lung displayed as a crowd assembled for the 2016 Walk for Polio.
It was our biggest turnout yet, a sea of red End Polio Now t-shirts, and most dollars raised at the annual Walk for Polio. Donors, sponsors, volunteer organizers and marshals, and walkers alike – you made it happen.
In total we had around 400 participants, raising $12,223.50 from pledges and $9,950 from corporate donors, for a total of $22,173.50. Once matched 2 to 1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and again by the Federal government (total of 4 to 1, or a 5x multiplier) this will mean that $110,867.50 will go towards Polio eradication, protecting as many as 144,000 children from Polio.
The Rotary Club of Edmonton wishes to thank everyone involved in these two remarkable events, including His Worship Mayor Don Iveson, Rotary International President K.R. Ravi Ravindran, Rotary District 5370 leadership past and present and Rotarians from as far north as Dawson Creek and Fort McMurray.
Humanity stands on the brink of eradicating only the second human disease in history.
Polio – a disease that has disabled millions and pulled many people further into poverty – has been reduced by more than 99%.
Global efforts have delivered incredible progress: immunizing more than 2 billion children and saving more than 8 million children from life-long paralysis or death. And in 2012, the disease was fought back to the fewest cases in the fewest countries in history.
Yet even one child who is paralyzed or dies as the result of an easily preventable disease is one too many. We have a unique window of opportunity to end polio for good – all that stands in the way is the political will to make it happen. And in the process, not only will we eradicate a disease, we will prove just what’s possible when humanity works together.
That's why Rotary International launched the Polio Plus campaign, to make the end of polio a reality.
Together we can create a brighter future for all the world’s children.