Wreaths are available as a polio eradication fundraiser
MT. PLEASANT — In honor of World Polio Day, which was Oct. 24, Mt. Pleasant Noon Rotary is raising support to end polio.
“We are selling fresh Minnesotan Balsam Fir Christmas wreaths for $25 each and all proceeds will go to Polio Plus, The Rotary Foundation fund committed to ending polio around the world,” Noon Rotarian Paul Dennison said.
If you’d like to purchase a wreath, please contact any Mt. Pleasant Noon Rotarian by Friday, October 28. Delivery of the wreaths will be around Thanksgiving time.
Rotary persists in their efforts of eradicating the devastating disease of polio to protect the world’s children.
“At the end of the 1980s, more than 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio every year. But together with partners, Rotarians, and supporters, we’ve reduced the number of polio cases in the world by 99.9% in the past three decades.” Dennison said.
Despite significant progress, the wild poliovirus remains an endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to Mt. Pleasant Noon Rotary, polio is being detected around the world in places where it hasn’t been found in decades.
In the United States, an unvaccinated man was paralyzed by polio. In the UK, poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples. In Malawi, a child contracted polio. And Mozambique announced its first wild polio outbreak in 30 years.
According to Rotary, polio eradication efforts need additional funding to immunize more than 400 million children against polio every year, improve disease surveillance systems to detect any poliovirus in a person or the environment, and hire more than 150,000 health workers to go door to door to find every child.
Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com
