District Polio Plus Chair Jon Bullock and Team are hard at work preparing for the October 24 PEDALING FOR POLIO Stationary Bike Marathon Ride to End Polio.
The event will take place on World Polio Day, October 24, and there are a variety of ways to get involved.
If you want to join in on the ride at a stationary bike location, there are several choices across the district. Contact the Coordinator listed in your area for more information.
- Airport Area YMCA, Bedford - Jon Bullock (rotaryjon@gmail.com)
- Street YMCA, Arlington - Nikkie Hunter (nikkie2900@sbcglobal.net)
- Northwest Fort Worth YMCA, Fort Worth - Theresa Hocker (thockerrotary@gmail.com)
- Shops at Highland Village, Highland Village - Grady Ray (grady.e.ray@gmail.com)
- Firehouse Fitness, Abilene - Dave Boyll (boyll-david@sbcglobal.net)
- Bill Bartley Family YMCA, Wichita Falls - Danny Taylor (dannywt@prodigy.net)
If you want to participate in some other way - spinning at a different location, riding an actual bike, or really anything - let your Coordinator know, and then go ahead and set up their personal fundraising page using the steps below. You can ride at your convenience; there is no need to sign up for a specific time slot on the 24th if you are participating in one of the alternate ways.
There is also a new RI Fundraising Platform to make it even easier to solicit donations for your ride. To register go to: https://raise.rotary.org/PedalingforPolio/challenge
- Click on the + sign that says "Join the Team and create your fundraising page”
- Each participant will have their own web page; it only takes a few minutes to set up
- Upload your photo to your page
- Write a brief statement of why you are Pedaling for Polio
- Share your page and your donors contribute right from your page
- All donations go directly to Rotary and your donors get Paul Harris credit
If you have any questions about the website or about this special event, email Jon Bullock at rotaryjon@gmail.com.
Rotary International became involved with polio vaccination in 1979 and established the Polio Plus program in 1985. Rotary’s first efforts included a grant to administer the oral polio vaccine in the Philippines. RI worked with Dr. Sabin, the creator of the oral vaccine, to develop an eradiation plan based on mass immunization. The plan was to provide oral vaccines to 6 million children in the Philippines; grants to provide immunizations in other countries followed.
Rotary’s Polio Plus program was a $120 million pledge that funded a core group of experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) to focus on Polio. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) joined in the eradication initiative, latter followed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The United States was declared polio free in 1979.
In 1988, there were 350,000 new polio cases in 125 countries.
Polio remains endemic in just two nations, Pakistan and Afghanistan. As of July 2020, 105 new cases of polio were diagnosed, 65 in Pakistan and 40 in Afghanistan.