Posted: 2 years ago

A Report: The night began with drinks and fellowship at the Hyatt Regency. All that could be done to get the audience into the giving mood for contributions for Polio Plus was done: each table and stand was filled with fliers about what had been accomplished, the floor, seemingly randomly placed but not really, was filled with Stop Polio literature, and the walls had banners about Rotary/One and the campaign to stop Polio worldwide.

At a certain time, Jesse Jackson and Governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, appeared and stood on the podium to pull the imaginary, symbolic switch to light the Wrigley Building. They posed for the newspapers and RI photographers, pulling the switch, and grandly the lights did get projected upon the side of the building, saying Stop Polio Now. Similtaneously, I learned later, the same signage was projected on the Great Pyramid, the Opera House in Australia, etc. (eight grand locations across the world as starters which would be added to later- see the images of each of these on the Rotary/One.com website). It was special. You sort of felt a part of something larger, something grander that was happening to our globe. Ed Futa got up and told the audience that RI had already raised $107 million toward the $200 million to match the Gates Foundation grant of $355 million. It was told that last year there were 125 countries that were cursed with polio epidemics, and now this year, there are only four: Nigeria, Pakistan, Afganistan and India.

It was an evening where the localness of the event was overshadowed by the feeling that this event was truly global in scope. The food was even arranged at separate tables so that you could choose from foods from the Americas (Canada, the US and Mexico), Middlge East, Oriental, European, Africa, Oceanica, etc. Of course, I took a little from each, sitting at the President's Table with Ed Futa and District Governors in that area. The table next to us had Jesse Jackson, Mayor Dailey and Governor Quinn (the high profile attendees and movers and shakers in the political world of Chicago and Illinois).

It all started at 5:30 and ended at 8:45 so I was back at my hotel, near O'Hare Airport, ready to crash for the evening but with a feeling that something important had been done and I was a small part, giving my historical presentation about Rotary/One's contribution to the history of Rotary from 1905 to the present. As a surprise to me, after my short speech, I was presented with a metal as a Ches Perry Honoree of Rotary/One. It is a lovely, heavy gold metal that I will cherish with warm thoughts about the evening and what was accomplished. Rotary/One gave a large (and I do mean "large") check for $20,000 from Rotary/One to Ed Futa (RI) to stop polio and help to match the Gates grant.

I flew back the next morning. Happy that I could be a small part of this grand celebration of a unique "first penguin", "womb  of Rotary" club, Rotary/One. And I thought, if we as Rotarians can end polio on this planet, maybe next we attack the problem of "hunger" for most of the world. A few years ago, most did not think that the day would come when polio would be almost non-existent for our globe, but the submarine marked "Zero Polio" is about to raise to the surface.

Posted: 2 years ago

Thank you PE Joe for fighting for some of the World's most invisible people. TRF efforts n eradicating Polio has almost bought scourge to a halt but this of course is done by humanitarian soldiers like u and all other Rotarian.

It bothers me particularly that Nigeria is stil listed amaong your cursed countries.

I have witnessed Polio impact on victims firsthand and its afflictions can not ruin individuals and families but can ruin a generation.

I am moved!

 keep it up guys!!