Service Circuits: World Polio Day draws attention to Rotary’s efforts to eradicate disease.Lifestyle

On October 24th, Rotary International World Polio Day, I remember being infected with polio, a virus that spreads from person to person and attacks the nervous system.

My parents could only wave to me in 1952 from the other side of the glass window in the hallway of my ward. The subcutaneous needle seemed to be one foot long.

The physiotherapist tied it to the braces and gave me a small little crutch. I put a red ribbon on my left foot, a right crutch, a blue ribbon on my right foot, and a left crutch. Walk: “Left foot, right crutch, right foot, left crutch.” It’s burned into my brain.

When I got home, my Playmate shouted from across the street. “I can’t play with you anymore. My mother says I get polio.”

The school system then separated all disabled children from non-disabled children. I went to a school with elevators and lamps, a big nurse station. There were children born with disabilities, such as “baby thalidomide” who lost their arms, epilepsy, hemophilia, heart disease, and students with severe burns.

I met my lifelong friends Chris and Jerry with cerebral palsy and Laurie with polio. Chris has become a librarian. Jerry is a journalist. Raleigh quit education.

Raleigh was one of the first children to think of spinal meningitis when I was taken to a hospital where I was receiving some other treatment. So I got polio in the hospital. (She made fun of me that it was she who infected me, so we could be friends forever.) I was four years old. She was 3 years old.

We were very fortunate compared to countries without vaccines, hospitals, iron lungs, physiotherapists, braces and wheelchairs, and programs. Many places haven’t done so yet, and that’s where Rotary International comes in.

Rotary has been working on polio eradication for decades as a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the RI Polio Plus Program.

Polio cases have decreased by 99.9% since RI’s first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979. This is due to more than $ 2.1 billion in donations and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries.

Rotary has persuaded governments around the world to donate an additional $ 10 billion to this effort. Polio is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year if all eradication efforts cease. In 2017, 430 million children were vaccinated in 39 countries.

This quest continues to raise money for the Polio Plus campaign, as it costs an average of $ 3 to protect children from polio. The Rotary Foundation will cost $ 100 million to carry out polio monitoring around the world.

There are eight Rotary clubs in Macomb County. They belong to Rotary District 6380, which consists of more than 50 clubs.

Ginger Barons is a Novi Rotarian interested in polio for his polio-infected neighbors. Her neighbor eventually became a brother-in-law and became an advocate and ally of people with polio through a state network of polio survivors, doctors, and other advocates. Her mother was aware of polio from an early age because she worked for Park Davis, a pharmaceutical company in the Detroit region that developed the early polio vaccine.

“So I’m a Girl Scout at the age of 12, and I’m going to read a book to a patient at this Farmington nursing home,” she said. “Currently at Beaumont Commons, people are treated at a hospital for disabled children in Michigan, also known as Sister Kenny Hospital. The vaccine has eliminated the need for treatment, which is It was like 1970. Here I was reading a book to a patient in Nursing Home who was a survivor of Polio. Many were being treated at the institution and they never left. I Can be said to have just turned into a problem and stayed. “

Through her brother-in-law and a resident of a nursing home, she learned that there are times when polio patients are very mobile. Since then, many have developed post-polio syndrome and have become even more disabled.

After that, I joined a Rotary club and found that one of RI’s main programs was polio plus, where I could continue to learn about polio and even talk about it in public.

“Rotary International had to suspend (polio vaccination) campaigns in Pakistan and Afghanistan for COVID,” she said. “Although the number of cases has increased, national vaccination dates cannot be held when the country is blocked.”

She said the clinics were still open when the suspension occurred earlier this year, but many people in those countries do not have the ability to travel to them. More children will be vaccinated as polio workers become available door-to-door. Approximately 39 million polio workers have administered approximately 39 million vaccines since resuming the five-day neighborhood campaign.

“They had to catch up before the incident got so bad,” Barron’s said.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, funding for the payment of the vaccine program has also been significantly delayed. Throughout the district, some Rotary clubs are experimenting with shredder projects and are planning an effort to plant a purple crocus called “purple for polio.”

Bart Simpson Artwork Headline Auction

The Warren Rotary Club collects money at weekly meetings to eradicate polio. Those who do not attend directly will add money to the quarterly membership fee.

“We collect for polio all year round,” said club president Karen Joyce. “We do it with our happy dollars (for personal announcements). Some will bring in auction items. It may be a bottle of wine going for $ 5. Repacking I might bring it back next week. I used to only have three. It doesn’t matter. We enjoy it. “

She said club donations to the polio campaign have fallen from the usual $ 2,000 a year due to the COVID-19 situation. She said attendance at meetings has decreased and people tend to donate directly to more people.

“The big event of the year is the auction,” said club president Karen Joyce. “Bart Simpson’s painting has the caption” The man who ends polio in my life. ” The drawing was done by Bill Mollison. Bill is best known for his creative work with The Simpsons and Futurama. He began his career as an illustrator, drawing dozens of movie posters, including many of Walt Disney, including The Little Mermaid, Bambi, Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and more. “

Morrison is a resident of Macomb County. He recently visited the Warren Rotary Club and painted on the spot.

The 8 “x 11” lottery online auction will run until October 26th. The bid last Thursday was $ 75.

Send an email to [email protected] In your bid. Please put “auction bid” in the subject line.

Anyone who wants to donate to the club’s polio campaign collection can mail a check to the Warren Rotary Club (notation: polio) and send it to the club’s meeting place: Decallo’s Banquet and Convention Center, 6015 E. 10 miles. Road, Warren MI48091.

Send service club and veterans news to: Linda May at [email protected].. Landline 586-791-8116.