Service club to illuminate polio message

(CNS): Rotary Sunrise will be using bright lights to deliver a message about the need to eradicate polio. From Wednesday evening 23 February to 9 March a larger than life message declaring Rotary’s pledge to rid the world of this crippling childhood disease will be illuminating Camana Bay.The message will first appear in lights against the side of an e office building in Camana Bay on the 106th anniversary of the service organization’s inception. This building illumination is part of a worldwide drive to elevate public awareness of Rotary’s pledge to rid the earth of polio.

Camana Bay will join famous landmarks around the world in displaying the "End Polio Now" message including the Trevi Fountain in Rome; the parliament building in The Hague; the soccer stadium in Cape Town, South Africa; a gate at the Lantern Festival in Taiwan; Kanazawa Castle in Kanazawa, Japan; the government building in Karachi, Pakistan; the planetarium in Seoul, Korea; the Globe of the Mall of Asia in the Philippines; Byblos Castle in Byblos, Lebanon, and the Charminar in Hyderabad, India.

Tony Catalanotto, the Polio Plus Director and Vice President of the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Sunrise, has planned additional supporting activities that will coincide with the building illumination at Camana Bay.

"We plan to have fellow Rotarians at Camana Bay soliciting for donations and also to better explain this great worldwide initiative," says Catalanotto. In addition, many of the Camana Bay merchants will have “Polio Plus” collection boxes where the general public can pop in and make a donation. "It is important to note that the bottom line is this: As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, all children — wherever they live — remain at risk," he adds.
Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority for more than two decades. The international humanitarian service organization is a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.

Rotary has pledged to raise US$200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The entire $555 million will be spent in support of eradication activities.

Great progress has been made: The number of cases of polio infection has plunged from about 350,000 in 1988 to fewer than 2,000 in 2009. More than two billion children have been immunized in 122 countries, preventing five million cases of paralysis and 250,000 pediatric deaths.

Rotary club members worldwide have contributed more than $900 million and countless volunteer hours to the effort and are now working aggressively to raise the $200 million needed to match the Gates Foundation grants. The money is needed to ensure that the progress made over more than two decades will continue. To learn more about polio eradication, including how to participate in this historic effort, visit www.rotary.org/endpolio today. If you would like to make a donation, please visit any of the participating merchants at Camana Bay, approach any local Rotarian, or call Tony Catalanotto at 926-7368.