Last week, I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days attending the Rotary International Convention in downtown Atlanta.
As the president of the Newton Rotary Club, I thought it was a good opportunity to learn more about the organization that I’m a part of.
The convention was amazing. There were probably around 30,000 Rotarians from all over the world packed into the Georgia World Congress Center for the first three days of last week. It was a huge celebration of what the Rotary International Foundation has done over the years.
Rotary has been one of the most important players in ending polio in our world. True, in America, we haven’t had to deal with that illness on a widespread level in a long time, but it was still rampant throughout the world.
In some ways, we were vulnerable because if the illness had spread back to our country from these developing nations, it could have caused us to have another outbreak.
However, polio is almost extinct now, thanks to the cooperation that Rotary has forged with nations and organizations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to continue the vaccination efforts, especially in Africa.
Those efforts have paid off, as only five cases were reported last year in the whole world. That’s right, five new cases in the whole world.
We could stop now, but if we did, we could leave future generations vulnerable. That’s why those organizations have pledged $1.2 billion over the next few years to end it once and for all.
I am proud of the organization’s efforts, and we are ready to take on new challenges.
