Rotary Joins Forces to Fight Polio; Happy Hour Mixer Sept. 23

The Rotary Club of Tampa Upper Bay is taking part in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Challenge to fight polio. The Rotary Club recently raised and submitted $1,000 toward Rotary International’s End Polio Now campaign. These funds count toward goals set forth by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Challenge.

A couple of years ago Bill Gates promised that his foundation would match each dollar that Rotary International contributes for polio eradication. Since then Mr. Gates came back to Rotary and issued an even bigger challenge. If Rotary International can come up with $200 million, then the Gates Foundation will match it and add an additional $155 million. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.

It costs about one dollar to immunize a child against polio. With the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the support that we’ve received from our community, your Rotary Club is on its way to saving 2,755 kids from ever having to deal with this dreaded disease.

In America, during the first half of the twentieth century, polio was comparable to AIDs with respect to its devastation. It was a neighborhood disease. The World Health Organization states that 10 million children will be paralyzed over the next 40 years if the world fails to eradicate polio. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk.

Learn more about Rotary International and our efforts to address health, hunger and humanity by visiting www.rotarycluboftampaupperbay.org and www.rotary.org.

Rotary Happy Hour Mixer Sept. 23

On Thursday, Sept. 23, The Rotary Club of Tampa Upper Bay will host a happy hour mixer at Bollywood Café, 9648 West Linebaugh Ave.  The suggested donation is $1 with all proceeds benefiting Rotary International’s End Polio Now campaign.

Come on out and enjoy a little fellowship and take advantage of some of the drink and food specials offered by our friends at Bollywood Café. For more information click on www.tampaupperbayrotary.org.

By Mike Castro