Rotary's progress in the fight against polio shows why vaccination is important

Increasing awareness about the power of vaccines and closing immunization gaps could protect millions of people worldwide from vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio, according to the World Health Organization. World Immunization Week, 24-30 April, is an opportunity to focus on that work, and the robust polio eradication infrastructure built by Rotary and our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) provides a model for it.

The GPEI estimates that polio vaccines have saved an estimated 20 million children around the world from paralysis. When Rotary helped launch the GPEI in 1988, the disease paralyzed more than 1,000 people worldwide every day, most of them young children. Since then, Rotary and its partners have reduced the number of polio cases by 99%, and in 2021 there were just six cases of polio caused by the wild poliovirus. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where the wild poliovirus remains endemic.

The progress against polio is the result of the efforts of countless volunteers and health workers who immunize children in hard-to-reach communities and establish real-time global surveillance and outbreak response mechanisms. The polio eradication infrastructure has been used to fight other infectious diseases and undertake crucial health interventions, including supporting COVID-19 prevention and vaccination efforts.

With our decades of experience in bringing polio to the brink of eradication, Rotary has been able to highlight the power and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Since the pandemic began in 2020, Rotary members have helped health authorities communicate lifesaving information about COVID-19, dispel misinformation, and support fair and equal access to vaccines.

CLUB SERVICE

DUCK TAGGING THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 26th !!

Time: 4:00 p.m.

Place: Greenlee Designer Surfaces

Address: 1435 Commerce Way, Prescott

All Ducks need to be tagged for the Duck Derby.

Come and show your support!! We are almost there!

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Prescott Community Food Drive

Working together during our Rotary Week of Service, our three Rotary clubs in Prescott sponsored our annual Community Food Drive on Friday and Saturday at the Safeway Stores in Prescott and Prescott Valley.

Sunup's Pres.-Elect Christy Manning receives food donations from Prescott Valley Vice Mayor Lori Hunt and her husband Dene.

Interact Club Members were working with our A.J. Sheridan

Cassidy's young helper

YOUTH SERVICE

CONGRATULATIONS to our PHS Interact Club on their successful Colt Grill fundraiser for the Interact Crutches 4 Africa & Interact Ambassadors to Mexico and Kenya program. They raised $655 from this event. Thanks to our Rotarians and others who purchased tickets and supported this project, and hats off to Sophia Brown, who chaired the fundraiser. Special appreciation to Colt Grill for hosting. The barbecue meal they provided was excellent!

WANTED: Anybody interested in a free ride in a helicopter for four people?

I’m still looking for two more adults to join me and my wife.

We leave early Saturday morning from New York and will fly to Boston where we will have breakfast, then have lunch on a friend’s yacht.

Then we’ll do a flight along the coast, up to Cape Elizabeth returning to Boston for dinner, then fly back home.

Preferably someone with a helicopter and yacht, otherwise we can’t go.

If interested, please message me.

Mom: "Eat your breakfast."

Son: "Why?"

Mom: "You want to grow up to be super smart, don't you?"

Son: "No. I want to grow up to be like daddy."

My husband was water-skiing when he fell into the river. As the boat circled to pick him up, he noticed a hunter sitting in a duck boat in the reeds.

My husband put his hands in the air and joked, "Don't shoot!"

The hunter responded, "Don’t quack."
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Anyone who says their wedding was the best day of their life has clearly never had two candy bars fall down at once in a vending machine.

I don't have a train of thought. I have seven trains on four tracks that narrowly avoid each other when the paths cross and all the conductors scream at each other.