Rotarians are team players. We work within our communities to make the most of challenging situations to address problems. One challenge Rotarians have focused on is the complete eradication of Polio. It killed a U. S. President and kept many young children in the USA indoors during the summer, avoiding water sports. Then came a preventive shot created by Dr. Salk.
Eventually that evolved into an oral dose that could be taken orally. In a matter of a few years, Polio was no longer the dreaded disease it was in the 1940’s. The oral dose of Polio immunization rapidly eliminated Polio in the 1960’s 70’s, and 80’s. Polio was still repent in “third world countries.” Rotary teamed up with the Bill Gates Foundation and worked together spending billions of dollars in working to eradicate Polio. This past year, the Polio epidemic on a world-wide basis appeared to be working with months and months of no disease found. Then Polio raised its ugly head in Afghanistan with several cases in rural villages appearing.
Now, war-torn Gaza has the Polio virus found in its wastewater system. Sleeves are rolled up again to fight this contagious disease and money is being allocated to address these two outbreaks to finally curtail and eradicate Polio. Rotary has pledged to work world-wide disseminating the oral Polio doses all over the world, especially in hard to reach places. Polio will be meeting its match with the additional dollars and manpower coming from Rotary, the Bill Gates Foundation and other to wipe out this disease. It is only a matter of time with time on our side!
However, time is not always on the side of Rotary. The Rotary Club of Conroe and the Daughters of the American Revolution have teamed up to acquire “living history” videos of the remarkable women who have serve in the Armed Forces of our Country. The Rotary Club of Conroe has paired up with the D. A. R. local Chapter to present a total contribution to the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County in the amount of $3,500 to video our women war heroes with such videos available for free online at heritagemuseum.us.
The first to be interviewed will be Marcey Phillips who is the Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4709 on Semands Street in Conroe. She and eight others will be interviewed by Glory White, President of the Heritage Museum for this series of living history documentaries of women in the war zone. Commander Phillips served our Country in the Middle East conflicts. Commander Phillips will be selecting the other women who will be interviewed. This is all possible via a generous donation of the Rotary Club of Conroe and the local Chapter of the D. A. R. which meets monthly at the Heritage Museum. It is collaborations of Rotarians and the Community to leverage activities and money to get things done.
For more information on Rotary, please contact Ron Saikowski at rsaikowski@comcast.net.
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