 Polio is a virus that few Rotarians know much about yet Rotary has been at the forefront of eradicating it since 1979. Why is it still the number one priority for Rotary? Where is it in the world today and how is it like COVID-19? Rotarians Mike Crosby and Marsha Brown shared their personal story of providing polio vaccine to young children in India a little over a year ago. They also educated us further on polio -- how it is transmitted and what is being done to stop it – forever. Mike is an Eagle Scout and retired USAF Lt. Col. Mike serves as the District 5160 PolioPlus chair. He is a past Assistant District Governor, past president of The Rotary Club of Brentwood and Rotarian of the Year for 2015-16. Marsha is the membership chair of the Rotary Club of Brentwood and a District Membership Ambassador. She was the Rotarian of the Year her club for 2019-2020. Both are major donors for the Paul Harris Society and members of the Polio Plus Society. Mike and Marsha provided a great tag-team presentation with up-to-the-minute statistics on the current state of polio in the world today. They also told us of the large challenges facing us in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the last two countries with the live polio virus still infecting people. In Pakistan, police officers guarding door-to-door vaccinators, were attacked and murdered for their efforts. The big celebration recently was that Africa was declared free of the wild polio virus, with Nigeria, the last country with polio in the continent, being free of the wild virus for two consecutive years. They also had a lot of great photos of their trip to India in 2020 for a national immunization day (NID) -- the same trip that our Laurie Edwards was part of. The depiction of efforts of by a doctor, Dr. Mathew Varghese, to treat and to make protheses for polio victims in India, was especially moving. Dr. Varghese runs the country's only remaining polio ward. Several members were moved by this enlightening presentation to make further donations to Polio Plus. See the Happy Bucks, below. |
For our first meeting back we will review last year and talk about the year coming up and reintroduce each other after a year off. It was great to see almost 20 members at Art Cort's Celebration of Life recently. We really want as many people as possible to show up this Thursday and enjoy seeing everyone again. We have met at the Country Club for over 50 years and want to continue that tradition by showing our dedication to Rotary and what this club has done for the community and all over the world.
