For the second straight year, Madison South Rotary claimed the number one spot in the District for per-member contributions to Rotary International. "Your club contributed more than $26,000," reported an enthusiastic District Governor Dean Ryerson.
Those contributions help fuel Rotary's main humanitarian push, which is to fight polio. "Rotary is the premiere organization in the world to eradicate polio," said Dean.
Thus far, Rotary has protected four million children from this disease, "but another billion [dollars] is needed to get the job done," adds the District Governor. The disease is still present in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At the current pace, though, and with matching funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dean says it's projected that the last reported case of polio will occur late next year. If that happens and then holds for four more years, world health officials will consider polio officially eradicated from the planet in 2018.
Dean urged the Club to use this monumental coming health achievement to tell Rotary's story and attract new members. Rotary must innovate to welcome new members who now may include homemakers and others not in the formal workforce. To grow our numbers, he suggests more of us invite our friends and colleagues to join. "We need to get our ask in gear," he joked.
See madisonsouthrotary.org to learn more.