Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home children have donated 29,823 pennies to help eradicate polio throughout the world.
Members of the Rotary Club added another $118 with their weekly fines, and the Rotary received $10 in donations during the downtown trick or treat in October to contribute a total of $426.23.
Brian Hoffman, who co-chaired the program with Vicki Bauer, saw it as a chance to educate children and a good start.
It was an opportunity for Rotary members to get into schools, talk about polio and the reason American children need not fear it.
It also gave them an opportunity to teach students about volunteerism, the foundation for the community, Hoffman said.
“I think it’s important for the kids to understand that component,” he said. “It’s not about how much was raised but about the education. I think the kids did well supporting the program for the first year.”
Last week, Rotary members took dictionaries to third-grade classrooms throughout District 55, he said. As part of the presentation, he had a class open the book to the word “community,” and then he explained how the community supports itself through volunteerism.
The volunteerism of Sweet Home’s children and Rotary members may help wipe out polio for good.
For 20 years, Rotary clubs have remained determined to do whatever is necessary to achieve a world free of the crippling disease.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded a $250 million grant that Rotary International will match with $100 million to combat polio this year.
The last case of naturally occurring polio in the United States was in 1979, but it still threatens children in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
For 60 cents, a child can be protected for life.
Since 1985, Rotary has contributed more than $700 million to the cause in addition to volunteer hours contributed by members around the world.
For further information, visit rotary.org/endpolio on the Web.