After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions.

PolioPlus, the most ambitious program in Rotary’s history, is the volunteer arm of the global partnership dedicated to eradicating polio. For more than 20 years, Rotary has led the private sector in the global effort to rid the world of this crippling disease. Today, PolioPlus and its role in the initiative is recognized worldwide as a model of public-private cooperation in pursuit of a humanitarian goal.

Since the PolioPlus program's inception in 1985, more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccine. But Rotary's work is not done: The disease has not yet been eradicated. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.

Your contribution will help Rotary raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.

As of June 2007, Rotary had committed nearly US$620 million to global polio eradication. Each year, it spends about $33 million toward the effort.

In 2008, the Norman Rotary Club had 100% participation in the PolioPlus campaign and strives to achieve that goal each year by encouraging its members to give.