For the second year Fidalgo Island and Anacortes Rotary Clubs teamed up to hold the “Pints for Polio” fundraiser to cure polio under the big top at the Rockfish Grill.  $4,700 was raised from members and guests while Monday Night football played on the big screen.

Each of those dollars was matched by TWO additional dollars by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, meaning every dollar collected at Rockfish provided one dose for one child.  Multiply by Rotary’s 35,000 clubs around the world and the collective impact is huge. Rotary launched its polio prevention drive in 1979 and has partnered with the Gates Foundation since 2007.  Polio cases have been reduced 99.9% and nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries have been protected.

Five reasons we must eradicate polio:
1- To improve lives  
2- To Invest in the Future
3- To improve child health
4- To lower health care costs
5- To make history

October is Rotary’s “End Polio Month”,  which is why the Anacortes and Fidalgo clubs along with many others around the world hold polio awareness events this time of year.  

Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year. We have reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent worldwide and we won't stop until we end the disease for good.