• John F. Germ of Chattanooga, TN, took office as president of Rotary International on July 1. In this, his first message, he sets the tone for his term in office.

Today, we look ahead toward a Rotary year that may one day be known as the greatest in our history: the year that sees the world’s last case of polio.

Wild poliovirus caused only 74 cases of polio in 2015, all of them in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As we continue to work tirelessly toward our goal of eradication, we also must look beyond it, preparing to leverage our success into even greater successes to come.

It is tremendously important to Rotary’s future that our role in the eradication of polio be recognized. The more we are known for what we’ve achieved, the more we’ll be able to attract the partners, the funding, and, most important, the members to achieve even more. We’re working hard at RI headquarters [in Evanston, IL] to be sure that Rotary gets that recognition.

Every day that you serve in Rotary, you have the opportunity to change lives.
Everything you do matters.

But, it can’t all happen there. We need you to get the word out through your clubs and in your communities about what Rotary is and what we do. We need to be sure that our clubs are ready for the moment when polio finally is eradicated, so that when people who want to do good see that Rotary is a place where they can change the world, every Rotary club is ready to give them that opportunity.

We know that if we want to see [the motto] “Rotary Serving Humanity” even better in the years ahead, we’ll need more willing hands, more caring hearts, and more bright minds to move our work forward. We’ll need clubs that are flexible, so Rotary service will be attractive to younger members, recent retirees, and working people. We’ll need to seek out new partnerships, opening ourselves more to collaborative relationships with other organizations.

Looking ahead, we also see a clear need to prioritize continuity in our leadership. We in Rotary all are playing on the same team, working toward the same goals. If we want to reach those goals together, we all have to move in the same direction, together.

Every day that you serve in Rotary, you have the opportunity to change lives. Everything you do matters; every good work makes the world better for us all. In this new Rotary year, we all have a new chance to change the world for the better, through “Rotary Serving Humanity.”

Do you know how much it costs to provide oral polio vaccine for one child?

The answer is a mere 60 cents. That’s a small price to pay for a life free from a contagious disease that once spread paralysis, limb deformities, respiratory obstructions, and death in every country on Earth.

That is why Rotary International has been so relentless in its fundraising and vaccine distribution to combat a disease that cannot be cured but can be prevented. We’ve got it down to just two countries where polio is endemic — Pakistan and Afghanistan. But, because polio is so easily spread, a rigorous and ongoing program of vaccinations is a must.

The 3rd annual “World Polio Day” this year is scheduled for October 24. For every dollar donated by a Rotarian, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will triple it. You can find details on what you can do to help by clicking here.

For those among us fortunate enough to grow up in a world without polio and raise their children without the fear of it, the question “What IS polio?” is understandable. We have an answer for that on a separate page elsewhere on this website. Just click here.

• From Rotary International

Rotary International President K.R. Ravindran closed the recent RI convention in Seoul, South Korea, with this poignant story about his mother’s fight to survive polio — at the age of 30.

When Ravindran was 11 years old in his native Sri Lanka, his mother awoke one day feeling weak and short of breath. Sitting down to rest, she found herself unable to move. The polio virus had quickly invaded her nervous system, resulting in paralysis.

She was placed in an iron lung at the hospital to enable her to breathe, and was told that her chances of walking, or even surviving without a ventilator, were slim. But most Sri Lankan hospitals were not equipped with ventilators in 1963.

Ravindran’s grandfather, a Rotary member, hosted a club committee meeting in his living room the evening after his daughter was rushed to the hospital. Rather than simply offer

“There are people on this planet whose lives are better now because you traversed this earth. And, it doesn’t matter if they know that or not. It doesn’t matter if they even know your name or not. What really matters is that your work touched lives; that it left people healthier, happier, better than they were before.”

— K.R. Ravindran’s closing remarks as RI president

consolation, his fellow members went to work, using their business acumen and professional connections to find a ventilator.

One of the members was a bank manager who called a government minister to facilitate a quick international transfer of funds. Another member, a manager at SwissAir, arranged to have a ventilator flown in. The next day, it arrived at the hospital.

“There was so much red tape at the time in Sri Lanka, but somehow, those Rotarians made it all fall away,” Ravindran told the audience.

Ravindran’s mother spent a year and a half in a hospital bed, but her condition gradually improved. She eventually left the hospital walking — with a walker, but upright, on her own two feet.

“Fifty-three years ago, my mother’s life was perhaps one of the very first to be saved from polio by Rotarians,” Ravindran said. “We have saved millions of lives since then. Tonight, I stand before you Read More »