To mark October 24th World Polio Day, Rotary Club of Ladner has helped spare 9,800 children half way around the world from the crippling disease of polio by generating $7,761 raised from the sale of 100 pumpkins yesterday and an auction among members last week then matched 2:1.
Ladner Rotary’s “Pumpkins for Polio” at the Ladner Leisure Centre on Tuesday sold out all pumpkins donated by the Guichon family at Felix Farms after four hours, in half the time expected, to generate $654. The club auction a week prior generated $1,933. The two amounts matched 2:1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will result in the $7,761 (US$ 5,928) going to Rotary Foundation Polio Program.
With this new contribution, in the past three years, the Rotary Clubs of Ladner and Tsawwassen have raised a total of $72,276, matched by the Gates foundation, for a total of almost $216,828 (US$166,710), enabling the polio vaccination of almost 278,000 children. -- photos by Mel Baly, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Chris Offer, Penny Offer
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