The Findlay Rotary Club partied with a purpose on February 15th at Findlay Brewing Company.

The Rotary’s Pints for Polio event raised nearly $25,000 for polio eradication.

$5,003 was raised through a celebrity server competition and a local challenge from Findlay Rotarians Cheryl Buckland and Larry Manley generously gave an additional $1,000.

Rotary District 6600 provided a $2,240 grant and a contribution from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation took the funds generated to $24,729.

All proceeds raised will support Rotary International’s PolioPlus program to eradicate polio worldwide.

Rotary International launched the PolioPlus program in 1985, the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication through the mass vaccination of children.

Rotary has contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize more than 3 billion children in 122 countries.

In addition, Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by donor governments to contribute more than $7.2 billion to the effort.

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a paralyzing and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children in some parts of the world.

The poliovirus invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.

It can strike at any age but mainly affects children under five.

Polio is incurable, but completely vaccine-preventable.

Today, there are only two countries that have never stopped transmission of the wild poliovirus: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Just 5 polio cases were confirmed worldwide in 2021, which is a reduction of more than 99.9 percent since the 1980s, when the world saw about 1,000 cases per day.