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What is the "Pennies for Polio" Program?

Goodbye Polio“ with Pennies for Polio” is a program created to educate and involve local schools within Rotary District 5110 and throughout Rotary Zones 25 & 26 in the work that Rotary International and its Polio Eradication partners have undertaken to eradicate polio worldwide.  As part of the educational component of the program, children will learn about polio, how other children have been affected by the disease, the importance of eradication, and how global health will be impacted once it is fully eradicated.  They will also play a primary role in helping Rotary eradicate polio by collecting coins during the month of October to help immunize children half way around the world.

Two weeks prior to the start of the actual fundraising campaign and during the campaign itself there will be a district-wide coordinated media blitz to Create Awareness in the communities throughout our Rotary district that polio still exists in the world and until it is fully eradicated, children and adults everywhere are still at risk.

All communities, through their mayor and city council, will be asked to declare October as “World Polio Month” and October 24 as “World Polio Day”.

This program is an outgrowth of two separate programs that previously raised money from school children to put an end to polio . . . the Easter Seals “March of Dimes” program and UNICEF’s “Trick or Treat for UNICEF”.  By combining these two programs into the “Pennies for Polio” program, we will be continuing a long-standing tradition of school children helping other children that do not have the same opportunities and benefits because of where they live.

The program can be used in grades K-12, but it will be left up to each local school district to determine which schools will be targeted (Elementary, Middle or High Schools.)  Rotarians, of course, will encourage all districts to have all schools participate.