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At today’s Rotary meeting, we were honored to hear from Roz Cooper, past president of the Metropolitan Rotary Club of Honolulu (1996, 2019), former District 5000 Governor (2005), and now District 5000’s Director of Polio. Roz delivered a passionate presentation reminding us that the fight against polio is far from over — and that Rotary’s role continues to be vital.
Polio’s Last Strongholds & Emerging Threats
Roz emphasized that wild poliovirus still circulates in Afghanistan and Pakistan — two countries where conflict, insecurity, and inaccessibility make vaccination campaigns especially difficult. According to WHO and news reports, Pakistan recently confirmed new polio cases, underlining how fragile the gains still are. Roz made the point that polio anywhere is a threat everywhere — any lapse in vaccination or surveillance can provoke a resurgence.
Rotary’s Role & the Fundraiser Ideas
During the meeting, the group discussed several creative fundraising ideas to support polio eradication:
Strike Out Polio — a bowling event
Paddle for Polio — canoe paddling
Pickleball for Polio — this idea has generated the most buzz so far
We don’t yet know which event will move forward with, stay tuned!
What Can You Do?
We ended the meeting with a straightforward but powerful call-to-action:
Visit EndPolio.org — Rotary and its global partners use this portal to collect donations, share updates, and mobilize advocacy.
Donate now. Even a modest contribution helps support vaccine delivery, monitoring, and outbreak response in the hardest-to-reach places.
Stay tuned for our club’s pick of the fundraising event (bowling, paddling, or pickleball!) — your participation will matter.
Every child deserves to live free of polio. Rotary has been instrumental in driving down polio cases worldwide by over 99 %. But until the virus is eliminated everywhere, we cannot rest.