Fairfield Rotary Club raises money to end polio

FAIRFIELD – Members of the Fairfield Rotary Club invite the public to participate in its End Polio Campaign, which will include gathering for a bike ride Sunday afternoon in Fairfield.

Club members will meet at 2 p.m. at the parking lot at the intersection of North B Street and Zimmerman Boulevard near Utopia Park, where riders will access the Fairfield Loop Trail.

Rotary club member Colleen Stone said the international Rotary organization is close to eradicating polio, and that only two wild cases of polio are left, one in Afghanistan and the other in Pakistan.

Stone said she feels passionately about this cause because a friend of hers in her native South Africa contracted polio at age 2. The little girl spent a year in the hospital. She recovered and has gone on to have a successful career as a pharmacologist, but the disease left one leg about 4 inches shorter than the other.

“When I worked as a doctor in South Africa, we did polio vaccine programs in rural areas,” Stone said. “We were using drops to administer the vaccine.”

Those who wish to contribute to the End Polio Campaign can make their checks payable to the Fairfield Rotary Club at P.O. Box 2314 in Fairfield, Iowa 52556. In the memo section, write “polio.” Stone can be reached at 641-919-1455.