November is ‘Rotary Foundation Month’ in 35,000+ Rotary clubs around the world. Paulding County Rotarians celebrated the Rotary Foundation’s good works with a special gathering on November 9, at the Dallas Civic Center. The featured speaker was Chair of The Rotary Foundation Trustees and Past Rotary International President, John Germ, from the Rotary Club of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Germ informed Paulding County Rotarians of progress toward the eradication of polio. Rotary took on the task of polio eradication in 1988 and many hours and many dollars have been expended since that time to end this crippling and life-threatening disease. Where there were once 300,000+ new cases of polio in a year, Germ said that so far in 2021 there have been only two cases of wild poliovirus in the world. While there remain a larger number of vaccine-derived cases of polio most of those are confined to Nigeria, where there will soon be a massive vaccination campaign. How powerful is Rotary? Rotary has prevailed upon the Taliban to allow vaccinators to reach the 600,000 children in Afghanistan who have yet to be vaccinated. The Rotary Foundation funds humanitarian good works here and throughout the world. Recent Foundation Grants projects - local projects - conducted by Paulding County Rotary have a total project value of more than $27,700.

Photo: $1,000 donation in honor of John Germ to PolioPlus. Past District Governor Roy Strickland, District Governor Mary Ligon, PRIP John Germ, Club President Matthew Britton