Wenatchee Rotary Clubs Unite for World Polio Awareness Projects

Wenatchee will forever be linked to the fight against polio because of the efforts led by the late Dr. Ed Cadman.  He was President of Wenatchee Rotary Club in 1963 and became Rotary International President and a leader in Rotary's Polio Plus Initiative to help eradicate polio in 1985.

"They launched this intiative partly vecause of what Dr. Cadman saw here in Wenatchee in the 1950's and at that time, there wer 365,000 people a year succumbing to polio" said Wenatchee Rotarian Pete Van Well.

"There were three strains of wild polio virus, two of them have ben eradicated because of this program, so there is only wild polio virus 1 (remaining) so we are working really hard to just box it in so it has no where to go and it just dies" Van Well said.

Get our free mobile app

The four Wenatchee area Rotary Clubs continue to support polio awareness to this day with local events to raise money to purchase more doses of polio vaccine.

This Saturday, an educational fundraiser Pennies For Polio is scheduled from 8am to 1pm at the Farmer's Market at Pybus Market and next Thursday on World Polio Day, a pub takeover will be held at the Taproom at Pybus from 1 to 7pm

Van Well says until polio is completely eradicated, it is only a plane ride away because of the freedoms of global travel.   While Polio is nearly gone, it is still present in Pakistan and Afghanistan where medical teams trying to vaccinate the population face dangers from the Taliban and other groups.