Polar Plunge Update!
UPDATE ON 2015 POLAR PLUNGE
After a winter of epic proportions delayed the plunge three times, Rotary District 7930’s Polar Plunge took place April 11th 2015 at Long Beach in Gloucester adjacent Cape Ann Motor Inn. To raise awareness and critically-needed funds to fight the crippling disease polio, members of the Rotary Club of Andover plunged into the icy waters off of Gloucester as part of the Rotary District 7930’s 5th Annual Polar Plunge. The effort benefited The Rotary Foundation, the volunteer fundraising arm of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative - a public-private partnership that also includes the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This year’s effort raised over $104,000 and will be matched 2:1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At just 60 cents per vaccine, the effort will pay for over a half million polio vaccines.
The Polar Plunge comes at an important time in the fight to eradicate polio, which would be only the second human disease to be eradicated. Case numbers of the disease have never been lower, and only three countries (Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan) have never stopped transmission of the wild poliovirus. However, a funding gap means immunization campaigns are being cut in high-risk countries, leaving children more vulnerable to polio. If polio isn’t stopped now, the disease could stage a comeback, affecting an estimated 200,000 children every year.