EndPolioNow

Children in the United States no longer contract polio. However, this is still not true for children in other countries around the world. They need our help.

October 24, 2013 is World Polio Day. A number of organizations, including Rotary International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are raising funds to eradicate polio across the world. (www.endpolio.org). Schools and workplaces worldwide are hosting fundraisers.

As residents of Vermont and New Hampshire, we have a special connection to the history of polio. When researching a history paper for Mr. Goodwin’s American History class last year, I learned that the first reported outbreak of polio in the United States occurred in Vermont in 1894.  It was Dr. Charles Caverly, a graduate of Dartmouth College and UVM Medical School who tracked and documented this historic first polio epidemic. Vermont’s polio story is memorialized on a dime-shaped stone monument in Stowe, VT; the inscription reads: In Memory of those stricken in the first Infantile Paralysis epidemic in the United States, Vermont, 1894.

One of the world’s most devastating diseases is close to being eliminated.  There are fewer cases in fewer places than ever before, with very few countries still reported to have polio (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and recently Israel).  The world is so close to getting rid of this terrible disease.
This effort is meaningful to all people- especially children- around the world.

Hanover High School will be collecting donations on Thurs, Oct 24th in the Atrium.
Thank you for whatever amount you can donate. Every little bit will help.

Luke Strohbehn
Class of 2015