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Furnishings helped raise $1,300 to eradicate polio, which is a cause
that is personal to the Gates family. Nick Gates had the idea of
donating a La-Z-Boy Rocker Recliner at the Grants Pass Rotary Club’s
last meeting of the year to raise money for the Rotary PolioPlus
Auction. Another Rotarian enhanced that idea by turning it into a
charitable raffle-style event for $25 each, and the chair ended up going
for $1300.
“We thought we would only raise $700 or $800!” said Giff Gates, who is a
longtime Rotary member. Giff’s dad, George Gates Jr., who established
Gates |
Furniture in
1946, contracted polio in 1952.
Although the disease left him as a quadriplegic confined to respiratory
equipment for his final 21 years, he was still able to accomplish a
great deal.
“The PolioPlus program was the focus of Rotary several years ago, and
we’ve been working on it ever since. It’s really a neat deal.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $255 million to Rotary
International in the global effort to eradicate polio, bringing the
total committed by |
 Rotary
and the Gates Foundation to $555 million.
PolioPlus, the most ambitious program in Rotary’s history, is the
volunteer arm of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. For more than
25 years, Rotary has led the private sector in the global effort to rid
the world of this crippling disease.
Today, PolioPlus and its role in the initiative is recognized worldwide
as a model of public-private cooperation in pursuit of a humanitarian
goal. |