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2010 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 306
Commending Rotary International.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 19, 2010
Agreed to by the Senate, February 25, 2010

 

WHEREAS, the Rotary Club of Chicago was founded on February 23, 1905, and by 1921 Rotary Clubs had been formed on six continents, with the name Rotary International adopted in 1922; and

WHEREAS, as Rotary International grew, its focus changed from serving the business and professional needs of its members to serving communities in need, as expressed in its motto: “Service Above Self”; and

WHEREAS, in 1985 Rotary International made a commitment to immunize all of the world’s children against polio through its launch of PolioPlus, the first and largest internationally coordinated private-sector support of a public health initiative, with an initial pledge of $120 million; and

WHEREAS, at the time of Rotary International’s commitment to immunize all of the world’s children against polio, the disease affected 350,000 people in 125 countries; and

WHEREAS, in 1991 the last indigenous case of polio in the Americas occurred in September and in 1994, the Western Hemisphere was declared polio-free; and

WHEREAS, in 1995 Rotarians and other volunteers immunized 165 million children in China and India in a single week and in 2000 the Western Pacific region, spanning from Australia to China, was declared polio-free; and

WHEREAS, in 2004 synchronized National Immunization Days in Africa sought to immunize 80 million children in 23 countries; and

WHEREAS, by the centennial of Rotary International in 2005, the organization had raised $500 million toward polio eradication and in 2006 the number of polio-endemic countries dropped to four (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan), the lowest in human history; and

WHEREAS, by 2009, Rotary International’s contributions to polio eradication totaled nearly $800 million; the organization works with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and UNICEF as a Polio Eradication Partner; and

WHEREAS, Rotary International, with its extraordinary vision and leadership and prodigious fundraising capacity, has led the international community in a fight to eradicate a crippling and potentially fatal disease from the planet; and

WHEREAS, Rotary International celebrates Rotary Polio Awareness Week from February 21 - 27; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly commend Rotary International for its exemplary efforts to eradicate polio worldwide; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to John Kenny, President of Rotary International, as an expression of the General Assembly’s admiration and respect for the organization’s commitment to communities throughout the Commonwealth, across the nation, and around the world.