Rotary
Invites the Public to Join Celebrities & Notables in Online
Campaign to End Polio
EVANSTON, Ill., U.S.A.
(May 9, 2011) ? After more than 25 years of hard work, Rotary and
its partners are now “This Close” to eradicating polio,
and a wide array of public figures and celebrities from Bill Gates
to Ziggy Marley have signed on to help Rotary spread the word. ?Now,
the general public is invited to join them in an online campaign
at www.thisclose.
At the online application,
visitors can upload their image into an online version of the existing
public service announcement, wearing an “End Polio Now”
t-shirt, with fingers held up in a simple hand gesture to show that
Rotary is “this close” to wiping out polio worldwide.
They can share their
virtual pledge through facebook and twitter, and browse an interactive
map and gallery of participants from across the globe. The final
ads are entered into a gallery that includes Archbishop Emeritus
Desmond Tutu and a diverse lineup of influential leaders and personalities.
The “This Close”
public service campaign includes action movie star Jackie Chan,
conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall, premier violinist Itzhak Perlman,
Grammy Award winners A.R. Rahman, Angelique Kidjo and Ziggy Marley,
golfing great Jack Nicklaus, and peace advocate Queen Noor of Jordan.
Nicklaus, Perlman and Tutu are themselves survivors of this crippling
disease.
Developed and produced
by Evanston-based I-Imagine, the thisclose.net application follows
the success of a previous virtual campaign, www.kickpoliooutofafrica.org,
which gathered more than 11,000 online signatures in support of
polio eradication in the lead up to the 2010 World Cup.
Polio eradication has
been Rotary’s top priority for more than two decades. The
international humanitarian service organization is a spearheading
partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with the
World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, and UNICEF.
Rotary club members
worldwide have contributed more than $1 billion and countless volunteer
hours to the polio eradication effort, and have recently pledged
to raise an additional US$200 million to match $355 million in challenge
grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All of the
resulting $555 million will be spent in support of eradication activities.
Great progress has been
made, and the incidence of polio infection has plunged from about
350,000 cases in 1988 to fewer than 1,300 reported cases in 2010.
More than two billion children have been immunized in 122 countries,
preventing five million cases of paralysis and 250,000 pediatric
deaths.
To visit the online
application, visit www.thisclose.net.
To learn more about
polio eradication, including how to participate in this historic
effort, visit www.rotary.org/endpolio.
Download “This
Close” public service announcements: www.rotary.org/mediacenter
For video and still
photos go to: www.thenewsmarket.com/rotaryinternationall
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Rotary eClub NY1 * Updated 2011
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