One recent health trend could have a very dangerous consequence - those who choose not to vaccinate their children face the threat of debilitating diseases like polio. The Springdale Rotary Club hopes to help by educating the public about the benefits of vaccination.
The Springdale Rotary Club bears the purpose of the national organization, to support the needs of the community, but that responsibility sometimes means anticipating needs before the community is even aware of them.
The club’s most recentcause is to dispel the common notion of polio as a faraway sickness that doesn’t afflict Americans.
“The problem with polio is if we don’t end it everywhere, it has a chance to come back,” says Linda Slothower, president of the Springdale Rotary Club.
As a child, Slothower had friends affected by polio, and they wore leg braces to help stabilize their bodies enough to walk. She spent a summer in a community whose swimming pool was closed to cut down on the amount of time children spent together and the risk of spreading the disease.
“Back then, we didn’ttravel that much, but now [polio] is a plane ride away. Children who haven’t received the vaccine [might as well be] right back there.”
Unlike the United States, countries like Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan still see polio cases on a regular basis, but the status of the United States as the melting pot of the world and a place of refuge make for a unique risk of people bringing in diseases that can be easily contracted.
“Somebody not immunized could bring [polio] back,” Slothower says. “Ifthey come to the United States and one of our children isn’t immunized - there’s a certain segment now that parents don’t want them to be immunized, so if they don’t - and they sit next to a child who has the virus, it will spread here [once again].”
Slothower and the more than 200 members of the Springdale Rotary Club hope to spread this message and raise funds for charitable projects, all while having an entertaining evening at Everybody Wins! A Benefit to End Polio Now on Saturday in the Pauline Whitaker Arena in Fayetteville.
Tickets are $50. All proceeds will be matched twoto-one by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will be used for local and international projects.
Slothower got involved in Rotary activities while living in Nebraska, and when she moved to Northwest Arkansas, she was determined to continue her service. She has served on the Springdale Rotary for more than a decade by running weekly meetings,keeping membership up, coming up with fresh ideas and guiding club decisions.
“I love Rotary,” she says. “There’s no organization in the world, I believe, that does more with the money than Rotary. I’m astonished with what they’ve accomplished.”
Members regularly oversee and volunteer in the Wheelchair Program, CHOICES and Miracle League. At home, Springdale Rotary works with Miracle League, a baseball program that gives the disabled the opportunity to play baseball, while providing their parents the chance to stop assisting so they can sit in the stands and cheer for their child.
The club fosters learning and vocabulary skills by giving a dictionary to each third-grader, and through the CHOICES project teaches eighth-graders how to make good choices and improve their chances for success through education.
“Most of the people in Rotary, it’s like they join for networking, but then they realize the good they can do by staying involved,” Slothower says.
While each project is equally important, she says that the Wheelchair Programis among the club’s favorites.
Members spend the year gathering donations, buying as many wheelchairs as they can and distributing them to those in need here at home as well as internationally. They travel abroad to personally deliver wheelchairs to children and the elderly, making emotional connections that keep them volunteering.
Such trips have opened their eyes to family membersand friends who were caring for loved ones in creative or unusual ways, like the woman who had a pulley system to help get her grandson out of bed in the morning, another who had a device like a skateboard for the full body and the mother who had to carry her grown child by the armpits.
Their donations make an immediate difference and provide recipients with safer, reliable transportation,Slothower says.
“It feels so good to help people like that,” Slothower says. “It’s the reason I do this. There are so many in our club who are really heavily involved and have that emotional tie that you really know that you’re making a difference in the world.”
For more information on this event, visit springdalerotary.com or call (479) 263-8451.
Northwest Profile, Pages 37 on 03/30/2014