Rotary International is an organization with over 1.2 million members with the aim of bettering communities, and eradicating polio worldwide.

Washington Rotarian Ed Raber says the service club is working to end polio, “Which is a disease that we don’t think about a whole lot anymore because not many people in the United States get it. No one has gotten polio in the U.S. for many decades. But there are people living in Washington County that as children had polio. So polio is a disease that can only survive in the human body, and so once you eradicate it, it’s kind of dead. It’s a rare disease like that, not like the common cold.” Polio is now only found in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. Rotary, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provide vaccines to prevent the spread of polio and end the disease.

Raber encourages people in the area to consider joining a service group, “Pretty much every community that’s in the KCII-listening area there’s a service club. It might be Rotary, it might be Kiwanis, or the Optimists, or the Lions, or something else. I encourage people, if you’re isolated, working by yourself in an office even with a group of other people, being in a service club is a great and rewarding experience. The other thing that is rewarding about being part of a service club like Rotary, you remember that it’s a community service organization. So, in addition to just getting together to have lunch, and learn a little bit, and have some fun, we also do a lot of service things. We’re trying to figure out how do we make an impact in our community.”

For a list of community service groups click here.