Houghton Lake Rotary and Rotary Interact Club members have taken action this October to raise awareness, funds, and support to end polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that still threatens children in parts of the world today. 
 
Rotary Clubs around the world have held events on or near World Polio Day, October 24, and marked historical progress toward a polio-free world.
 
Rotary members and guests, who attended the October 20 Rotary meeting at Buccillis Pizza in Houghton Lake, partook in a Polio Awareness Program presented by Rotarian Rhonda Lamberg and Rotary Interact Member, Jenna Houserman.
 
The presentation included educational facts about Poliomyelitis shared by Houserman, along with historical progress of Rotary’s efforts to eradicate it. A video showed the impact of Nigeria’s recent excitement in becoming polio-free and the quest to end polio forever. Lamberg shared the challenges and the hopes for Rotary to put in extra efforts this year to raise awareness and donate funding to save children from the effects of polio, which can lead to paralysis, bone deformities, disability, and death. 
 
Students at Houghton Lake’s Junior and Senior High School had the opportunity to learn about polio and to help the cause to end it, through a Polio Awareness Candy Sale held by the Rotary Interact Club, during lunchtimes on October 26 and 27. Rotary Interact is a service club for students designed to foster leadership, responsible citizenship, and to promote peace and understanding, while having fun creating projects that make a difference, locally and internationally.
 
The Polio Awareness event created by Rotary Interact Members and chaired by Interactor Haleigh Foster, was attended by many students and staff. An assortment of wrapped candies were purchased and bagged to sell at the event site while Rotary Interact students volunteered their time to share polio education verbally and through the use of a virtual poster board that included facts, photos, and progress to eradicate polio in the world. The event stressed the preventable nature of the virus through early vaccination of children. It raised awareness and $161 in funding that will be sent to the Rotary Foundation PolioPlus Fund to be used toward the END POLIO NOW initiative to purchase vaccines and to help bring the cases of wild polio to zero.