Local Video
|
| Turkey Trot: One community, many connections |
By: CHARLIE COGAN, Guest Columnist
|
Posted: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 11:40 pm
|
 Email  Print
|
On Nov. 26, more than 500 people gathered for a fun Thanksgiving Day run that has become a local tradition. For the third year in a row, proceeds from Northfield Rotary’s Turkey Trot have been earmarked for Rotary International’s PolioPlus program. In just three years, this event has helped generate more than $20,000 for Rotary’s global polio eradication effort. And this connection to PolioPlus and the Gates Foundation has been very meaningful for Northfield Rotarians and many of the participants.
Rotary President Rick Estenson of Northfield is himself a veteran of the December 2004 National Immunization Days campaign in Togo, Burkina Faso and Benin, as are fellow club members Jim Pokorney and Brett Reese. He feels that this event is more meaningful to Northfield Rotarians because of the many connections that members have to the polio eradication effort. First, the event was founded by Rotarian Robert Bierman and his wife, Ellen, whose grandfather was a polio survivor. Though the event has benefited both local and international efforts, the connection to polio eradication is special to the Biermans. When Ellen was honored last year by the club, she dedicated the award to her grandfather’s memory. Robert appreciates the festive mood of the event.
“It’s not like other 5K runs I attend. It’s not about the run. It’s about the cause, the day, the community,” he said.
Second, Rotarian Richard Maus was on hand to sign copies of his book, “The Lucky One: Making it Past Polio and Despair,” which was featured in The Rotarian magazine three years ago. Many runners learned about the polio eradication effort, as well as the realities of living with polio from Richard, who donates his books in return for contributions to PolioPlus and has traveled extensively in Minnesota and Wisconsin to rally support from Rotarians for polio eradication, always at his own expense.
Third, several members of the club have been affected by polio over the years. The Rev. Joseph Crippen’s mother was a polio survivor and he dedicated a Rotary award to her memory last year. Personally, I’ve led two teams to West Africa, and my wife Nalongue Bomane Cogan’s family in Togo includes several polio victims, some still living and others who died young because of the disease. The list goes on, but the bottom line is that polio does not seem so distant and foreign to Northfielders any more and many make time to participate in the Turkey Trot, knowing that their entry fees go to polio eradication, with high hopes that polio can soon be the second disease ever eradicated. The first was small pox.
The $200 million Rotary PolioPlus Challenge for polio eradication is benefiting from many community-based events like this across the country and around the globe. These funds are being matched by $355 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation towards the global polio eradication effort. For more information, please see www.rotary.org/EndPolio and www.polioeradication.org. This Web site is managed by the four main partners in the polio eradication effort: The World Health Organization, UNICEF, Rotary International and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
— Charlie Cogan is a member of the Northfield Rotary Club. |
|
|
|
Story Comment Guidelines:
Registered members who identify themselves by name are authorized to automatically post comments to stories. Readers who wish to remain anonymous submit comments to a pending queue, where they will be reviewed for approval within 24 hours of their submission. To determine the author of a comment, click on the user name.
Those who identify themselves will be given broader boundaries to express their opinion. Only those anonymous comments that contribute to the conversation in a thoughtful, respectful, civil manner will be approved. The decision to approve or reject a comment is a subjective one and is ours alone. Authors of rejected comments will receive an email response.
If you would like to report abuse click here to notify us.
|
|
| Show Comments | Hide Comments
|
|
| Login and voice your opinion!
|
|
|
|
|
Top Jobs | Top Homes | Top Cars
09 Jetta
09 white Jetta asking $16,000
less than 48,000 miles
|
|
Digg
Del.icio.us
Facebook
MySpace
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo!
