Los Alamos High School Interact Club members, a Rotary youth organization, helps raise funds to eradicate polio during the Halloweekend Pumpkin Glow and Show Oct. 29 at Overlook Park in White Rock. Courtesy/Rotary
LAHS Interact Club members hand out informational brochures during a Purple Polio Glow fundraiser to help Rotary International’s polio eradication efforts during the Halloweekend Pumpkin Glow and Show. Courtesy/Rotary
By LINDA HULL
Vice President
ROTARY Club of Los Alamos
As the community joined together in White Rock Oct. 29 for the Halloweekend Pumpkin Glow and Show sponsored by the County’s Community Services Department and Los Alamos Arts Council, Rotary Club of Los Alamos members and Los Alamos High School (LAHS) Interact Club members (Interactors), managed a table for Purple Polio Glow.
Rotarians and Interactors sold purple glow bracelets, raising nearly $400 to donate to Rotary International’s PolioPlus to help eradicate polio.
Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal disease, spread by person to person by a virus, typically through contaminated water. Children under the age of five are at greatest risk. Polio attacks the nervous system, and in some instances, causes paralysis. While there is no cure, there is prevention: a safe and effective vaccine – one which Rotary and its partners use to immunize over 2.5 billion children worldwide.
Rotary’s service, now part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, has reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent. However, if all eradication efforts ended today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year. Every dollar raised through PolioPlus is matched by $2 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Readers who are interested in making a tax-deductible donation to PolioPlus may send a check to LA Rotary 1312 Foundation, PO Box 986, Los Alamos, NM 87544.
And why purple? By dipping a little finger in temporary purple dye, children in foreign countries who have been vaccinated against polio can be easily identified by polio healthcare workers.
Interact is the youth service organization sponsored by Rotary and is especially active at Los Alamos High School. Interactors undertake at least two projects a year, local and international. To date these have included helping sort food for delivery to the Navajo Nation, conducting a food drive for LA Cares, raising money to buy a ShelterBox (temporary housing for refugees displaced by conflict and natural disaster), and active participation in the Peace Glow fundraiser for Ukrainian humanitarian relief.
The Interact students who participated in Purple Polio Glow are Jonathan Chen, Alyssa Sun, Daniel Kim, Max Posada, Julian Singell, Kayli Lincoln, Dylan Marciano, and Emily Xu. Interact meets Tuesdays during lunch, 11:20-11:50 a.m., in Leslie Clark’s room in E-Wing across from the Activities Office. The Interact Club’s adult leaders are Rotarians Sandy Tobin and Rob Metcalf. Refreshments are served; all students are welcome.
