How to Host Your Own World Polio Day Event

This year’s World Polio Day celebration will take place in Seattle, Washington, on the campus of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on 24 October. The Gates Foundation, one of our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, will co-host the event which will include a live-stream update with experts and celebrity ambassadors on where we are at in our goal of eradicating polio.

But even if you can’t plan a trip to Seattle to be a part of the big day in person, you can help expand our reach and impact by planning a World Polio Day event in your own community.

Ideas include:

- Hosting a viewing party for friends and club members to watch the World Polio Day event. Register your event at endpolio.org

- Inviting local media, elected officials, and community leaders to a viewing party to show new audiences and potential members the power of what we can accomplish as an organization.

- Dedicating a club meeting to World Polio Day and update your website with information about the event.

- Organizing a fundraising or community event. Every $1 you raise for polio is matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

- Download materials for World Polio Day at endpolio.org, or make a donation now to fund continued immunizations and surveillance efforts.

Rotary continues to take a strong leadership role in the effort to eradicate polio, as was on display recently during the 2017 Rotary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Rotary committed to raise another $50 million each year during the next three years. The Gates Foundation will match those contributions 2 to 1 for up to $100 million a year. Combined, those contributions will add another $450 million toward disease surveillance, responses to outbreaks, and continued vaccinations of more than 400 million children annually.

Together, governments and partners pledged more than $1 billion during the convention, substantially shrinking the gap in funding the Global Polio Eradication Initiative says will be needed to reduce the cases of polio to zero.

Help us build on that momentum. Supporters in 90 countries registered more than 1,400 World Polio Day events in their communities last year. Join us to make this year’s event even bigger and better.