Rotary marks PolioPlus Day each Oct. 24

The year was 1986 and I suddenly found myself being asked to step way outside my comfort zone — even into countries I might never travel to in my life.

Let me explain.

At that time I had only been married four years and my life was changing in so many ways and I was being challenged with work and life. I had begun a role in sales at the newspaper and was doing well and a couple of people I really looked up to conspired to get me into the local Rotary Club in Tucumcari.

I was flattered but soon learned they were just waiting for new blood to come through the door and go to work. Within the first two years I found myself in the role of president-elect. I’d never been shy but I had never considered myself a leader. Two of the biggest challenges Rotary had ever accepted fell in my year and I got the chance to sink or swim as a leader.

One of those was the decision to begin accepting women in Rotary. We had a lot of older business owners, some farmers and ranchers and the club was pretty conservative. In most cases it wouldn’t have made sense to be a leader and early-adopter of female members but I had cover and I used it.

We had the widow of a former Rotarian who had played the piano at our meetings, yes back then we had Rotary songbooks and everything. She had been coming to Rotary longer than most of the men and had a better attendance record too. I asked if she would accept the honor of being our first female member and she agreed. No one in the club could object to bringing Kathryn in, and we had broken the ice.

The second challenge I had that year would hit this conservative bunch in the place they least liked being affected — the pocketbook.

Rotary came out with a program that year called PolioPlus, what some considered unattainable, eliminating polio from the world. We were among the most, if not the most, international service organization by then and if it could be done it was thought Rotary had the resources and network to make it happen.

The challenge came directly face-to-face with my district governor — get every club member to ante up $100 each, over and above dues and other projects. Back then in our club that was a big ask. I sold it and I sold it hard and by the end of my year we were all-in with our obligation.

It was just the start and we all knew it. Soon it was decided we needed to try and get everyone to that level of giving every year to make the dream a reality. Rotarians and other organizations have kept things moving for 35 years now and polio has been eradicated from 99.9% of the world. We had gotten down to just a handful of cases each year in India and Pakistan until war in Gaza and poor water and sanitation brought on new cases there this past year.

Fortunately, I only knew a few people growing up with polio, none of them my age because by then we were all receiving the vaccine. I knew one man in a wheelchair and another on crutches, both of my father’s generation. That group knew the terror that gripped families when polio outbreaks occurred in their time and to their loved ones.

Today, the vaccine, which costs about $3, can assure families they don’t have a child struggling with the crippling disease. That’s why we’re still working to eliminate polio completely.

Each year on Oct. 24, the night I set down to write this column, Rotary marks as PolioPlus Day. We talk about it in our club meetings and I usually give an extra donation to sweeten the pot toward the goal.

I remember how it started and I look forward to seeing it finish while I’m alive.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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