January 25, 2015 will mark the date of the 5
th Annual “Purple Pins for Polio” Event put on by the four Rotary Clubs in Fort Collins. This two hour bowling event has raised over $45,000 in support of Rotary International’s world-wide fight to eradicate polio. Since 1985, Rotary International has raised $1.2 billion to help reduce the number of cases of polio in the world from 350,000 annually in 1985, to fewer than 250 annually today. There remain three countries that have not stopped transmission of the disease; Afganistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. We are this close!
As someone who has been deeply affected by polio in my life, this event is a very personal one for me. At age 25, my father, Bryan Robinson, contracted polio in the North American epidemic of 1950-52, one year before Jonas Salk discovered the vaccine for polio. After a year in the hospital, my Dad spent the rest of his life confined to a wheelchair. In his later years, he suffered from the effects of Post-Polio Syndrome and finally passed away in 2012 at the age of 85. Although he lived a full life, there was not a moment of his life, and the lives of his family, that was not seriously altered because of polio.
When I joined Rotary in the fall of 1999, I was interested in getting involved in Rotary International’s “End Polio Now” campaign which is now the “This Close” campaign. The four Fort Collins Clubs were planning a bowling fundraising event that coming spring which was called “Purple Pins for Polio”. The first year was an immediate success raising over $10,000 and bringing the four clubs together for a few hours of fellowship and competition.
The event is pretty simple; there are 32 lanes at Chipper’s Lanes. We sell a lane sponsorship for $250 and then recruit teams of six from each club to participate. The teams pay $60 each to bowl two games which is $10 per person. Each club has their own competitions within the club or against teams from other clubs. Everyone has fun and the event takes 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon. This basic format raises $8,000 per year.
The next three years, with this basic format, were equally successful in raising over $10,000 for the campaign each year as well as providing a fun, competitive, fellowship event for the 4 clubs. Our club had one of our teams each year that had taken the basic fundraising format and run with it, raising an additional $2500 - $3000 each year. This got us thinking about what the potential for the event could be if all 32 teams did the same thing.
With that thought, we took the idea to our club last year and got traction for the idea of what would happen if all of our teams raised additional funds inside AND outside of the club. It was a resounding success! Our club raised over $11,000 ourselves and when combined with what the other clubs raised, the event brought in over $16,000 for the fight against polio. The wonderful thing is that these funds are matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2-1 so we triple the amount raised!
So this year, we are trying to get the other three clubs excited about leveraging their efforts and raising more money. Ultimately, our goal is to raise over $30,000 each year between the four clubs. With over 150 Rotarians and their friends from Fort Collins involved each year, this is very achievable. The Foothills Club double what they raised last year when compared to the first three years of the event. What can we do if the other clubs do the same?