Skydive to save lives
Aug. 20, 2020 PLYMOUTH EAGLE.
Plymouth Michigan News
Rotary Club members take a 14,000-foot leap of faith to eradicate polio
They took a leap of faith last Saturday when several members of both the Plymouth Noon and Wayne Rotary clubs jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet.
The courageous club members followed the lead of District 6400 Governor Noel Jackson who organized the flight to fight polio and urged club members to secure pledges from friends, family members and strangers to ensure they actually jumped from the aircraft. To date, the Skydive for Police effort has generated more than $123,036 to the Rotary effort to immunize children and eradicate polio worldwide. That total includes a two to one grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose interest was piqued by the unusual fundraising effort. The eradication of polio is a shared goal of the Gates Foundation and Rotary clubs worldwide.
Mackenzie Rediske of the Wayne Rotary Club made the leap as did Chuck Bares and Jan Eisen, both of the Plymouth Noon Rotary Club. The jumpers were cheered on by a crowd of well-wishers, including families, friends and fellow club members.
The tandem jumps took some instruction before take off from the Dropzone location in Jackson.
Jackson, who initiated the skydives to generate funds and call attention to the effort, was on hand in his unmistakable Captain Rotary outfit which he wears for all the jumps in which he participates, which is most of them, he admits. He has personally raised $4,700 in pledges for the effort.
To date, the efforts of the skydiving Rotarians have funded 205,060 doses of polio vaccine and funded the inoculation of 41,000 children. Getting the vaccine and the vaccinator to the children is more expensive than simply the cost of the two drops of vaccine, Jackson explained.
Jackson said he had a sure-fire way to recruit Bares, Eisen and Rediske.
“I would go up to people and tell them we were skydiving for polio and give them two options,” says Jackson. “I would tell them I was paying $180 out of my own pocket to jump, so if you are not going to jump, you have to pay $180. Most people would say, ‘OK, you got it.’ “
The budget to see zero cases of polio for three years, the requirement to have the world certified as polio free, is $1.5 billion. Rotary had pledged $50 million a year for the next three years and The Gates Foundation has pledged to match the Rotary donations up to $50 million a year for the next three years, or 33 percent of the total budget, National governments and public health organizations from around the world have pledged the balance of the costs.
Plymouth Voice.
Photo: David Willett / Assoicated Newspapers
