By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor
An international feast held Saturday night will help Rotarians fight polio.
The second annual International Dinner, hosted by the Corbin and London Rotary Clubs, included foods from 17 countries. More than 400 people attended the dinner at Corbin’s Civic Center, and their tickets will help Rotary International’s goal to eradicate the polio disease.
“As of this year, we’ve had less than 1,000 cases of polio worldwide,” said guest speaker Rakesh Sachdeva, past Rotary district governor and Pikeville pediatrician. “Before we started this effort in 1988, we used to have over half-a-million cases of polio worldwide.”
Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease, affecting children mostly under the age of 5.
Since 1985, Rotary has raised more than $900 million to fight polio by providing vaccinations in poverty-stricken areas.
Sachdeva said Rotary International hopes to raise $200 million for polio efforts by 2012. The money is a match to the $350 million pledged by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate polio from the few countries in which the disease remains — Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and northern India.
So far, Rotary has raised $120 million. Sachdeva said the local Rotary District’s 42 clubs raised more than $110,000 for Rotary’s PolioPlus program last year. That included about $10,000 from the London and Corbin clubs, he said.
Saturday’s dinner included serving stations manned by volunteers, many of whom moved to the Tri-County area from other countries. Diners were able to have their pick of traditional foods and desserts from Italy, Japan, Cameroon, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Ukraine and other countries.
Though the final receipts have yet to be tallied, organizers said this year’s International Dinner will likely exceed last year’s fundraising efforts.
