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“Look, the wheels up there are turning!” exclaims a young boy to his mother. Many others, noticing the illumination, stop to admire, enthuse and talk about the active engagement of Rotary, together with the co-operation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to put an end to polio now.
With the projection onto the Alte Oper, the Rotary Club Frankfurt/Main International wanted to raise awareness for the worldwide “End Polio Now – Day”. Friday evening was the starting point for wider Rotarian co-operation involving several Frankfurt Rotary Clubs in a joint project. The next morning hundreds of collection boxes stood in businesses, retailers and places of interest, ready to be filled. Members of Rotary and Rotaract talked to passers by in the city centre distributing leaflets, informing and explaining. The theme was: “Whenever you spend money today, please donate one Euro against Polio.”
“It was incredible to see so many friends from other Clubs joining in,” says Heike Schwesinger, President of RC Frankfurt/Main International. “We managed to turn this into a truly all Frankfurt event.” Whether this was with the information stand manned by the RC Frankfurt Städel; the initiative by RC Frankfurt Paulskirche, where Gunnar Wöbke had the “Deutsche Bank Skyliners” basketball team play in shirts with “End Polio Now” emblazoned on them; or members of Rotaract, who were active collecting in the city: Frankfurt RCs came together putting others before self.
The members of RC Frankfurt/Main International are looking forward to finding out how much was collected. The tin boxes will be opened in the coming weeks and the proceeds counted. “I fear we may need an electric can opener to master this!” says project instigator Ulrike Gehring.
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