On Tuesday (3/12/2013) at noon, District 6760 Assistant Governor Michael Barrett awarded the Murfreesboro Rotary Club for its 28-years of working to end polio around the world.

Barrett said . . .

Polio Plus Background

Murfreesboro Rotarian Dr. Jim Boerner started the local club's Polio Plus affiliation with Rotary International back in 1985. Since then, polio cases have declined worldwide. Now only Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan have cases of this crippling disease.

Barrett noted, "If we don't finish the fight right now, more than 10 million children under the age of five could be paralyzed by polio in the next 40 years."

Polio reached its peak in the 1940's and 1950's, and many persons who were in school during those years had friends who were crippled and often died of this disease. Fears of polio epedemics brought summers when public swimming pools totally closed to reduce the spread of the poliomyelitis germ.

Many victims of the disease spent their life in a giant tube called the iron lung. This mechanical device did their breathing for them. The last survivor of an iron lung had Tennessee connections. Dianne Odell from Jackson died in 2008 at the age of 61. She never was able to live outside of the iron lung.

Rotary History

Rotary International was founded in 1905 by Chicago Attorney Paul Harris. The Murfreesboro Rotary Club was founded in 1919 and has a 94-year record of service to this community.