Literacy is Alive and Well in St. Marys

Rotarians Terry Pook (R) and Linda Schuyler (L)
present the Story of Polio to the Grades 4-6 of
the Little Falls School in St. Marys. 

By Linda Schuyler, Rotary Club of St. Marys

While organizing our two month long Polio awareness campaign, we realized that a very big part of this campaign would be to provide a lot of education about the story of Polio and Rotary’s involvement. We believed that many of the children and quite possibly their parents may not be familiar with this story.

We felt that this story could fall into many categories but we wanted to tell why we felt this campaign fit the Literacy category on many levels through the school system, the media and our ‘Purple Pinkie-End Polio Now’ event.

We met with the principals of the local public and High Schools as we were asking for permission to share the story of Polio and Rotary’s involvement with the students in Grades 4 through to High School.

We made presentations at three schools. I told the story of Polio and Rotarian Terry Pook showed some slides of her experiences during National Immunization Days (NIDs) in India and South Africa. We showed the students a wonderful CD titled “Vaccines Save Lives” narrated by Bill Gates while a cartoonist draws the story as he speaks. After each presentation, we held a mini NID. A number of Rotarians and their spouses who are members of Inner Wheel helped to paint the pinkie finger of each student with a purple marker as a symbol of one child immunized from polio. Each school was provided with a class set of comic-style books “The Amazing Stories of Polio” which the teachers and students will use throughout the year.

For six weeks we published a different article about Polio every week in the local newspaper. When we held our ‘Purple Pinkie-End Polio Now’ event, we had three guest speakers. Rotarian Terry Pook showed slides and spoke about her NID experiences. A polio survivor spoke of the challenges he has faced throughout his life and that he has never allowed polio to prevent him from enjoying life. Our keynote speaker reinforced the importance of commitment, compassion and hope.

The reason that I am telling you about our ‘Purple Pinkie-End Polio Now’ event is because of the impact this event had on the granddaughter of one of our Rotarians. She is a Grade 8 student from the Toronto area. She was so inspired by the information that was shared that evening. Shortly after returning home, she was given an assignment to write about someone who has changed Canada. She chose to write about her grandfather and Rotary and how they are making the world a better place one step at a time.

Her essay was selected to be entered into a competition. We do not know the result of the competition but we are certain that she will be a future foreign exchange student and Rotarian to continue her grandfather’s legacy.