World Polio Day is Saturday, October 24. Five District 6900 clubs have registered a Polio event. The rest have thirty days and need simple, low-cost ways to meet our Polio goals.

WE’RE MAKING HISTORY. Ending Polio IS Our Legacy. LET US HELP YOU… Email Lee

From around the world:

• Knoxville, Tennessee. A member owns a Dunkin’ franchise. He sold purple-frosted doughnuts. Seven years on, clubs across the American South and Northeast have raised $7.7 million on that one idea.
• The Netherlands. Dutch districts commissioned a tulip whose red-and-yellow petals match the End Polio Now colors and sell the bulbs across Europe. Around $175,000 last year. Running since 2014.
• Lucerne, Switzerland. One concert, one renowned conductor, $300,000.
• District 6650. Purple Pinkie Donuts, $20 a dozen, past $600,000 nationally. Turnkey and replicable.
• Roswell. A cornhole tournament at Lucky’s, a tailgate in Athens before UGA–Kentucky, and a month-long raffle. Every bracket spot sold, more than 80 players and supporters turned out, and October closed near $15,000.
• Roswell, again. Extreme Heat Jog for Polio, Death Valley in August. roughly $8,000, tripled to $24,000 by the Gates match. It need not be hard. It must be audacious.
• Americus. A networking social with $5 pledged per registered Rotarian. Fifty people, sixteen of them guests, $200 raised, $600 delivered after the match.
• Atlanta Metro. A pickleball tournament with proceeds to end Polio.

The ones that cost almost nothing

• Pints for Polio. A brewery gives $1 a pint. Atlanta Brasil runs theirs at Still Fire Brewery on October 24. Chilliwack, British Columbia, runs one the same day.
• Pizza for Polio. Peachtree City and Atlanta Southern Crescent have both done it. So has Griffin.
• Push-Ups for Polio. Members film themselves, clubs compete, donors pay per rep.
• Pumpkins for Polio. Houston clubs decorate pumpkins and sell $1 tickets to judge them.
• A speaker. Buckhead brings in a former CDC physician on October 19 and opens the Zoom to visitors.
• A proclamation. Clayton County issued one. It costs a council agenda slot and puts the club in the paper.
• A purple pinkie. One dollar, one painted finger, gentian violet — the same mark a vaccinated child carries. Atlanta Southern Crescent ran the whole campaign online.

Last year I ran Death Valley alone. Pledges came to roughly $8,000, which the Gates Foundation turned into $24,000. Nobody paid for the mileage. No committee meetings, no people to organize. Donors appeared because the idea was ridiculous enough to talk about. It need not be hard. It must be audacious.

A member of East Cobb walked 485 miles of the Camino in 42 days on the same principle. Pick your own absurdity.

What to do before October 24

• Choose one format above. Do not invent a new one.
• Register it at poliocampaign.rotary.org so RI counts your club.
• Post it to your club calendar so the district can promote it.
• Send me the details and I will put your club in the next issue.

We are asking every club for $1,500 to PolioPlus. The Gates Foundation matches 2-to-1, so $1,500 arrives as $4,500.

Pick one. Run it. Tell me what came in. When stuck, email Lee lee@leehollingsworth.com