OPINION: Something to celebrate forever

Published 9:16 am Friday, July 11, 2025

If you love to dance, we have happy news. Great music is coming to Wilsonville this summer as part of the Wilsonville Rotary Summer Concerts, starting this week.

Josh Dalglish

Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts will perform their assortment of rock n’ roll classics on July 17 in Town Center Park, followed by funk/soul masters Kalimba (Earth, Wind and Fire tribute) on July 24, pop maestros Hit Machine on July 31 and the “Boogie Cat” Norm Sylvester and his band on Aug. 7.

All of these shows are on Thursdays and start with a great opening act at 5:30 p.m., followed by the main event at 6:30 p.m. Everyone’s invited!

Now, if there’s one thing these bands know how to do, it’s whip up a great party. And, if there is one thing our Wilsonville crowds are known for, it’s dancing the evening away.

That’s something most of us take for granted — the ability to dance and move. Those afflicted by polio, a paralytic disease, may feel differently.

Polio used to be a constant threat in American daily life, particularly to children. Then Dr. Jonas Salk developed the first vaccine in 1955. It took less than 25 years to practically eliminate polio from the United States.

In 1985, Rotary decided to make that dream come true worldwide. It introduced the PolioPlus program to fund and deliver vaccines. In 1988, Rotary joined in partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to form the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, or GPEI.

When GPEI formed, there were 350,000 cases of polio worldwide every year. Since then, the incidence of polio has decreased 99.9 percent, thanks to consistent and tireless effort.

Although the wild poliovirus is endemic in just two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, polio will occasionally pop up in other places. These demonstrate that a polio case anywhere is a threat to children everywhere. The pathogen is always just a plane ride away, so we must eliminate the disease forever.

To do this, our funds support vaccine delivery, surveillance of the disease, community engagement programs and the implementation of polio eradication programs in affected regions.

Rotary also supports emergency response for polio outbreaks anywhere they happen.

This past June, Rotary and the Gates Foundation renewed their partnership to end polio, committing up to $450 million more to support the GPEI. As part of this, Rotary will raise $50 million per year, and the Gates Foundation will match every dollar raised two for one.

All Rotary clubs work towards polio eradication, and our Rotary Club of Wilsonville is no exception. Since 2007, we have raised more than $108,000 for the cause. Nearly all of that has come through generous contributions from Wilsonville Rotary Summer Concerts patrons.

Our concerts are free, and donations are optional, but we hope you’ll come out, dance, and contribute at the intermission when we come around with buckets. Your donations will be tripled, so that your $20 becomes $60. You will be leveraging big money and making an impact. If you can’t make it to a show, please give online at WilsonvilleConcerts.com.

The elimination of polio — making it the second disease eradicated, after smallpox — would be huge. You can unite with us for good, and own a piece of this enormous victory for humankind. Now that would be a reason to dance and celebrate!

Josh Dalglish is president of the Rotary Club of Wilsonville.