This week marks Tucson, Arizona’s 42nd El Tour de Tucson, one of the premier bicycling events in the country. Annually up to 10,000 cyclists participate in rides with distances ranging from family fun rides of 1 mile, and others up to 102 miles. Riders can select a charity to ride or fundraise for.
John Hewko, Rotary International’s CEO and General Secretary has been a rider since 2012, participating in the 102 mile ride and raising over $72 million to help provide polio vaccines for children. Arizona played a key role in America’s fight against polio, launching one of the country’s first mass immunization campaigns in 1962. The idea spread and by 1964 more than 100 million Americans had been vaccinated, and no further polio outbreaks were recorded in the U.S.
You can support The Rotary Foundation’s own End Polio Now campaign by making a donation to Miles to End Polio which has raised more than $53.3 million for eradication efforts, including matching funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.