What started as an auction item for one last lei left on the podium at the end of Show Me Rotary, ended up as a huge gift to The Rotary Foundation and our Polio Plus eradication efforts. Two people were bidding on the lei, then two tables and then random people from all over the ballroom at the Capitol Plaza Hotel started coming forward to donate money to Polio Plus. Many of those donating money were from District 6040.
When the donations stopped coming in, we had raised $3,252. That amount was matched by the three sitting District Governors from the state of Missouri and increased the total to $13,008. Add in a 1-1 match from the World Fund and a 2-1 Match by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the total raised that day, in a matter of minutes, for Polio became $52,032. Wow!