Barbershop concert benefits Rotary’s polio effort

The Montrose Area Rotary Club will host the Southerntiersmen Barbershop Chorus will be performing Saturday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m., in the Montrose Area High School auditorium. Proceeds from the concert benefit Rotary’s World Polio Eradication Project.

The Montrose Area Rotary Club will host the Southerntiersmen Barbershop Chorus will be performing Saturday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m., in the Montrose Area High School auditorium. Proceeds from the concert benefit Rotary’s World Polio Eradication Project.

BY STACI WILSON

Polio was declared eradicated in the United States in 1979, largely due to a vaccination effort began with the development of Jonas Salk’s killed-virus vaccine in the 1950s and Albert Sabin’s weakened live-virus in the 1960s.

Now the experts at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention believe polio will be the next disease to be eradicated in the world.

There are three countries in the world that have never been polio-free: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

But Rotary International Clubs around the world, including the Montrose Area club, are working to change that.

According to Rotary International, 222 cases of the disease were reported in 2012, one-third of the cases reported in 2011.

Since launching its Global Eradication Initiative Project in 1988, the incidence of the disease has dropped 99 percent.

To help push eradication efforts forward, the Montrose Rotary is hosting a concert Oct. 19, 7 p.m., in the MontroseAreaHigh School auditorium.

The Southerntiersman Barbershop Chorus, of Binghamton, N.Y., will perform. Tickets for the event are $10 and available through Rotary Club members or at the door. Proceeds from the concert benefit the Rotary Polio Worldwide Eradication Project. The concert falls just before World Polio Day on Oct. 24.

In addition to lending efforts to wiping out the crippling disease, concert-goers will delight in the experience of hearing the a capella, barbershop-style singing of the 54 member men’s chorus.

 

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