District-wide PolioPlus Christmas Card Fundraiser 

As you may have heard or read, there are a couple of major District 5840 PolioPlus fundraising initiatives. The one described here is the sales and purchase of PolioPlus themed Christmas cards for a donation $10.00.
The above image is a virtual of the outside of the front side of the card. The inside will have Christmas wishes and a picture of a Rotarian giving drops vaccinating a baby. There will be text that describes how the card was purchased with the recipient in mind. The cost of the card will
help to vaccinate 16 children for a lifetime free of the crippling effects of the polio virus.
 
The physical cards will be available in the 2-3 weeks. Until then, I am asking each of you as D5840 Leadership (club Presidents, PDG’s, DG, DGE, DGN, DGND and other committee chairs) to pre-sell the cards with the assistance of your club members. I once was invited to discuss PolioPlus and the Mother’s Day cards I was selling then. The invitation was by a friend, a pastor, who allowed me to present from his pulpit on a Sunday morning. I then sold cards to that week’s Sunday morning service attendees outside the chapel.
 
While these are tough economic times, most people can still afford the $10.00 for one card. There are unfortunately many Rotarians in the district that have not yet donated at all to PolioPlus or TRF for that matter. Donating the $10.00 for the card will get them over that hump and perhaps getting them into the habit of donating.
 
Here are some ways to bring in donations for the cards (yes, purchasing the cards bottom line.)
1) Announce continually at club meetings for club members to donate the money for the 1 or however more cards they want. One person has already sold 40 cards, sight unseen and wants to sell more. Your club TRF chair could be in charge (you do have a club TRF chair, right?) There could be another person in charge of the club’s handling of the Christmas cards.
2) Approach outside groups such as faith based like the church to which I presented.
3) Bring them to work, discuss online with co-workers.
4) Advertise on social media like Facebook personal, club and business pages. Post on Instagram. (Get in touch with me if you have issues with the techie side of this.)
5) Have the club purchase or get an outside sponsor to purchase - company or individual - a batch of cards (e.g. 50 or 100 cards.) The cards could then be used as a gift to residents of a senior living facility. Most of the older people in these places do not get many visits from family, especially now with the pandemic. I am sure it will be welcome by the residents when they see that the cost of the card will vaccinate 16 children.
6) If your club has an Interact club or Rotaract club, ask them to sell the cards. When I was in high school I always enjoyed selling different types of greeting cards. Letting the kids know their efforts will be helping Rotary will get them psyched.
7) A Rotarian involved with boy scouts could get their troop enlisted to sell.
8) If your club is having some type of PolioPlus fundraiser like Pints for Polio, add $10.00 to the ticket price and tell the event attendees the extra $10.00 goes towards PolioPLus also.
 
Once the donations start coming in, your club member in charge of Christmas Cards would fill out Rotary’s form 094-EN, the multiple donor form. This way the Rotarian will get TRF credit towards their next Paul Harris level. The form, along with a check for the total amount of the donation made out to The Rotary Foundation with PolioPlus in the MEMO area, will be sent to TRF to the address on the form. Please send me a copy of the form (chiefofstaff@rotary5840.org .) That way we will be able to keep a good running total of how many cards were sold and I will be able to get the right number of cards to you.
 
Feel free to call with questions and to place an order for cards.
 
Yours in Rotary, 
Charlie Wasser
Chief of Staff
PolioPlus Chair
District 5840
Member Rotary Club of Alamo Ranch