Group raises funds for vaccinations
The GFWC Intermediate League of Butler received recognition from the United Nations earlier this month for its work in raising money to fund childhood vaccinations.
Shot@Life was chosen as this year's international outreach program by the 60-member service organization.
Shot@Life is a United Nations Foundation campaign to educate Americans to champion vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries, as well as donate vaccines to prevent childhood deaths and give children a shot at a healthy life.
Under the leadership of Elaine Linamen, league president, and Mary Jane Weisenstein and Anna Mae Rock, co-chairmen of the International Outreach Committee of the league, a total of $1,650 was raised through a “pound auction” and candy sales.
The league's proceeds were donated on the National Day of Giving Dec. 2 on which Bill and Melinda Gates doubled the donation.
“I was so excited about this,” said Weisenstein. “We raised $1,650. That was tripled to $4,950 with the national GFWC match and the money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”
“We sold candy bars and we had a pound auction, everything in the auction weighed a pound. We had canned peaches that went for $50. I never dreamed our auction could raise so much money,” said Weisenstein.
The money was turned over Dec. 2.
Weisenstein said the money was turned in at 7 minutes after 6 p.m., which qualified it for a match from the Gates Foundation.
“It was only between six and eight that they were going to match it. I was so excited that I called the president,” Weisenstein said.
Weisenstein herself later got a call from the United Nations informing her that the Intermediate League is considered a Platinum donor.She was told the gift to Shot@Life was the largest donation of a club to its' campaign on that day in the United States.“We will be recognized at the national GFWC convention in June,” Weisenstein said.Weisenstein said, “Most children in other countries die from things like diarrhea, measles and mumps. We take so many things for granted in the United States,” she said.According to the United Nations Foundation, 1.5 million children die or are disabled annually by vaccine-preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, measles and poliomyelitis.Pneumonia and diarrhea are the two biggest killers of children younger than five and account for more than one-third of childhood deaths worldwide.Poliomyelitis has recently reemerged in areas that had been polio-free for years, and measles still kills an estimated 450 people each day — the majority of whom are young children.For every $10 a child is vaccinated against all childhood diseases, said Linamen.Linamen chose the Shot@Life program as one of several charities for its international outreach efforts.“Being a mother, and I'm also a teacher, I see a lot of children's first moments,” said Linamen. “1.5 million children die from a preventable disease each year, children that will never walk or go to school. We can really make an impact for mothers and their children.”The foundation believes vaccines are an especially important health intervention because they level the playing field for the most vulnerable children who are otherwise unlikely to make it to a doctor or a hospital. For these children, access to vaccines can mean the difference between life and death, a healthy life or a lifetime of struggle.Shot@Life builds on the U.N. Foundation's 13-year history in global vaccine efforts as a leading partner in the Measles Initiative and Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
