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Donation to fight polio made in honor of longtime Wheeling Rotarian

The family of longtime Wheeling Rotarian Jack Blane has announced a $500,000 donation to help eliminate polio - a gift that will be matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a total of $1.5 million.

The gift - $100,000 a year over the course of the next five years - will be given to Rotary International's PolioPlus campaign, for which Blane was the international executive coordinator in the effort's earliest days from 1986 to 1988. The campaign eradicated polio from most of the world, but it is still found in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. The donation is being made on behalf of the Rotary Club of Wheeling, where Blane was twice president.

The Highland Park resident died in February 2018 at the age of 94.

Blane's family attended a recent club meeting where they announced news of the donation, and expressed hope it would spur Rotarians to continue to support a cause that was so dear to him.

"The family really appreciates it was such an important part of his life," said Rich Rosen, a member of the Wheeling club.

Blane met Bill Gates Sr. - the father of the billionaire entrepreneur - at a dinner event and had a conversation that led to the foundation's multibillion dollar commitment to fight the disease.

It was also personal for Blane, who remembered a polio outbreak that killed two boys and paralyzed six others at his summer Boy Scout camp in 1937.

"It hit close to me," he told the Daily Herald in a 2017 story. "I felt blessed not to have been afflicted, and I wanted to pay the fact I hadn't experienced any problems forward."

'You can very much make a difference' Late Wheeling Rotary Club president helped lead fight against polio

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