Make a difference in the fight against polio
By Antoinette Tuscano
Rotary International News -- 25 November 2009
For British Rotarian Lawrence “Tris” Tristram, a trip to New York City to attend the 2 December benefit Concert to End Polio with Itzhak Perlman seemed like a great way both to treat himself to a first-time visit to the United States and to help support Rotary’s top priority of polio eradication.
“I was a Rotarian at the start of PolioPlus. I do strongly feel that we must complete the task,” says Tristram, a member for the Rotary Club of Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
After Tristram bought the concert ticket, though, he began to wonder about how he’d get around the big, unfamiliar city. After Tristram posted an item about his trip on a Rotary fellowship Web site, another Rotarian jumped in to help, not only suggesting a hotel for him but booking the room and agreeing to meet him at the airport.
If you’d like to help support polio eradication by going to the concert, tickets are still available. Besides being a benefit concert in which all proceeds go to Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge, this one-night event lets you see Perlman perform with the New York Philharmonic. The concert will be at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Avery Fisher Hall, in New York City on Wednesday, 2 December, at 7:30 p.m. View the concert program.
Available tickets are priced between $90 and $130, depending on stage proximity. A premium concert seat and admission to the reception are being offered at a package price of $500.
To buy tickets, contact the Philharmonic box office at 212-875-5656 or online.
“We have to do everything we can to eliminate this disease,” says Eric Buehler, president of the Rotary Club of Islip, New York, who plans to attend the concert. “A bright spot in dealing with this tragic disease are the different ways Rotary can help, and having a concert with Mr. Perlman is certainly a fantastic way to do it.”
Learn more about the concert at www.rotary.org/endpolioconcert.
If you can’t attend the concert, you can still donate to The Rotary Foundation and contribute to the fight to End Polio Now.