Polio

Sweets shop owner helps in Rotary’s polio fight

Ithaca’s sweets shop in Press Bay Alley, Life’s So Sweet Chocolates, is taking part in a Rotary International initiative to eradicate polio.

In her shop, Darlynne Overbaugh, the proprietor and member of the Trumansburg Rotary Club, has set up the Candy Land board game, which was invented by Eleanor Abbott, who was afflicted with polio as a young woman. Editions from 1955, 1984 and 2012 are available to play in the store.

Overbaugh also has a donation cube for the Polio Plus effort and plans to match customers’ donations with her own funds.

Rotary International has been working for decades to eradicate polio. The effort was recently joined by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Just a few cases of polio remain in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. The total of cases went from 350,000 worldwide in 1988 to fewer4 than 600 in 2011.

“So now we’re this much closer. Rotary International and the Gates Foundation are pressing to see polio eradicated in our lifetimes, and with the help of individual Rotarians, clubs, and Darlynne Overbaugh and her customers, we are closing in on that goal,” a Rotary press release said.