Elgin Symphony Orchestra and Rotary Unite to End Polio Now
The event, sponsored by the Elgin Symphony Orchestra in partnership with Rotary Dist. 6440 and the Elgin Breakfast, Elgin Noon and Dundee Township Rotary Clubs, includes three Gershwin in Blue concerts at the Hemmens Cultural Center in downtown Elgin. The ESO is donating 25 percent of the ticket proceeds to Dist. 6440 and End Polio Now at its performances at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, April 15; 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 16 and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 17.
Elgin Breakfast, Noon and Dundee Township clubs have also pledged over $5,000 in Polio Plus donations during the event.
Polio eradication has been Rotary's top priority for more than two decades. The international humanitarian service organization is a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.
Rotary club members worldwide have contributed more than $1 billion and countless volunteer hours to the polio eradication effort, and have recently pledged to raise an additional US$200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All of the resulting $555 million will be spent in support of eradication activities.
Great progress has been made, and the incidence of polio infection has plunged from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to fewer than 1,000 cases in 2010. More than two billion children have been immunized in 122 countries, preventing five million cases of paralysis and 250,000 pediatric deaths. There are still pockets of the virus in 5 countries. With your help, polio can be eradicated completely worldwide. To learn more about polio eradication and this historic effort, visit www.rotary.org/endpolio .
For more information and to order tickets, call the ESO's box office at (847) 888-0400. Reservations can be made for tickets in a variety of price ranges from $25 to $65 each for any one of the three concerts.
The ESO, in its 61st consecutive season, is a 69-piece professional orchestra playing 45 concerts annually at the Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin and Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg before an estimated 55,000 patrons.
Gershwin in Blue will include the iconic works of pianist and American composer George Gershwin, including Strike Up the Band, Promenade, Girl Crazy Overture, Rhapsody in Blue and selections from Porgy & Bess. Soprano Ollie Watts Davis, pianist Jodie De Salvo and the Elgin Choral Union join conductor Stephen Squires during the two-hour performance. www.elginsymphony.org