“We had expected about 60 people and ended up with over 80 so it was a very successful night,” said Rotarian Steve McCoy.

Ten local and two visiting poets performed on the night and the group enjoyed Aussie tucker with Kev’s meat pies, lamingtons and apple pies.

The Prolapse by Dawn Hamel was declared the people’s choice poem on the night.

For more than 20 years, Rotary International has played a major role in the fight to end polio worldwide, contributing more than $800 million to the effort through its PolioPlus program.

When Rotary International started the PolioPlus program in 1985, more than 350,000 children worldwide were infected annually by this crippling and sometimes fatal disease.

In 2008, fewer than 2000 children were infected, a reduction of more than 99 per cent. Eradicationis within reach but polio remains a threat until

the day the world is certified polio-free.

Polio Plus received $355 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this year when Bill Gates announced the latest grant during his speech at the Rotary leadership conference in January 2009. Rotary in turn pledged to raise $200 million in matching funds within three years.

“We are making this grant and asking you to raise a total of $200 million by June 30, 2012, because we know eradication doesn’t come in an instant,”Gates said.

“If we all have the fortitude to see this effort through to the end, then we will eradicate polio.”