Some curious eyes turned to a marvel of modern engineering as Miss Vicky drove through the Border City.
The 1931 Model A Ford, driven by Lee Harman, past president of Rotary Club of Arlington, Wash., is on a mission to raise money to eradicate polio worldwide.
Read more: Rotary conference renews call to end polio
“We are doing difficult things in it to prove that difficult things are achievable, including getting rid of polio,” he said. “When we started, there were 350,000 cases worldwide and 50,000 deaths in 1984.
“We’re down to just 44 cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan now.”
He says they’ve been raising money driving Miss Vicky around with the most recent iteration having cheques locked in the vehicle.
“We’ve locked a $25,000 cheque (in a safe),” he said. “There’s actually four of those cheques in there. So, when they get matched by Rotarians or others, then that cheque comes out, that’s doubling the money, then it goes to
Mr. (Bill) Gates and his foundation doubles it again.”
The vehicle has been on trips around the world raising money to eliminate polio.
“We drove the car from Peking (Beijing), China to Paris, France, 10,000 miles,” he said, explaining they decided to make it a PolioPlus fundraiser. “We raised about $47,000.”
That wasn’t the last trip for Harman.
“We did another one from Alaska to Mexico in 2023,” he said.
He says that trip was particularly hard on the vehicle due to the extreme heat and mountains. In 2024, Miss Vicky got a new engine.
“It’s running great,” Harman said, explaining with some wind assistance and going downhill, he’ll get to almost 70 mp/h, or 112 km/h.
A maintenance issue was discovered in the Ford which needed some welding repair.
This year’s slogan is United for Good. The next trips for Harman and Miss Vicky were to Calgary following the Feb. 9 Rotary Club of Lloydminster lunch meeting.
“We’re back on our way. Going to Calgary, then down to where I live, on Camano Island, Wash.,” he said. “Our Rotary district is 50 per cent Canadian and 50 per cent U.S.”
Harman says after presenting a cheque of more than $100,000 last year and meeting District 5370 governor Ramesh Ferris, eventually, it led to a partnership between the two Rotary districts.
“We handed in a cheque for $100,000 and he thought that was pretty cool,” said Harman. “He said, ‘I wonder if we united our two districts could we do even better.’ That’s why we have four charity cheques in there.”
The Miss Vicky challenge has already raised $119,000 this Rotary year, which runs from June to July.
The next big trips for Harman will see him travelling across Canada.
“We’ll be taking it to Whitehorse in May and we’re taking it to Grande Prairie in April,” he said.
Landing in Lloydminster, he’s already had quite the trip across the country.
“I started in White Rock, B.C., and drove to Edmonton,” said Harman.
He says the funds raised help break the cycle of polio across the world.
“The vicious cycle of polio is really important for you to understand, that’s why we can’t stop. Polio lives in the ground waiting for a host, only a human host, if it can’t find that host, the virus dies in 10 to 14 days,” said Harman. “Only vaccination breaks the vicious cycle.”
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years with the ultimate goal of ridding the world of the disease. Members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours protecting nearly three billion children in 122 countries.
People looking to donate to help the cause can do so at https://raise.rotary.org/MissVicky/challenge929
Read more: Rotary launches campaign to double local support for polio
