CROWLEY - The Crowley Rotary Club is searching for a family, thought to be originally from the Gueydan area, who participated in the mid-1950s Crowley Polio Auctions.

One of the daughters was a polio survivor and the family wanted “to do something” to help in the fight against polio and say “thank you” for the family support from the Polio Foundation.

The family donated a well-used, single-shot .22-caliber rifle which became the lead auction item.

The rifle was sold, given back to the family, then re-auctioned several times a year for several years and raised thousands of dollars for polio research, which led to the polio vaccine.

Rotary International has joined with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF and others in an effort to eradicate polio from the world.

More than 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated, and only small portions of three or four countries remain to be cleared of the “wild” polio virus which causes the disease.

Billions of dollars and 20 million volunteers have joined the effort.

The Polio Auction family and rifle are a unique local symbol of the early fight against this dreaded disease. The Crowley Rotary Club would like to identify and honor this special family.

If, by chance, the rifle could be found, it could be re-auctioned on a much-larger scale to help end the disease.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Joe Freeland, Crowley Rotary Club, P.O. Box 14, Crowley, LA 70527.