Welcome to the award-winning Hill Country Podcast. The Texas Hill Country is one of the most beautiful places on earth. In this podcast, Hill Country resident Tom Fox talks with the people and organizations that make this one of Texas’s most unique areas. In this award-winning podcast series, Tom Fox visits with Kristy Vandenberg about the Rotary Club of Kerrville’s 2026 “Pints, Pumpkins, Pies for Polio” fundraiser, which supports Rotary’s polio eradication campaign.
The campaign began in 1985 when polio caused about 350,000 annual cases; in 2026 there are 12 cases, split between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They discuss polio’s devastating, incurable impacts, including post-polio syndrome, and note a speaker who contracted polio at age five and now experiences renewed weakness. Vandenberg highlights compliance-relevant public health risks from low vaccination rates, asymptomatic carriers, global travel, and a recent vaccine-derived case in New York. She explains Rotary International’s partnerships, including a Gates Foundation 2:1 match, a $15,000 local goal, and district-wide events, and shares event details on food, beer/wine, the pie auction, and how to get tickets.
Resources:
Pints, Pumpkins & Pies for Polio
Information on the event on Facebook
Email for tickets: kerrvillerotary@gmail.com
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