Purple4Polio

Schoolchildren and Rotary plant crocus bulbs as part of push to eradicate polio

In November last year children from six Harrogate schools teamed up with The Rotary Club of Harrogate on to plant 8,000 crocus bulbs on the Stray.
The planting is part of Purple4Polio, the Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland’s (Rotary GB&I) campaign to eradicate polio across the globe. One strand of the campaign is a partnership between Rotary GB&I and the Royal Horticultural Society, with Rotary clubs joining forces with the RHS’s community-based Bloom Groups and others to work together to brighten up local areas and promote health and wellbeing by planting 6 million crocus corms across the country.
Around ninety children from St Joseph’s, Richard Taylor’s, Oatlands Community Junior School, Brackenfield School, Rossett Acre Primary and Saltergate Infants will help Rotary members plant the 8000 purple crocus bulbs on the Granby Stray, into ground prepared by Open Country, the Harrogate based charity which supports people with disability to access the countryside.
The purple crocus is a symbol of Rotary’s worldwide campaign to eradicate polio, with its colour representing the purple dye used to mark the finger of a child who has been immunised.
The Rotary Club of Harrogate is grateful for the help received from Harrogate Borough Council’s Parks service.
For over 30 years, Rotary and its members have been committed to fighting to eradicate polio across the world. The number of polio-endemic countries has dropped from 125 to just three, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, with over 2.5 billion children receiving vaccinations thanks to the help of Rotary.
The Rotary campaign to eradicate polio has been tremendously successful, and it’s heartening to think that by planting these bulbs, children from Harrogate are helping to eliminate a disease that has affected so many young lives throughout the world.  It is something they can be proud of in years to come, and is a reminder to us all that the fight against polio goes on