Ringwood Infants School help plant crocus corms

The children also planted more corms in their school grounds.  Other planting has been completed in the Danny Cracknell Memorial Garden by Rotarians and their family members, and around Ringwood by the supporters of RACE. Thank you to RACE and Ringwood Infants School for your support.

In previous years Ringwood School and Ringwood Brownies have also helped with planting and together with Rotarians have planted crocus corms in the Memorial Gardens and the Jubilee Gardens as well as Greyfriars and the Danny Cracknell Memorial Garden.

BUT WHY PURPLE CROCUSES?  In India and in several other countries marking children with a purple dye was the method of checking that they had been vaccinated. The child’s smallest finger was marked with the dye – hence purple pinkies. Several years ago when Rotary first started to raise funds to rid the world of polio, children in the UK were encouraged to donate and those who donated were recognised by their purple pinkies.  Some time later the emphasis moved to making the fund raising more obvious to the general public by planting purple crocuses in prominent positions.  Ringwood Rotarians have planted them around the town and when the crocuses are in flower we erect signs to explain why we are dong this.

When Rotarians first pledged to end polio around the world there were  nearly 1,000 cases every day – 350,000 children affected every year in countries all over the world.  Now there are only two countries in the world where the wild polio virus still exists and we are down to tens of cases every year but not quite at the end because the last few cases are always going to be the hardest.

When you see the purple crocuses around the town in the spring think of the millions of children who have been saved from polio and perhaps play your part in ensuring that we free the world of polio.  Support End Polio Now at rotarygbi.org