Rotary club plants thousands of crocuses in Storrington for polio campaign

They were helped by children from Storrington Primary School planting crocuses around the Storrington Memorial Pond on Friday, November 8.

Rotary members throughout Great Britain and Ireland will be planting over 2.5 million purple crocus corms across their communities, adding to the many millions which have been planted during previous years.

Purple has become a symbolic colour in the fight against polio, inspired by the colour of the dye painted on the little finger of a child to signify they have received a potentially life-saving polio vaccine.

Rotary Club President Mark Foss said: “We’re proud to be planting these purple symbols of the Polio campaign and working with Storrington Primary Schoolchildren makes it even more special.

“Only together can we end polio and we can all play our part in the continuing global efforts to eradicate the disease.”

Rotary has committed to raising US$50 million each year to support global polio eradication efforts, with that funding matched 2-to-1 by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Rotary has contributed more than US$1.9 billion to ending polio since 1985.

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