Purple for polio as pupils help plant 5000 bulbs
Children from four local schools helped to plant 5000 purple crocuses to mark World Polio Day last Tuesday.
Undaunted by the weather, ecorepresentatives from Beaconhurst Junior School joined members of the Bridge of Allan Primary School Environmental Group to plant crocuses - the symbol for End Polio Now - in the Memorial Park in Bridge of Allan.
President George Morrison of the Bridge of Allan and Dunblane Rotary Club welcomed the children and explained how Rotary International, with partners, had worked for 30 years to eradicate polio across the world.
He said: “When this work started, there were 350,000 cases every year. Now the number of cases has been reduced to 12.
“But to make sure that this progress continues, about 175 million children under five have to be inoculated every year until there are no cases of this awful disease.”
Children then set about planting the purple crocuses which, when in bloom, will remind the community of the importance of this work, and encourage donations to the End Polio Now project.
When the crocuses had been planted, the children placed the little finger of their left hand on a pad of purple dye. With millions of children to vaccinate, this dye is used to show which children have been immunised.
In Dunblane, children from St Mary’s Episcopal Primary School and Newton Primary School had more luck with the weather, with sunshine breaking through.
Their planting of crocuses was on the road into Dunblane, opposite the Marks and Spencer store. Here, they were joined by representatives from Dunblane in Bloom who gave helpful hints on how to plant the crocuses to give them the best chance of blooming in the Spring. The planting of 2,500 crocuses was successfully completed and, as in Bridge of Allan, the children were keen to use the purple dye pad.
Mr Morrison added: “Finally eradicating polio will be a wonderful gift for Rotary to give to the world. Donations to support End Polio Now can be made at endpolio.org using the Donate button.”
Eradicating polio will be a wonderful gift to give to the world