Wolverhampton Rotary Clubs Crocus Planting in Aid of Polio Eradication
Fifty thousand purple crocuses will be planted across Wolverhampton during week commencing Monday, 6th November as part of the Rotary campaign to eradicate polio from the world.
The five Rotary clubs in Wolverhampton have each purchased 10,000 purple crocus corms to be planted during early November in green spaces throughout the city.
Members of the public are invited to come along to help local primary schools, Rotary and Wolverhampton City Council “dig in” the corms at the following venues between 10am and 12 noon at the following sites:
Monday, 6 November 2017; Tettenhall Upper Green, opposite the Post Office.
Tuesday, 7 November 2017; West Park, adjacent to the café and bandstand.
Wednesday, 8 November 2017; Bantock Park, by the bull sculpture, when the Mayor will be present.
Thursday, 9 November 2017; Wednesfield, next to the Community Centre and library.
Friday, 10 November 2017; Bilston, at the Bert Williams leisure centre.
In 1985, Rotary launched its worldwide PolioPlus program. Since then, Rotary has contributed more than £1.5 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunise more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries against polio. Today, the disease is present in only three countries, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, with 37 polio cases in 2016, and just 10 so far this year; a massive reduction since the 1980s, when the world saw about 1,000 cases per day. The programme is still ongoing and needs to run for three years after the last reported case.
The purple crocus is the worldwide symbol of the mass immunisation programme whereby children have a purple stamp on their hand to show they have received protection against polio. When the crocuses emerge every spring it will be a reminder of the part Wolverhampton has played in this project.
The sponsoring Rotary Clubs are Bilston and Wolverhampton West, Tettenhall, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, and Wolverhampton St. George’s.
Rotary is a diverse service club which is open for membership to all.
Please click the link here to see the full leaflet.