October 8th is close to World Polio Day and for the 11th year running the Rotary Club of The City of Wolverhampton planted 4000 purple crocus bulbs in Bantock Park. The Mayor Councillor Paul Singh, accompanied by the Mayoress Ranjit Dhillon was an enthusiastic attendee as he chatted with children from Merridale,Warstones Primary and Low Hill Infants schools and gave us great support joining in with the planting. We were also pleased to welcome our Rotaractors and Next Step, a group for people with learning disability and/or profound and multiple disabilities.

By purchasing the bulbs, we have contributed to Rotary International’s campaign to eliminate polio, and the planting helps to raise public awareness by coverage on social media and in the press. The purple crocus is the campaign emblem.

The children had great fun stamping down the turf after the Rotarians and volunteers had lifted the turf!

An additional feature this year was a visit from Ann Bickley from the Wolverhampton Fairtrade association who gave a most informative talk on Fair Trade. The children listened with rapt attention and interest before being gifted with a Fairtrade colouring book, sponsored by Rotary and The Co-op that has been created by Rotary Young Citizen of the Year finalist Layla Parry. The book has been sponsored by Rotary and The Co-op.

40 years ago, Rotary International embarked on a campaign to eliminate the scourge of polio from the world. We formed a partnership with the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organisation. The Gates Foundation donates $2US for every $1 we raise to purchase the vaccines and to fund the infrastructure as we continue to vaccinate children in the third world.

When the campaign started, there were 1000 new cases of polio every day in every country in the world. As a result of the campaign, India and Africa have now been declared polio free and this year to date there have only been 5 new cases in Pakistan and 35 in Afghanistan but Rotary and its partners are determined to carry on until the disease is eliminated completely. Details of the campaign can be found at the Rotary End Polio websites. https://www.endpolio.org/

PDG Richard Green.