Rotary Club of Plympton

"How Far Will it Go? – We're This Close!"

 

Rotarians around the UK have this year each been given a bottle of Wilkin & Sons Tomato Ketchup as part of Rotary's efforts to help raise awareness of the End Polio Now campaign.  The idea is that once used, the bottles are used to collect money in which will go towards Rotary's efforts to rid the world of Polio.  But Plympton Rotarians have come up with something else, a different use for at least one bottle.  Members of the Rotary Club of Plympton are asking - "How Far Will it – the bottle - Go?"

 

So just how far will a bottle of Tomato sauce go?  Further than you may think!  The club did toy with the idea of getting their club president to sit in a bath full of the clubs allocation of ketchup but for some reason 2011/12 President, Malcolm Carmichael wasn't too keen on this.  But another idea came to the fore and so as part of the Plympton club's efforts to help raise awareness of the campaign a bottle of Ketchup – affectionately nicknamed Kenny Ketchup by the club members - will be going on "holiday" with members of the club at various times between 1st June and 31st December.  It might not get to the moon but who knows where it will go on it's holidays?

  

What the club are asking members of the public to do is guess how many "Ketchup Miles" will be accumulated in this 6 month period and are asking that those of who wish to take part make a minimum £1 donation along with their guess.  People can enter by going to the Plympton Rotary Club website – www.plymptonrotaryclub.org.uk or forms will be available at various club events such as their charity quiz night in October.  

Master Chef of Great Britain Peter Gorton who has already leant his support to the Polio campaign (along with other local celebrities such as Aysha Iqbal from the BBC, Plymouth Albion's Graham Dawe and fellow chef James Tanner), by appearing in a poster campaign showing just how close we are to eradicating Polio, has offered a fantastic prize for the person who guesses the correct miles.  Peter is opening a new restaurant/dining club in Tavistock on 12^th August and the lucky winner will win a demonstration cookery lesson which from Peter will includes lunch and wine at "Gorton's".

 

This Close Slideshow

We Are "This Close" to Ending Polio

Click on the images below to open the pdf versions.

 

  

 

 Rotary's "Thanks for Life"

Visitors to Plymouth City Centre's Jigsaw Garden (next to Drake's Shopping Mall) may have noticed spots of purple sprinkled around the ground.  This is the result of crocus bulb planting undertaken last October by Rotary Club members of the Plympton, Roborough, Plymouth Albion and Plymouth Mayflower clubs, Groundwork, and young volunteers from the UPSU (Volunteers in Plymouth), Plymouth Environmental Action, Moor Trees and Mutant Labs.

4,100 crocus bulbs have been planted and are starting to come into bloom, creating a fantastic display with the garden erupting in a mass of purple.

This is all part of an initiative that Rotary clubs across Great Britain & Ireland are calling on the public to help - Thanks for Life, the national campaign by Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland (RIBI) is part of Rotary Internationals aim to wipe out polio. Wednesday 23^rd of February 2011 is the peak of the campaign and also marks Rotary's 106^th birthday.

RIBI President, Jim Moulson, says Rotarians do more than raise funds: "At least twice a year, Rotary members from Great Britain and Ireland fly out to India to help with National Immunisation Days (NID) which take place every six weeks. Thousands of vaccination stations are set up in cities across the country, ready to welcome families and their children. Once immunised, the children's little fingers are dyed purple to keep track of who has already been given the protective medication, now known as the Purple Pinkie. This willingness to travel great distances and actually deliver the life-saving vaccine really shows that Rotary is about action.  The colour of the crocuses, purple, is symbolic of the dye used to mark a child's little finger once they have been immunised."

The "Thanks for Life" efforts form just part of Rotary's international "End Polio Now" campaign which has been supported by Bill and Melinda Gates.

In the past year, the "End Polio Now" campaign has seen in the local area, players from Plymouth Albion and the Cornish Pirates wear "End Polio Now" T-shirts prior to one of their games, wrist bands being sold bearing the "End Polio Now" slogan and members of the public spelling out the campaign name on Plymouth Hoe.

Polio eradication has been Rotary's top priority since 1985.

Since then, polio cases have fallen from 350,000 a year to a recorded 1,600 last year. Thanks to Rotary's help, two billion children have been protected from the disease, and the number of endemic countries has fallen from 125 to just four: Afghanistan, northern India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The number of polio cases has plummeted to 99 percent since Rotary became involved with the eradication initiative, alongside Unicef, CDC, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and WHO.

The final one percent is the hardest to eradicate. Geographic isolation, worker fatigue, armed conflict and cultural barriers are hampering the final push – but Rotarians are determined to achieve their goal of a Polio free world.

The campaign to fight polio is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which has donated $355m in challenge grants. Rotary will match their generous donations by raising $200m by June 2012. The generosity of Bill and Melinda Gates is very much appreciated.

Thanks for Life 2010/11

The 2010/11 efforts towards the "Thanks for Life" campaign - Rotary's final push to eradicate Polio goes under the sub heading of "Focus on the Crocus".  Clubs all over the country are planting crocus bulbs so that there will be vast pockets of purple blooms next Spring.

Our club, together with the clubs of Roborough, Plymouth Albion and Plymouth Mayflower planted 4,100 bulbs in the Jigsaw Garden (next to Drakes Shopping Mall) on the 16th October aided by the Groundwork Trust and other volunteers. 

 

End Polio Now Newsletter - March 2010

Click on the End Polio Now icon to go to the March 2010 Rotary International "End Polio Now" newsletter.

Thanks for Life Day - Drakes Shopping Centre 23rd February

Tuesday 23^rd February saw the Rotary movement celebrate it's 105^th birthday and clubs in Plymouth celebrated by staging a major awareness campaign promoting the work Rotary does both at home and abroad.

Rotarians from the majority of the clubs in Plymouth had a large display in the Drake Circus Shopping Centre throughout the day showing examples of the various projects Rotary undertakes.

To many people, Shelterbox is Rotary – and around the world our district is highly regarded for this project which is now one of the largest Rotary projects in the world. But this awareness day here in Plymouth (and around the whole country) is to try and show the other aspects of our work – from our projects aiding those with dementia, our work in helping to eliminate malaria, setting up Jaipur Limb clinics as well as literacy projects and much much more. We also want to show people that Rotary is not retired/semi retired businessmen writing out cheques for good causes as many believe, but that we are men and women who span all ages – and who want to put something back into the community both at home and abroad.

The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Plymouth, Councillors Ken and Wendy Foster took time out of their busy schedule to spend time looking at the displays as well as visiting the Cotswold camping shop who have been displaying a shelterbox whilst Waterstones have been displaying the Literacy in a Box project in the past week.  The Lord Mayor was impressed with Shelterbox but the Lady Mayoress showed particular interest in our efforts to end polio as her mother suffered from Polio as a child.

Funds collected on the day from the Mall as well as the Choir Competition at St Andrews Church, will be going to the End Polio Now campaign – a campaign that sees Rotarians around the world aiming to contribute $200 Million to which if successful, Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft) will add a further $355 million.

  

 Miss Plymouth Galaxy helps to "End Polio Now"

 

Miss Plymouth Galaxy, Jennifer Kelly and Miss Teen Plymouth Galaxy Lawri Duncan recently aided Rotarians in the promotion of the Rotary "End Polio Now" campaign.

With part of the Miss Galaxy competition seeing contestants getting involved in local charities, Jennifer didn't hesitate to offer her help with this campaign which saw the majority of the Rotary clubs based in Plymouth stage an awareness event in the Drake Circus Shopping Centre.

Plymouth Albion & The Cornish Pirates help to "End Polio Now"

The recent British & Irish cup game, between Plymouth Albion and the Cornsih Pirates saw the two teams wearing  special End Polio Now T-shirts  during their pre-match warm up. 

    

This game also saw a collection in aid of the campaign and saw members of our club, together with members from Roborough and Drake assist the Albion Rotary Club members and collected almost £400.00

The two teams have autographed two of the t-shirts - Albion signing one of the red ones and Pirates a white one which we are now auctioning off.  Please email bids, stating which top you wish to bid for with your contact details to endpolionowbid@hotmail.co.uk

The auction runs until 6pm on the 23rd February and the highest bidders will then be notified.

Albion and Pirates help to "End Polio Now"

The players from Plymouth Albion and Cornish Pirates will be joining together before their British & Irish Cup encounter this weekend (13^th February) to help promote Rotary's efforts to eradicate Polio.  The two teams (who fall within the boundaries of Rotary District 1290 – West Devon & Cornwall) will be wearing T-shirts bearing the End Polio Now logo for their pre-match warm-up in an effort to raise awareness of Rotary's international campaign.

District Governor Ken presented Albion's Darren Clayton and Ben Gulliver from the Pirates with the T-shirts on the 10th February ahead of the match.

"End Polio Now" Wristbands

 PolioPlus, the most ambitious program in Rotary's history, is the volunteer arm of the global partnership dedicated to eradicating polio. For more than 20 years, Rotary has led the private sector in the global effort to rid the world of this crippling disease. Today, PolioPlus and its role in the initiative is recognized worldwide as a model of public-private cooperation in pursuit of a humanitarian goal.

In addition to providing financial and volunteer support, Rotary works to urge support from other public and private sector partners. This includes the campaign to End Polio Now, inspired by the extraordinary challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation awarded $355 million to the campaign on the proviso that Rotary raises $200 million.  Clubs around the world have taken up this challenge and are busy raising funds and awareness of the campaign in this final push to eradicate Polio.

As well as taking part in a national awareness day on 23^rd  February, clubs in Rotary District 1290 (West Devon & Cornwall) have hit on an idea used by many charities these days to help generate funds and that is the production of wrist bands.  Shown in the accompanying photo these are priced at £1 and the sale of these should help clubs such as the Rotary Club of Plympton reach their fundraising milestone – to nationally raises £1 million by the 23rd February – Rotary’s 105th birthday.

Polio is a crippling, and sometimes fatal, disease and still a very harrowing reality for children in parts of Africa and Asia and threatens children everywhere. It is highly virulent and only an air flight away from the UK.

Every £1 raised in this campaign will purchase five doses of the special anti-polio vaccine. These children will be protected against polio - forever.

Ken Edmonds, District Governor and member of the Rotary Club of Plympton said: "We are so close to stamping out polio and we hope this fun idea will encourage more people to get behind the initiative. It is vital that we eradicate it from the four remaining endemic countries or the likelihood is that the disease will spread again to the countries which have been cleared. With the public’s we can destroy polio."

"Rotary has been involved in this fight for 25 years and the world is so close to being free from polio for good. How fantastic for a town, individual, business or organisation to join the fight and be able to say, ‘I helped to wipe out a disease for only the second time in history, after smallpox. I stopped children from dying - I helped change the world’."

The wrist bands can be purchased from most of the Rotary clubs in District 1290.  To purchase yours from the Plympton Rotary Club, contact the club via this website.

End Polio Now - Plymouth Hoe

The 24th October saw members of our club along with members of Saltram, Plymouth Albion and Mayflower - with help from students at City College Plymouth spell out the campaign name to launch our efforts for the End Polio Now campaign.