At the end of this planting session, The Rotary Club of King's Lynn will have (over a period of 6 years) planted 45,000 purple crocus corms on the verges and roundabouts of King's Lynn.

What do these crocus bulbs signify?  

In 1985, Rotary Foundation launched its PolioPlus program, an initiative to tackle global polio eradication through the mass vaccination of children. 
Rotary has contributed more than $1.7 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries and every child vaccinated had a finger dipped in purple dye.

The scale of the programme is mind-blowing in terms of time cost and dedication (please see brief report extract below on just one campaign).

"It’s the distribution of the vaccine – transportation and staffing – that costs so much. In January, money donated by Rotarians covered the costs of a Cameroun vaccination campaign that involved 34,000 vaccinators and 21,000 rental cars, which volunteers used to canvass neighborhoods and travel from home to home administering the vaccine. 
Funds also went to more than 3,700 town criers and 45 radio spots in Chad, to more than 14,000 local guides and 500 clan leaders to ensure that the children of nomads were vaccinated in Ethiopia, and to provide training and support for 60,000 community volunteer vaccinators in Afghanistan". 

The Foundation Committee of the Rotary Club of King's Lynn has been at the forefront of supporting the PolioPlus programme - every year we expect to hear that Polio has been eradicated, but just one case in a remote, war troubled location means that even after vaccination has been carried out, there has to be a three year wait, just to ensure there are no further outbreaks.

We hope the community that has so generously supported the work of Rotary, will see and appreciate the spring show of purple over the years ahead, which will enhance the Towns green spaces.