Polio Purple Planting Prowess

Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years, when it started the Programme to eliminate Polio in just one village in one Rotary district in the Philippines in 1979.  From that small start, the Programme has spread all around the world and Rotary is a founder of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, and its efforts have reduced polio cases by 99.9% since it started vaccinating children 45 years ago. 

Last year there were only eleven cases of wild polio, all in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan but the news this year was not so good and there are 68 reported cases already (November 12, 2024).  We need to redouble our efforts to defeat this terrible disease

Purple Pinkies

It is customary in endemic countries to identify children who have received their polio vaccine by staining one of their fingers purple.  A key Rotary Program in this End Polio push to eradicate polio around the world is Rotary’s Purple4Polio campaign, recognising this purple staining by planting millions of purple crocus corms. 

As part of this effort in the U.K., we decided to plant 4,000 purple crocus corms, and to sow them in the lawn outside Radstocks apartment block on Stock Road, where many passers-by will see them.

Raining on Our Plans

A cold and misty afternoon on November 12 found us with a hired turf-cutter, hard at work cutting strips of turfs in the lawn on the Stock Road frontage of Radstocks in preparation for planting this year’s crocus corms (all from Rotary Foundation) for Purple for Polio.    Pretty miserable in the cold and the rain, but it was for a good cause!

November 13 dawned – it was dry and the skies were blue!  The sun even came out at times!  Seven members of the club – Vice-President Stephen King, Peter Strong, Peter Greene, Les Sheppard, Brian Wellman, Keith Wood, and David Holroyd, all gathered at Rodstocks by 10.00 a.m. ready for work.

Once again, it had rained the previous afternoon and night, so the ground was sodden, which made it slow work to lift the turfs without them breaking, even with two or three of us with spades doing the “heavy lifting”.   It should have been easy, a swift placing of a spade, the lifting of the turfs and scattering of the crocus corms.  Instead of lifting up six foot of turf in one go as we expected, the turfs broke apart and every individual foot of grass had to be separately eased up out of the way.  It seemed to take ages and it could have been a disaster! But we persevered and overcame the problems.

Crucial Crocuses

We split into teams, one working from one end of a “strip” of turf, and one from the other - lifting the first turfs slowly and speedily scattering the crocus corms on the earth below, and then spreading them out for optimum growth.  Then adding some topsoil; and tamping the turf back down again. Then on to the next strip of turf – lift, plant, spread out, add soil, replace turf and tamp down again.

And so it went on until all the crocuses had been planted.  We had expected a marathon job, so we were all delighted that working together we managed to get all 4,000 – yes, 4,000 – corms planted and the grass replaced and stamped down in under an hour.  That’s some going!  Well done Guys!

It all worked out very well.  Now we cross our fingers and wait for a purple Spring show.

Tremendous Achievement

Rotarian Peter Greene, who organised the planting, reports: “Cutting the grass the day before certainly made the job easier, but the rain on Tuesday still made the lifting of the turfs a challenge, so it was a tremendous achievement to have planted all the corms so quickly.  I am very grateful to all members who volunteered to help.”

Special signs were commissioned and printed ready to be installed to record the planting of the crocuses and Rotary’s involvement, and will be added before the crocuses (hopefully) flower in the spring.

Our “Exciting Initiative” did not go unnoticed.  We received a copy of a letter sent to Radstock Residents by its Management Company, praising Rotary for its dedication “to raising awareness for the ongoing global effort to eradicate Polio,” and looking forward to a “vibrant display of crocuses” and a “positive addition to the community”.