Planting for Polio | #purple4polio

Charnwood Borough Council
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Charnwood Borough Council | 2021 | Loughborough

#purple4polio

idverde and Charnwood Borough Council were delighted to support the Rotary Club of Loughborough and the #purple4polio campaign as part of World Polio Day.

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idverde and Charnwood Borough Council were delighted to support the Rotary Club of Loughborough and the #purple4polio campaign as part of World Polio Day. World Polio Day is observed on the 24th of October each year, raising awareness of the polio vaccination and the great progress made in eradicating the disease.

The campaign, which is part of Rotary Great Britain & Ireland, provides communities with ideas and opportunities to get involved in helping Rotary and its partners to End Polio Now.

Polio is a serious viral infection that can lead to temporary or permanent paralysis. Due to the efforts of Rotary and their partners, nearly 19 million people who would otherwise have been paralysed are walking, and more than 1.5 million people are alive who would otherwise have died. Although there are now only a handful of cases worldwide, it is still important to raise awareness and continue vaccination programmes to stop the return of the disease.

To support the campaign, idverde and Charnwood Borough Council, alongside volunteers from the Forest Road Belt Gardeners helped The Rotary Club of Loughborough plant a total of 4,500 purple crocuses around the town of Loughborough. This included around 2,000 corms in front of the Bee Hive Lane Car Park and a further 2,000 being planted on the Forest Road Green Belt.

The purple crocus is a symbol of Rotary’s worldwide polio campaign with the colour representing the purple dye used to mark the finger of a child who has been immunised. Chair of Loughborough in Bloom and also The Forest Road Green Belt Gardeners, Pat Cook, stated:

 

“Loughborough in Bloom and The Forest Road Green Belt Gardeners are delighted to be supporting the Rotary’s #Purple4Polio campaign and marking World Polio Day by planting these crocus corms across the town which have been donated by The Rotary Club of Loughborough. Together with our partners idverde and Charnwood Borough Council, we are helping to promote biodiversity across the town and hopefully will also bring some much-needed spring cheer when the bulbs come into flower early next year.”