Members of Wellington & District Rotary Club have planted 4,000 purple crocuses between the trees on Roly Poly Green to provide a splash of colour next spring.

Rotary and its members worldwide have sought to help eradicate polio for over 35 years and Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland’s Purple4Polio activities raise funds and awareness for End Polio Now, Rotary’s global campaign.

When a child receives their life-saving polio drops on mass polio immunisation days, their little finger is painted with a purple dye so it is clear they have received their vaccine. Rotary’s pledge for a polio-free world was made in 1985 when polio was endemic in 125 countries and hundreds of new cases were reported every day.

In the past few years, only two countries have reported cases of polio caused by the wild poliovirus but no child anywhere is safe until every child has been fully vaccinated. Thanks to Rotary, and the support of its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, just two countries are still classed as endemic – Pakistan and Afghanistan.

To finish the job, more than two billion doses of oral polio vaccine still have to be administered, to more than 400 million children in 50-plus countries every year. The world can only be certified polio-free when there are no cases of polio or positive environmental samples.

Anyone who would like to find out more about what Rotary does for the community and internationally should contact one of the group’s members or attend a meeting, held fortnightly, at The Arts Centre. More details are available from club secretary Ada Mournian on 07762 432780 or [email protected], or on the group’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/WellyDistrictRotary