MORE than 4,000 purple crocuses have been planted in and around Wellington by Rotary Club members helped by pupils of two schools, Wellesley Park and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (IKB).

Both sets of pupils planted crocus bulbs in the grounds of their schools and the Wellesley Park children also put them in the grounds of Oaktree Court care home, in Middle Green Road.

The bulbs should create a ‘purple crocus welcome’ next spring and are a symbol of Rotary’s worldwide polio eradication campaign, with its colour representing the purple dye used to mark the finger of a child who has been immunised.

Purple crocus bulbs were planted in the grounds of Isambard Kingdom Brunel School by pupils and Rotary members.
Purple crocus bulbs were planted in the grounds of Isambard Kingdom Brunel School by pupils and Rotary members. (Rotary)

A Rotary spokesperson thanked Wellesley Park head teacher Carly Wilkins and IKB head Richard Healey and their staffs for supporting the initiative, and the children who did the planting.

The spokesperson said: “Rotary’s pledge for a polio-free world was made in 1985, when there were 125 polio endemic countries, and hundreds of new cases every single day.

“Thanks to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, of which Rotary is a partner, there are now just two countries still classed as endemic, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“But no child anywhere is safe until every child has been fully vaccinated.

“If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year.

“The Rotary Club of Wellington continues to play its part in the ‘End Polio Now’ campaign, donating annually to the cause from its charity account.