PURPLE PINKIE DAY Oct. 23
Posted by June Grace
on Jan 25, 2011
The Rotary Club of Concord asks the community to join with them in the fight to eradicate polio from our world on "Purple Pinkie Day". On Saturday, October 23, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Rotarians will be in Concord Center collecting funds to help in their efforts to inoculate the children of the remaining four countries in the world with polio infections, so that this dreaded disease will never spread again. For any donation, the Rotarian volunteers will mark the pinkie finger of the donor with a purple marker to signify how the children have their pinkie fingers dyed purple when they receive the polio vaccine.
"Rotary has chosen Saturday, October 23 for this fundraising event in conjunction with World Polio Day," said Club President Ann Trudeau. "Our members will join Rotarians worldwide on that day in this important effort to finally rid the world of this crippling disease."
When Rotary launched its PolioPlus program in 1985, there were over 350,000 cases of polio each year in over 125 countries. Today, annual cases of polio have been reduced by 99% in the number of infections worldwide, with only India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan remaining with infections.
Rotary's top philanthropic goal is to eradicate polio worldwide. To date, Rotary has contributed more than $900 million and countless volunteer hours to the protection of more than two billion children in 122 countries. Rotary is currently working to raise an additional $200 million toward a $355 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. These efforts are providing much needed operational support, medical personnel, laboratory equipment and educational materials for health workers and parents. In addition, Rotary has played a major role in decisions by donor governments to contribute over $4 billion to the effort.
"Although the cause is an extremely serious one," added Trudeau, "our members want this to be a festive day, in which they can share their commitment to this cause with the members of the community. The table will be decorated with posters and we will have a cooler as our donation container, as the vaccine is transported and kept in coolers on inoculation trips. We want the people of the community to understand the seriousness of this cause and feel really great about supporting it."
The Rotary Club of Concord] has supported the youth and charitable organizations of our community and the Rotary Foundation's efforts to enhance our world since 1931.