Carnoustie Golf Links and The Rotary Club of Carnoustie marked historic progress towards a polio-free world by lighting up the links and urging communities to support the battle to end the paralysing disease.
The event was among thousands held by Rotary across the globe during the week of World Polio Day – 24th October, 2017.
Rotary members teamed up with Carnoustie Golf Links to plant the bulbs to bring a splash of colour for all to see.
This is the second year in succession that Carnoustie Golf Links and the Rotary Club of Carnoustie have worked in partnership to organise the planting of 10,000 Crocus bulbs on the opposite side of the path from the 18th fairway on the Championship Course and alongside the famous Barry Burn.
This year, help was on hand to plant the bulbs, with pupils from Woodlands and Burnside Primary Schools assisting Championship Course Head Greenkeeper, Craig Boath.
A spokesperson for Carnoustie Rotary said: “It has been a privilege for the Rotary Club of Carnoustie to work once again alongside Carnoustie Golf Links on what has now become an inter-generational event. Grateful thanks is also given to each of the Primary Schools for their support and active participation. We look forward to witnessing the fruits of their labour in the Spring.”
Local Rotarians are among millions across the globe who are highlighting World Polio Day to raise awareness, funds and support to end polio – a vaccine preventable disease that still threatens children in parts of the world today.
We have never been closer to making history and fulfilling Rotary’s goal of a polio-free world with just 12 cases of wild poliovirus worldwide so far this year in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
To mark this, Rotarians across Britain and Ireland are lighting up iconic buildings purple and holding other events for World Polio Day, as part of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland’s Purple4Polio campaign.
Purple is the colour of the dye placed on the little finger on the left hand of a child to show they have been immunised against polio, hence the name Purple4Polio. With millions of children to vaccinate, this makes it easier to see who has been protected and who has not.
Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland is also joining forces with the Royal Horticultural Society to plant about five million purple crocus corms across Britain and Ireland, adding to seven million planted last year, as part of our Purple4Polio campaign to raise awareness and funds for End Polio Now.
Since Rotary and its partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative nearly 30 years ago, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases a year in 125 countries to just 37 cases in three remaining polio-endemic countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, in 2016.
To sustain this progress and protect all children from polio, Rotary has committed to raising US$50 million per year over the next three years in support of global polio eradication efforts. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match Rotary’s commitment 2:1. Without full funding and political commitment, this paralysing disease could return to previously polio-free countries, putting children everywhere at risk.
Rotary worldwide has contributed more than US$1.7 billion to ending polio since 1985.
At the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta in June, world governments joined Rotary and Bill Gates in pledging new money totalling $1.2 billion, towards filling the $1.5 billion gap in the funding that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative estimates is needed to achieve eradication. The British Government pledged £100 million toward the fight to eradicate polio in August.