Bury Abbey Rotary Club and St Benedict’s Catholic School, in Bury St Edmunds, join together for End Polio Now campaign

Secondary school students have joined members of a rotary club to plant crocus bulbs as part of a campaign to end polio.

Since World Polio Day last month, Bury Abbey Rotary Club has been raising both funds and awareness of the Rotary Foundation’s End Polio Now campaign.

Last week, members of the club were at St Benedict’s Catholic School, in Bury St Edmunds, to speak at a school assembly. The school council representatives from each tutor group in Years 7 and 8 then joined rotary members to plant the bulbs.

“We are very fortunate to have a successful vaccination programme against polio in the UK but polio still affects children in certain parts of our world,” said rotarian Max Weatherby.

“When the purple crocuses bloom in February they will provide some nice colour around the grounds and these students will remember why they planted them.”

Year 7 student Manuel Manoj said: “I really enjoyed planting these flowers because soon all the dull areas of the school will be bright purple. I hope that everyone will take care of these wonderful buds.”

The purple crocus flower is the emblem of the End Polio campaign because children are given a temporary purple mark when they are vaccinated in the field.

As recently as last month, the worldwide Rotary Foundation donated $500,000 to support the emergency vaccination of children in Gaza where outbreaks of polio have been detected amongst Palestinian children.

St Benedict’s Catholic School also has a new student leadership group called Interact, supported by Rotary, with the mission to bring about positive action in their school, local and global community.

Rotary is one of the world's largest and most successful global membership and humanitarian service organisations.