The Interact Club at Polk County High School fights polio one pinkie at a time. Last fall, the club raised enough money to provide polio vaccines to 300 children. Each student that donated had his or her pinkie painted purple. Each dollar raised will vaccinate one child in need.
Rotary volunteers administer polio vaccinations throughout the world though a program called Polio Plus. As volunteers administer vaccinations, a child’s pinkie is colored purple with a topical solution – Gentian Violet – temporarily marking them to prevent double dosage. This campaign has been running for 20 years and the results are astounding. In 1988, there were polio outbreaks in 125 countries. Polio is now endemic in only four countries. Without this program, the disease would have disabled five million children and 250,000 would have been killed.
Recently, Tanya Ledford (Interact Coordinator at PCHS) and Kenady Juzwick (PCHS Interact member) visited the Rotary Club of Tryon to share the results of their successful Purple Pinkie Project. Rotary member, Jay Geddings, later presented the check to Ronnie Thompson, Rotary District Governor in charge of Rotary’s polio efforts in western N.C.
– article submitted
by Jay Geddings