Saturday 5 February 2011
First Female RIBI President in 2013-2014
Absolutely delighted that Nan McCreadie has been elected to lead RIBI in 2013-2014, and that her election was by a clear majority of those voting. Well done Nan - I look forward to our year of service together!
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Thanks for Life 2011 (End Polio Now)
It's February!! Time for Rotary's annual Thanks for Life month. This year we've been out planting millions of purple crocuses around the country. In Hillingdon we've got 10,000 spread aorund 5 schools and on Hillingdon Hill.
Crocuses are usually white, yellow or purple. The eleven hundred bulbs we planted are all purple and there’s a good reason for that. It ties in with the reason that we’re hope they’ll come out every year in February – well actually we’re hoping they’ll all be out by February 23. Why that date? Well that date is "Rotary Day - Thanks for Life", a project involving the clubs and members of Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland (RIBI), to highlight the humanitarian work of Rotarians with our number one goal of helping to eradicate polio throughout the world. Our 10000 bulbs were provided by the Rotary Clubs of Elthorne-Hillingdon and Uxbridge. So that’s why the date, but what about the colour purple?
The nearest we ever get to the Polio disease is that we get innoculated when we’re babies so that it’s never going to be a problem for us. We may also get a top-up dose along with something else when we get other jabs when we travel to places outside Europe (or North America). But for people in Continents like Africa and countries like India % Pakistan, Polio is still something that may cripple them for life. When kids in these areas get immunised they get their little finger dipped in a purple dye. So the purple colour represents hope for these kids that we hope won’t catch Polio. Rotary have been working with the World Health Organisation and other agencies to try to eradicate Polio for more than 25 years. And we’re winning. In 1985 there were 1,000 cases every day – in 2010 there were less than 1,500 in the year. But unless we get to zero, it’ll keep coming back. Two-thirds of the cases in 2010 were in two countries that had been free of polio for nearly ten years – because people caught it from visitors from infected areas.
Crocuses are usually white, yellow or purple. The eleven hundred bulbs we planted are all purple and there’s a good reason for that. It ties in with the reason that we’re hope they’ll come out every year in February – well actually we’re hoping they’ll all be out by February 23. Why that date? Well that date is "Rotary Day - Thanks for Life", a project involving the clubs and members of Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland (RIBI), to highlight the humanitarian work of Rotarians with our number one goal of helping to eradicate polio throughout the world. Our 10000 bulbs were provided by the Rotary Clubs of Elthorne-Hillingdon and Uxbridge. So that’s why the date, but what about the colour purple?
The nearest we ever get to the Polio disease is that we get innoculated when we’re babies so that it’s never going to be a problem for us. We may also get a top-up dose along with something else when we get other jabs when we travel to places outside Europe (or North America). But for people in Continents like Africa and countries like India % Pakistan, Polio is still something that may cripple them for life. When kids in these areas get immunised they get their little finger dipped in a purple dye. So the purple colour represents hope for these kids that we hope won’t catch Polio. Rotary have been working with the World Health Organisation and other agencies to try to eradicate Polio for more than 25 years. And we’re winning. In 1985 there were 1,000 cases every day – in 2010 there were less than 1,500 in the year. But unless we get to zero, it’ll keep coming back. Two-thirds of the cases in 2010 were in two countries that had been free of polio for nearly ten years – because people caught it from visitors from infected areas.
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