Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda UFSD
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Students Raise Money for 10,000 Polio Vaccines Through Purple Pinkie Project
At left, Arianna Burgess and Kassidy Hall, kindergarten students at Lindbergh Elementary, proudly show off their participation in the Purple Pinkie Project. At right, Roosevelt Elementary School students donate $1 toward the cause of eradicating polio and have their pinky fingers painted purple as part of the Purple Pinkie Project.
Approximately $1,700 was raised for the worldwide effort by Rotary International, the World Health Organization and UNICEF to eradicate polio globally. Participating students donated money and had their pinky finger painted purple to show their support for the cause. With the several matching programs Rotary has in place, according to Lawrence Coon, past president of the Kenmore Rotary, this translates into $10,200.
“The funds raised by the students have a tremendous impact,” Coon said. “That is 10,200 more children who can be vaccinated against polio.”
A purple pinky is an international symbol for those administrating polio vaccines to keep children from being immunized too frequently. As soon as a child under 5 years of age receives the drops of the oral vaccine, their pinky is coated with indelible purple dye. In this way, health care workers giving the vaccine can recognize the recent administration of the polio preventative drug.
Five teams of 8-12 high school students from the Challenge/Interact Club at Kenmore West and the Interact Club at Kenmore East visited five elementary schools in two days. These groups are student organizations closely affiliated with the Rotary. The Challenge/Interact Club at Kenmore West is coordinated by Darcy France and the Interact Club at Kenmore East is coordinated by Karen Machniak.
“It was very gratifying to see Interact Club members from both high schools working together,” Coon said.
Coon first heard of the Purple Pinkie Project a decade ago during Rotary International’s annual world conference marking its 100th year. He learned of it from the Rotarian who founded the movement in Florida, where it had quickly taken off. The Roosevelt Elementary School K-Kids club under the leadership of Michele Dean embraced the idea, making the effort a unique collaboration between two international service organizations – the Rotary through its affiliation with the Interact Club and the Kiwanis-affiliated K-Kids.
Now, it is an annual effort by students to contribute toward the eradication of polio, once one of the world’s most feared diseases. This year, the event also spread to the Grand Island Central School District. At Roosevelt Elementary School, the Purple Pinkie Project was the culmination of the Great Kindness Challenge, a national initiative in which children in participating schools spent the last week in January carrying out as many acts of kindness as they could.
Since last year, polio has been eradicated in one additional country: Nigeria. Now, there are only two countries left that still have new cases of polio. Before Rotary International’s involvement, the number of new cases worldwide in 1985 was approximately 300,000. Last year, there were just 73 new cases.
On Saturday, March 19, any interested students who may have missed out on the opportunity can get their pinky painted between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Lincoln Arena at the Annual Town of Tonawanda Easter Egg Hunt. The event is sponsored and the Town of Tonawanda Youth, Parks and Recreation Department and the Kenmore Rotary Club for children in the town. For more information, visit www.ttypr.com.
“Since the Purple Pinkie Project was so successful in the schools, the $1 donation will be optional,” Coon said. “A quarter or even a nickel donation helps plant the seed by in the students’ minds about giving back. At this point it's more important to say ‘thank you’ to the kids and raise awareness about how successful they were with the fundraiser and the tremendous impact it will have globally.”