The Presque Isle Rotary Club is part of a mission to eradicate polio worldwide.
Club members are taking the Purple Pinkie Project into the community in preparation for World Polio Day on Thursday, Oct. 24. The project aims to prevent the childhood disease that still affects areas of the world.
Rotary International launched the Purple Pinkie Project nearly 40 years ago to raise money to get polio vaccines to vulnerable children around the world. People who donate $1 — about the cost of one vaccine — can have a pinkie painted purple as a symbol of support. The effort has nearly eradicated polio in most countries, local Rotarians said.
Besides collecting donations, the Presque Isle club visits local schools to teach kids about what polio is, why it’s important to fight it, and how a small act like a $1 donation can save lives.
“The worldwide eradication of polio is a project near and dear to the hearts of not just many members of our club, but also to so many of the more than 1 million Rotarians around the globe,” Rotarian Rachel Rice said. “This is a fight we’re committed to seeing through and we’re so close to making it happen.”
Presque Isle Rotary started the project in 2012 and raised about $2,000, said Rice, who was the club’s original project chair. Since then, the club has raised more than $30,000 for Rotary International’s End Polio Now campaign.
A few years ago, they started expanding the effort to schools, joined by Rotarians throughout Aroostook County and neighboring New Brunswick. When they ask kids if they’ve ever heard of the local Rotary Club, Purple Pinkie is often one of the first things they mention, Rice said. Other Maine clubs are joining the effort, including those in Bar Harbor and Old Town.
End Polio Now started in 1985 and has helped provide vaccines to nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries, according to Rotary International. Rotary formed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with five other partners: the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United Nations Children’s Fund, Gates Foundation and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.
Polio cases numbered 350,000 worldwide in 1988, and this year only 10 have been found so far, according to organization data. End Polio Now encourages all clubs and supporters to support World Polio Day each Oct. 24.
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease of the nervous system that mainly affects children under 5, and can cause paralysis and even death, according to the World Health Organization. Late 19th- and 20th-century epidemics that killed thousands made it one of the most feared diseases, until American physician Jonas Salk developed the first vaccine in 1953.
There’s no cure for polio, but it can be prevented with the recommended series of four vaccines through childhood, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states. Most adults were vaccinated as children.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where polio is detected at present, Presque Isle Rotary project chair Mandy Pooler said.
During Purple Pinkie Project activities, club members color pinkies purple, which symbolizes the ink marks given during vaccinations to prevent double dosages, she said. Over the last few years, the club has started a new fundraising system. They collect $25 classroom sponsorships, in which volunteers can sponsor a classroom to eliminate costs for those who can’t afford them, Pooler said.
“Dozens of local businesses and community members have stepped up to sponsor the cost of all students and staff,” she said. “So everyone can participate, regardless of their financial ability to donate.”
Local Rotarians will visit 10 schools in Presque Isle, Mapleton, Easton and Ashland the week of Oct. 21 to Oct. 25. Members will share details about polio and paint pinkies. Kids can put their purple fingerprints on a poster the schools will display, sign their name and receive a sticker, Pooler said.
The Aroostook Agency on Aging and the Northern Lighthouse will also host stations to support fundraising efforts, as will several local businesses.
For Rice, it’s about serving the worldwide community and helping people of all ages realize that every effort, no matter how small, can make a difference.
“The Purple Pinkie Project is the very tangible way we’re able to bring such a huge project into our communities and help local kids and adults understand how something small and simple and real — like donating a dollar to help provide a polio immunization — is literally helping to save a child’s life,” she said.
