Purple Pinkie

To find out more about the Purple Pinkie Project please see the manual created by the Rotary Club of Lake City, Florida, USA. Click here. We are in the process of amending the document for use in District 1010.

 The Purple Pinkie Project & Purple Pinkie Week

Throughout the world, each time a volunteer administers a polio vaccine, a child’s pinkie is coloured purple with the topical solution Gentian Violet - temporarily marking them to prevent double dosage on National Immunization Days and to search-out children who were missed.

A Rotary Purple Pinkie Project builds upon this procedure. It began in the Rotary Club of Lake City, Florida when they called upon local school children to help raise funds to immunize other children from polio. The Project has been successfully duplicated by Rotary Clubs all over the world as a purple pinkie has become a symbol of Rotary’s fight to end polio. School child are asked to raise/donate at least 50p (the estimated cost for one immunization). The pupils get their pinkie purple painted as symbol of one child saved from polio.

BENEFITS
• Additional children will be immunized from polio and we will be closer to the goal of eliminating polio worldwide.
• International understanding will be advanced as children from non-endemic countries are made aware of the polio problem in other nations and become part of the solution.
• Rotarians get a chance to talk about Rotary and great works of service to the next generation.
• By partnering with Interact and fellow Rotarians, service relationships will be built.

The project can also be extended beyond the schools application. During other events including street collections the “reward” for making a donation can also be the marking of the pinkie. This then becomes a valuable talking point for the next few days as the colour wears off.

Individually or combing with neighboring Clubs, Rotarians should be thinking of options for a Purple Pinkie Week in February 2010 as part of “The Window on the World of Rotary” click here for more details. The week could include a number of purple topics including colouring of hair or beards for sponsorship, businesses having purple based-based days, companies with purple products, supporting the polio effort on their packaging, dress down days, community quiz nights, musical evenings, collections at supermarkets and train stations. What about ending the week with a formal dinner? Think-up your own ideas and help Rotary get nearer to reaching the goal set by the Bill & Melinda Gates challenge.