Newbury schools turn purple to raise funds for Polio charity

PUPILS from two West Berkshire schools dressed up in purple as part of a national awareness and fundraising day for End Polio Now last week.
The pupils and staff at Park House School and Falkland Primary School shed their normal school clothes and donned purple bow-ties, t-shirts, socks and dresses to raise awareness and funds for Rotary International’s End Polio Now global campaign to eradicate Polio by 2018.
As well as having lots of fun decorating their classrooms in purple and completing purple finger-paintings the children held competitions and purple cake bake stalls to boost their fundraising, resulting in over £1250 being donated by the schools’ staff and pupils to the Polio charity.
The £1250 raised for End polio Now will be tripled by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and will mean that the fun day in purple can provide Polio vaccine for an estimated 15,000 children.
The Purple Clothes Day events were organised and sponsored by Newbury Rotary Club.
Headteacher of Park House School, Derek Peaple, said: “Some of our great Paralympians, like Ade Adepitan, were victims of Polio. But they were fortunate, they have survived and thrived and are an inspiration to all our young people. Thanks to Newbury Rotary Club, we are delighted and proud to be supporting this great cause.”
Headteacher at Falkland Primary School, Fiona Henderson, added: “The chidren loved dressing in purple and the visit of Newbie Rotary Bear dressed in his purple End Polio Now shirt rounded the day off on a high.
“Falkland Primary School were delighted to turn purple to make sure that polio becomes a disease of the past.”
There are 120 million children to be vaccinated across the Middle East to halt Polio in its track and stop it spreading out from Syria.
Started by Rotary International in 1985, 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated and Polio incidence has been reduced by 99 per cent.
Donations be made by texting “ NPOL10 £2 ” to 70070 or by visiting Newbury Rotary Club’s website at www.newburyrotary.org