Doughnuts, Purple Icing and Rotary Clubs Combine to Fight Polio Worldwide
The dozens of Rotary Clubs throughout Central and South Alabama came together Monday to sell doughnuts to raise money to fight polio worldwide. But these aren’t any ordinary doughnuts.
These doughnuts have purple icing at one end. That symbolizes the ink that is put on the tips of children’s pinkie fingers in other parts of the world to show that they have received the polio vaccine.
While polio is an afterthought for many in the U.S., it is still endemic in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Dunkin’ donated the doughnuts to Rotary Clubs to sell for $25 a box. Thanks to matching contributions, including from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, every $25 turns into a $187.50 contribution to the World Polio Fund. All proceeds go to fight polio.
“The overall message goes back to Rotary’s basic theme of “Service Above Self,” Montgomery Rotary Club member Graham Champion told Alabama News Network. “We want to serve other folks in terms of projects that we do, in terms of helping the world be a better place. Again, it’s to bring awareness to the issue of polio and trying to eradicate it.”
On what has now become known as “Purple Pinkie Day,” 1,684 boxes of doughnuts were delivered to Rotary Clubs in Montgomery, Dothan and Mobile to be sold.
World Polio Day will be marked on Sunday, October 24, in a united effort to finally rid the world of polio.
