You may have noticed some activity on the Tattenham Corner village green in November.

No they weren’t burying anyone. It was members of T&P Residents Association together with pupils from The Beacon School and Banstead Rotary Club planting thousands of purple crocuses on the green.
This is a project organised by Banstead Rotary and the Banstead Horticultural Society to plant 8000 crocus corms on Tattenham Corner Village Green and along the verges by Banstead Library.
Financed by the Residents Association who joined in with members of Banstead Rotary and year 8 pupils from The Beacon, planting took place on November 15th.

Although we will all benefit from the colourful display, we will experience next February when the crocuses are expected to flower, there is another important reason behind this planting. Since 1985 Rotary International has been working to eradicate the world of Polio by vaccinating children throughout the world. The sale of these crocus corms helps to finance the vaccination of children to prevent this dreadful disease.

Pupils and teachers from The Beacon School

Back in the 1950s over 7,000 people in the UK contracted polio each year and over 700 died. It mainly affected young children and those that didn’t die were often left paralysed. A major vaccination scheme thankfully eradicated the disease in developed countries, and today, our children are automatically vaccinated as babies.
But less developed countries still suffered from the disease. It only costs 36p to vaccinate a child and since 1985 Rotary has financed and provided volunteers to carry out a world-wide immunisation programme. To date they have vaccinated over three million children.

They are nearly there – with Nigeria, being the last country in Africa declared polio free in 2020. The only two countries still outstanding are Pakistan and Afghanistan. The critical factor, as with Covid-19, is to vaccinate to stop this terrible disease from spreading.

To confirm who has been vaccinated, a finger is marked with a purple dye. As well as raising money to finance this immunisation, the planting of purple crocuses also symbolises that dye when they will flower next year. To find out more about Banstead Rotary visit their website: https://www.bansteadrotary.com

Councillor Jill Bray, Mayor of Reigate & Banstead with members of Banstead Rotary Club start the digging

Some of the thousands of crocus corms being planted at Tattenham Corner

Rotary vaccinating children in Africa