Dear
fellow End Polio Now Zone Coordinators & interested Rotarians:
I’m writing to
tell you about a great opportunity to energise our
End Polio Now Campaign with a fresh, exciting and very effective fundraising
and advocacy tool.
It’s very
simple – using fabric crocus buttonholes to raise donations from the public and
awareness for the Campaign. They’ve been tried by RIBI and have proved to be a
runaway success. Rotarians in the 29
districts of Rotary in Britain & Ireland (RIBI) chose the crocus to symbolise the End Polio Now Campaign as its purple colour matched the dye painted on the fingers of children
who had been immunised against polio. Initially they
planted hundreds of thousands of real crocuses as an annual reminder of the Campaign
and of course they bloom in the Spring, in time for February 23rd and Rotary Day.
Then, one visionary District Governor, Lynn Mitchell from District 1120,
wanted to take the idea a stage further and develop a beautiful fabric crocus
which could be worn by donors and members too. From a trial for
Rotary Day this year, they are now being rolled out nationally for
Rotary Day 2013 and are set to become the public face of Rotary Day in the
throughout the 29 districts with over 150,000 crocuses ordered. In addition,
trials and test marketing are underway in the US (John Adams in Zone 30 and
Barbara Finley in Zone 31), Canada (William Patchett in Zone 24), Brazil (Neli Abascal in Zone 23 / part of
22A) and Nigeria (Olayinka Babalola
in Zone 20A).
Attached is a brochure outlining the benefits of
the crocus buttonholes in terms of fundraising and awareness building, and how
they can be used.
We are all
aware of the 5 year US$1 billion funding shortfall the End Polio Now campaign
faces. In conjunction with the supplier, former Ambassadorial Scholar David
Price, I would like to share an idea which could raise a significant proportion
of this which I’d like to pitch to you.
It’s a
challenge for all Rotarians to wear a crocus buttonhole for a month and to distribute at least 10 crocus buttonholes to family, friends,
colleagues or strangers for US$5 each. This should be very simple to achieve.
As the crocuses are so attractive they are walking adverts and will trigger
many conversations about Rotary and the End Polio Now Campaign. Some of these
people who engage in conversation will ask how they can get a crocus buttonhole and I’m sure most will
gladly make a US$5 donation for one. If every Rotarian distributed just 10
crocus buttonholes it would
raise around US$60 million per year. Over 5 years this would be US$300 million,
or a third of the funding shortfall.
The benefits
are not just funding, but also advocacy. The millions of conversations about
polio eradication will help to create mass awareness and provide grass roots
support for the lobbying to governments and organisations
by demonstrating the breadth and depth of public feeling.
But don’t take
my word for this. David Price would like to arrange to send you a few crocus buttonholes so you and your family or
colleagues can wear them and see what kind of a response you get. If it’s favourable, you could follow the lead of William Patchett
in Zone 24 and order 5,000 for a test.
Yours in Rotary
friendship,
Mike
M J Parry
Zone 17
End Polio Now Zone Coordinator
