HOLSWORTHY Rotary Club has provided 10,000 purple crocus bulbs as part of Rotary International’s drive to ‘End Polio Now’.

The bulbs have been distributed to participating groups in the community and planted in school grounds, in Holsworthy and some local villages.

A spokesperson for Holsworthy Rotary Club said: “The importance of eradicating polio in the world carries great weight with those of us old enough to remember the effect on our peer group before the national immunisation programme was put in place in the 1950s.

“Please look for patches of purple in the spring and think of the few areas in the world where continued war, terrorism and civil strife make immunisation, relief and support very difficult but where the crippling disease is still found.”

Holsworthy Primary School pupils were eager to play an active part in the planting area at the school assisted by Rotary president Geoff Cusick.

On Friday, December 2, Father Christmas visited Holsworthy’s late night shopping and Christmas lights switch on. He distributed presents provided by Holsworthy Rotary Club to more than 160 children from his grotto provided by courtesy of NatWest Bank.

Sweets, mince pies and drinks were available for young and old by the kind efforts of the bank staff. Thanks were expressed to the NatWest Bank, from the Rotary Club, for its generous seasonal hospitality.

By the end of this calendar year Holsworthy Rotary Club will have donated, or pledged, a total of £7,495 to support local, national and international charities, disaster aid and worthy causes.

Major donations include £1,305 to the Rotary Foundation supporting national and international projects, £1,000 to support the provision of defibrillators locally, £665 to Children’s Hospice South West, £1,250 to the Devon Air Ambulance Trust, £500 to Favela Phoenix for work in poor areas of Rio de Janeiro, £300 for the local Carewise drop-in centre, £250 for Holsworthy and Rural Community Action Through Sport, and with the remainder donated to local active groups in the community.