Four Rotary clubs are uniting to hold a fundraising Duck Race in Knighton Park, Leicester, on Bank Holiday Sunday, May 26, 2024.
It is the first time the four clubs – Blaby, Leicester De Montfort, Leicester Novus, and Oadby – have collaborated on such an ambitious project. At least 10 per cent of the money they raise will go towards End Polio Now.
That’s the global campaign which Rotary launched in 1985 when the crippling disease polio was rampant in dozens of countries with 365,000 new infections being diagnosed every year. That’s 1,000 lives cut short or wrecked a day.
Since then, along with our partners, Rotary has helped immunise more than 2.5 billion children against polio in 122 countries. Cases have been by cut 99.9 percent and now the disease is endemic in only Afghanistan and Pakistan. So far this year, there have been seven new cases in those two countries.
But the work – and the fundraising – has to go on until even those countries have been declared polio-free by the World Health Organisation for three years. Until then, there is a risk that a plane carrying an infected passenger could start a new epidemic anywhere in the world.
Each of the four participating clubs will choose other charities – some local to Leicester – to benefit from the four or five duck races to be held in Knighton Park next May.
In addition to the races, the family fun day will include stalls, sideshows, food outlets and other competitions
In a series of races, hundreds of ducks will be released at the top end of the brook running through the park. The flow of the brook will carry 200 ducks in each race to the weir around the right-hand bend between the football and events area. Spectators and owners will be able to cheer on the ducks from the banks and bridge over the brook The ‘owner’ of the winning duck in each race will receive a substantial cash prize.
Jim Matthews, President of the Rotary Club of Leicester Novus says: “All four clubs thank the Friends of Knighton Park and Leicester City Council’s parks department and its events department for their wholehearted support so far. All four clubs are fully committed to making this event develop into an unmissable event on the area’s social calendar, just like the Friends of Knighton Park’s Show.”
Rotary members from the four clubs, aided by family and friends, will plant thousands of purple crocus bulbs in Knighton Park on World Polio Day, Tuesday, October 24.
Why Purple? Because when Rotarians and others have travelled to polio-endemic countries to put a drop of vaccine on the tongue of children, they give them toys or pens. The youngsters are often keen to have more so come back for a second gift. Their little fingers – their ‘pinkies’ – are dipped in purple ink so they can be easily prevented from having someone else’s vital vaccine.
If you want to know more about End Polio Now, please follow this link https://www.endpolio.org/
If you want to help plant crocus bulbs to beautify Knighton Park while raising money and awareness of End Polio Now, please follow the links to any of the participating Rotary Clubs
Blaby Rotary Club: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079451582217
Leicester De Montfort Rotary Club: https://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=1798
https://www.facebook.com/leicdemontrotary/
Leicester Novus Rotary Club: https://rotary-leicesternovus.org/news-2023/duck-race-to-support-rotary-good-causes
https://www.facebook.com/LeicesterNovus/
Oadby Rotary Club: https://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=431
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=rotary%20club%20of%20oadby
If you would like to speak to someone, please call Jim Matthews on 0795 197 2914.
Will this chap be the last, then?
Last edited: 20:00 on Saturday, September 2, 2023
