Bulb Planting Event
Every year Chatham Maritime Trust, together with the Gavin Jones landscaping team, invites residents to participate in a planting day on St. Mary’s Island. The last of these events took place on 22nd October 2022 along the Central Walk. Bulbs and gardening tools were supplied; the only thing needed from residents was enthusiasm!
St Mary’s Island is aglow with purple as crocuses bloom this Spring. Local Rotary members have planted 80,000 crocus corms to support the End Polio Now campaign. The vibrant purple flowers around the St Mary’s Island Community Centre and various locations symbolize the millions of corms planted across Great Britain and Ireland as part of Rotary’s Purple4Polio initiative. This campaign raises funds for polio eradication, with purple representing the dye used on immunized children’s fingers.
Since 1985, Rotary has immunized over 2.5 billion children against polio, reducing its prevalence from 125 countries to just 2—Pakistan and Afghanistan. Annual polio cases have dropped from approximately 350,000 to 30 in 2022, with none reported in 2023.
