By: Rachel Bachrach, Dover High School Interact Club
This summer, I volunteered at the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) program for my region of the country. This program, sponsored by Rotary, is a four-day summer camp in the woods of Maine with the goal of instilling leadership values in incoming juniors to high school. I was a camper the previous summer, and returned as a staff member to continue the program. As staff members, we were encouraged to take what we had learned during camp week and bring it back to our communities so that the magic of RYLA would persist through the year. With this motivation, I decided to complete a project during my final year of high school, a senior project of sorts, relating to Rotary International’s commitment to eradicating Polio.
At RYLA, I learned about how Rotarians would dip the pinky finger of the children they vaccinated in purple ink to mark their vaccination. This tradition is continued through the Purple Pinky Project: when someone donates enough money to provide one vaccination, their pinky fingernail is painted purple in honor of Rotary’s progress in Polio eradication. I chose the Polio initiative as the basis for my project because Polio affects children and teenagers, people my age. It was scary to come to the realization that it could have been me who became paralyzed from Polio, or me who lost a sibling to this horrible disease, and I wanted to prevent those situations from becoming realities for any more children and families across the world.
I began planning my event, The Purple Pinky Project Community Event, in July and presented my idea to members of my local Rotary Club in September. There was a three dollar suggested donation at the entrance to the event which paid for face painting, pinky nail painting, access to the bake sale (run by my high school’s Interact club), access to an art display of the effects of Polio presented by fourth graders from a local elementary school, and an information booth about Rotary, Interact, and Polio Plus. I spent countless hours emailing possible sponsors, getting a food permit, advertising, and securing volunteers for the stations at the event.
The Purple Pinky Project Community Event ended up being a success in many different ways. First, the fundraiser raised enough money to provide more than three hundred and fifty Polio vaccinations for children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Additionally, members from local Rotary and Interact clubs got together in support of this issue and spread information to the public. Now more people within the community are aware of the struggles that Polio-affected families face every day. Finally, through planning, organizing, and successfully following through with this event, I proved to myself that I was able to recognize a strong passion and make a tangible difference. Not only was I able to help others, but I was able to build confidence in my abilities and build strong moral values to carry me through the rest of my life.
Rotary’s motto, “service above self,” describes how Rotarians enjoy helping others even when it may be physically or mentally taxing at times. When I made the decision to take on this project, I knew that it was going to be a lot of work, but I chose to do it anyway. Therefore, I was able to show myself and my community that I am willing to do challenging things for people who need help. All of the community service work that I have done with my local Interact Club, RYLA, and with Rotary has honed my desire to help and support others whenever I can. Without these experiences, I would not have been exposed to some people’s realities. I am grateful to now be aware of what I can do to help and am excited to continue participating in community service and to continue to learn more about the ways in which I can help make the world a better place.