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If you watch your step, you’ll soon be able to tiptoe through the tulips at Simcoe Park, thanks to work by Rotary Club of Niagara-on-the-Lake and NOTL Parks and Recreation Department in support of the worldwide effort to end polio.“Rotary International has been working to wipe out polio for more than 30 years and the goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever,” said Patricia Murenbeeld, President of the NOTL Rotary Club.
The planting took place two days before World Polio Day — October 24, when Rotary seeks to raise awareness of the global effort to have polio-free world. The tulips will grow into distinctive red flowers with a bright yello
w flame pattern. The tulip sale and planting program, now in its second year in Canada, was started by Dutch Rotarians in 2013 and the fundraiser has spread to clubs and communities around the world.
w flame pattern. The tulip sale and planting program, now in its second year in Canada, was started by Dutch Rotarians in 2013 and the fundraiser has spread to clubs and communities around the world.“I’m of Dutch heritage, so it’s especially nice for me to be part of a great cause … and see beautiful tulips bloom in our town,” Murenbeeld (pictured left below) says.
The worldwide program began as a modest effort to auction off naming and sale rights to charity for a new variety of tulip. Since then, more than 1.5 million Rotary End Polio Now tulip bulbs have been sold, generating more than $2 million US to fight polio.
The tulips in Simcoe Park will grow to between 16 and 20 inches — if you’re careful not to trample them when you tiptoe around them, rather than through. Your visit to Simcoe Park may also inspire you to buy and plant End Polio Now Tulips in your own garden next year.