Help End Polio During the Purple Pinkie Project

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - World Polio Day arrives this Friday, and local nursing students are gearing up for a global health mission right here in Aroostook County. The Purple Pinkie Project aims to raise funds for polio vaccines that will protect children around the world from this devastating disease. Students from the UMPI campus and UMFK Nursing students are teaming up for the project along with the Presque Isle Rotary Club to bring light to this initiative in our community.

Stacy Thibodeau, a UMFK Nursing Professor said: “This is gonna be our 3rd year. In the past our nursing students have raised almost $500 together the last couple years but this year we are shooting for 500 vaccines raised for children in need worldwide. So, in order to do that we’re gonna need the communities help. Since they’ve started this initiative in 1988 to eradicate Polio we’ve now, 99 point almost 9 percent of all Polio cases have been eradicated through vaccination.”

Ashley Gay, a 3rd Year UMFK nursing student added: “Come Friday we’ll be setting up in the campus center of UMPI to gather donations for the Purple Pinkie Project. We’ve been brainstorming ideas to get more donations this year, and we know what we made last year and we’re hoping to have a higher donation this year. As nurses our job is to help people get better and we can start that in nursing school and through this Purple Pinkie Project we can raise funds for all over the world and go beyond our communities and beyond our school to eradicate Polio and this is just the first step of that.”

The fundraising effort kicks off Friday with multiple ways for community members to contribute. Nursing students will accept donations at the UMPI campus center from 8 AM to 2 PM on October 24th. For added convenience, a Purple Pinkie Project drive-thru will operate on campus from 11 AM to 1 PM, making it easy for busy residents to support this life-saving cause.