Interact “Clash of the Pinkies” Nets Big Bucks

Mohave High Interact President Bridget MacDonald and Lake Havasu High Interact President McKenah Kovach display their gold and purple-dipped pinkies, after leading their clubs in a successful “Clash of the Pinkies,” which raised more than $2,000 for polio eradication. The standing McKenah is reveling in her club’s victory, having raised the most funds in the lively contest between the clubs.

Can Interact clubs help Rotary eradicate polio? You bet they can! The recent challenge by the Mohave High Interact Club to the Lake Havasu High Interact Club to a “Clash of the Pinkies” raised more than $2,000 for this purpose. When matched two-to-one by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that translates to an impressive $6,000+ raised to purchase polio vaccines, to help assure that those children inoculated will never be crippled or killed by this devastating disease.

Interact clubs in Arizona, along with those in Needles, California, and Laughlin, Nevada, have been holding “Purple Pinkie Day” fund-raising events; taking a cue from the practice in countries around the world of dipping the pinkie finger of inoculated children in purple dye. These events are often done in conjunction with athletic games, or during school lunch hours, and sometimes off-campus at the entrance to big box stores.

Those who contribute a dollar or more are entitled to dip their pinkie in purple dye, as the sign that they have donated to help Interact save lives. The funds raised are then sent to The Rotary Foundation to receive the Gates Foundation match, before being used to buy doses of the vaccine.

When the arch-rival Mohave High and Lake Havasu High teams were to meet for their annual gridiron contest, their Interact clubs challenged each other to a “Clash of the Pinkies,” to culminate at the big game. It was realized that no self-respecting green-and-gold MHS Thunderbirds fan would ever agree to sport a pinkie died purple, the school color of the LHHS Fighting Knights, at that game. It was decided that, on this occasion, MHS fans would be granted a special dispensation to display gold-dipped pinkies in recognition of their contributions to Rotary’s “End Polio Now,” instead of the usual purple.

The Interact District Council – the student leadership of Interact District 5495’s 91 Interact clubs – is urging sponsoring Rotary clubs to show their support for their Interact clubs by matching the Purple Pinkie funds they have managed to raise, before those funds are sent to our Rotary Foundation, to obtain the additional Gates Foundation match.