TWO students from Milford Haven and Haverfordwest have used their creative skills to create clothing to help identify Rotarians and battle polio.

The Narberth and Whitland Rotary Scarf story started in 2016 when incoming President Mary Adams and some fellow Rotarians were asked to form a line of honour at the funeral of a fellow Rotarian. Mary said: “All our fellow male Rotarians wore their Rotary ties, but there was nothing that made us instantly recognisable as Rotarians so I thought let’s do something about it.

“We set the challenge to a group of textile and graphic students at Pembrokeshire College. I met the-then principal Sharron Lusher and Curriculum Manager for Creative Studies Cath Brooks and the project developed from there.”

The brief was to design and produce a scarf that was affordable to Rotarians.

Lecturers visited the club, where Narberth and Whitland Rotary Club members debated and discussed a shortlisted set of designs before the final choice was made.

The winning designer was fashion and textiles student Mia Hewitson-Jones, from Haverfordwest, whose design really impressed the judges.

But the judges felt that the black blocks on the design detracted from the overall appeal, so it was decided to remove the block pattern and this required the expertise of graphics student Sam Stables, from Milford Haven.

Sam tweaked the design and made it ready for print production.

The next challenge was to get the scarf produced.

When prices in the UK proved prohibitively expensive, a supplier was found in Shanghai, but the design first had to be approved by Rotary International before production could commence.

Three years after the originally idea was put into motion the scarves arrived.

Sharron Lusher the-then principal of the college, now Deputy Lieutenant of Dyfed said: “It’s a huge achievement for the college students to design a scarf for Rotarians in the UK. Both students have shown talent and design flair and we are extremely proud of the two former students at the college. It really is lovely to see the final product.”

Scarves, priced at £20, are available at www.nwrotary.co.uk

All proceeds go to Rotary campaign to end polio.