Beach walk is latest in long line of heroic efforts to wipe out polio

Polio will be fought on Hilton Head Island on Oct. 3 in a fundraising beach walk organized by five Rotary clubs.

The "Heel To Toe" event brings attention -- and money -- to a Rotary International effort to eradicate polio in developing countries, where it continues to paralyze children.

Beaufort Rotarian Ed Duryea saw polio firsthand earlier this year in a mission trip to Kenya. He saw its victims crawling around on hands and knees. He helped administer vaccinations in remote areas.

The beach walk also recalls several of Beaufort County's most remarkable moments, all related to polio.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, perhaps the most famous polio victim of all time, brought his infectious optimism to our county in April 1944. His smile beamed for the cameras as he toured the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, his arm hanging out of a convertible car.

It was a scene that helped give the world a feeling that the enemies of freedom -- and polio -- could be conquered.

In those days, the troops were fed by a farm and dairy on the island. According to a story in the Parris Island Museum, the man who ran the farm for decades put the hogs by the road that day, then slopped them at just the right time so that it appeared to the president that in the Lowcountry, even the hogs stood at attention for him.

In the next decade, a monkey farm in Okatie would raise the animals that would help bring the world the momentous vaccine for polio.

And then in April 1987, the Hilton Head Island Rotary Club joined forces with the Hilton Head Home Builders Association to put a nail in polio's coffin. Their goal was to build a home in seven days, sell chances to win it for $100 and contribute $200,000 to Rotary International's PolioPlus campaign.

It was such a 24/7 show that bleachers were set up across the street. Restaurants brought in food, building inspectors responded at all hours and more than 20 construction firms, who normally competed like cats and dogs, pulled together for a common cause.

It took 3,850 hours of planning. Then, nearly 400 workers logged 2,742 hours to build the 3,000-square-foot home in Hilton Head Plantation -- complete with swimming pool, landscaping and interior decorating -- in five days and six hours.

In Beaufort County, we know polio. We know what it is doing to children today. We know that overcoming it will take infectious optimism and teamwork. And, more than most folks, we know that it can be done.