Local Rotary Clubs join effort to help eradicate the viral disease

When Jim Veccia was 16 years old, he went to bed with what he thought was a sprained back. He woke up the next morning unable to walk.

“I couldn’t even lift my head off the pillow,” said Veccia, a retired printing executive who lives on Hilton Head Island. He spent the next year in the hospital recovering from polio, a highly infectious viral disease that invades the nervous system and can lead to paralysis. That was in 1950, during the heyday of polio, an era when more than 50,000 cases were reported in the United States.

Thanks to immunizations developed less than a decade later, Veccia’s experience is now a scenario virtually unheard of in the United States — and in most other countries. However, in parts of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, polio is still endemic. “As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, all children — wherever they live — remain at risk,” according to Rotary International.

Rotary International has been committed to eradicating polio worldwide for the past 20 years, supporting immunization campaigns in developing countries. Recently, the organization has been working to raise $200 million to add to $355 million in grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As part of that effort, five local Rotary Clubs kicked off their “Heel to Toe for Polio” campaign in August. The campaign, with a $50,000 goal, culminates Oct. 3 with a 2-mile walk on Coligny Beach.

“It is a major window of opportunity for Rotary to make the final push now,” said Bill Beltz, campaign organizer and president of the Okatie Rotary. “This is why we are so insistent and persistent in our efforts.”

Helen Ryan, a retired nurse and former principal of Hilton Head Island High School, and a Rotary member who has been helping spread the word about “Heel to Toe for Polio,” said the campaign has special meaning for her because, like Veccia, she is a polio survivor. “The walk is a perfect example of not only what Rotary can do, but how we can come together to solve a problem in world health,” she said.

In addition to boosting Rotary’s mission, the “Heel to Toe” walk will benefit the Coastal Empire Polio Survivors Association (CEPSA). Veccia, an active member of CEPSA, said that beyond spotlighting the eradication effort, the walk will be an opportunity for members of that group to share their experiences and resources, as well as reach out to other polio survivors. “Given the average age of Hilton Head residents, there have to be so many people here who were affected by the epidemic (in the 1950s),” he said.

The number of polio cases has decreased dramatically since Veccia and Ryan’s ordeals. And since 1988, polio cases have plummeted even more — 99 percent worldwide. But there is still 1 percent to go, and Rotary members are confident that, boosted by events like “Heel to Toe for Polio,” 100 percent isn’t out of reach. “This is a viral disease we can eliminate,” Ryan said.

If you go

• When/where: Saturday, Oct. 3, Coligny Beach; registration at 9 a.m., walk at 10 a.m.; walk will go from Coligny Beach to the Marriott (about 2 miles) and return to Coligny

• The scoop: Five area Rotary Clubs are sponsoring this inaugural walking event to help end the fight against polio. Teams are being organized within the clubs and the general public is invited to form teams also. Sponsorships and trail markers are available for this event. Call Bill Beltz at 843-706-3760.

• Details: For more information about CEPSA, call Jim Veccia at 912-352-8383.