Farmers interested in participating can call Don Bauer at (937) 484-3456
URBANA — In the coming months, crops grown by farmers in Clark and Champaign counties will be used to fight more than hunger.
For the first time, members of the Urbana Rotary Club are asking for help from local farmers to fight polio, a disease that once affected hundreds of thousands of people a year across the world. Now, the disease is prevalent in only a handful of countries, and the national rotary organization is raising money to vaccinate millions of people with the goal of eventually eliminating the disease.
In Champaign County, organizers decided to enlist help from local farmers, who are being asked to donate the proceeds from an acre of corn to help pay for the vaccine and transport it to those in need.
Although it began in Champaign County, the idea already has spread to farmers throughout the region, said Don Bauer, one of three Rotary Club members serving as co-chairs for the project.
“It started out in Champaign County, but it’s gone well beyond that at this point,” Bauer said.
Bud Runyan is one of the farmers who will donate to the cause this year. When he was 18, Runyan was diagnosed with polio. The numerous treatments meant he would not be able to work that summer, so he enrolled at Ohio State University. After a 30-year career as an agriculture educator, he is now using his career to help eradicate the disease.
“Luckily enough, I got through it without any bad effects,” he said.
The Champaign Rotary Club also will focus on the effort during a club dinner Monday, May 24.
James Terpenning, a Beavercreek resident and an Aeronautical Systems Center employee at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, will serve as the guest speaker. Terpenning, who was diagnosed with polio as a child, was featured on the ABC show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” The episode aired last fall.
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