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San Luis Obispo, CA—One day, jeweler Kevin Main happened to look up and see a bright orange billboard. Granted, a bright orange billboard is pretty hard to miss, but this particular one really stood out and stuck with Main. It was a callout for the Rotary Club—of which he is a member—and it featured a headshot of another member, a description of their personal interests, and ended with the tagline, “Polio Eradicator.”

Polio eradication is one of Rotary International's pet causes. Globally, the organization has been very active in working towards polio eradication, with a variety of programs and fundraisers targeted at ending the disease. Main, a member of Rotary de Tolosa in San Luis Obispo, decided that the store would donate its billboard to the Rotary Club—using Kevin as the subject—to help raise awareness, interest, and money for the cause of wiping out polio. (The store has an annual contract for a billboard and changes graphics every quarter.)

Next, the jeweler created raffle tickets for a special fundraiser centered around the billboard. For $100 each, contestants could enter to win a chance at having the billboard for the first quarter of 2012, to showcase either themselves or their business, or if they preferred, to donate it to another person or business.

Michelle Spina, marketing and events director at Kevin Main Jewelers, said that though the billboard competition was solely Main’s vision and project, the winning ticket was drawn at his Rotary Club meeting on December 14^th.

The billboard passed through a few hands—and raised more money—before the final subject was chosen. The actual winner of the drawing was a Rotary member named Budd Dressler, a retired military officer. He had to leave the meeting early that day and had told Main that if his name was drawn, to auction off the billboard to another member.

Completely coincidentally, says Spina, Dressler’s name was pulled as the winner. So the billboard went up for auction, raising another $750 and ultimately going to Mike McNamara, a local realtor and another Rotary member.

McNamara chose to donate the billboard to a local polio survivor, to showcase her triumphs and bravery, and to put a real face on the disease.  The woman, whose first name is Astrid, is shown here exiting her specially modified van

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