Get your running shoes ready for the second-annual End Polio Now 10K race set for 1 p.m. March 27.

Paige Harris, coordinator for the event, which is organized by Washington Noon Rotary, said money raised by the race will go directly to Rotary International’s Push to End Polio initiative.

“We’ll meet at the Estuarium, then run along the waterfront and over to Washington Park,” Harris said. “Then run back through town in historic Washington.”

“It’s a nice course, and it’s a certified course,” she said. “So, people will know they ran exactly 6.2 miles.”

The race receives technical support from East Carolina Road Racing. Patrons wanting to participate in the race may register, contact Harris for entry forms or stop by LifeStyles Fitness Center, Hibbett Sports and Fitness Unlimited to pick up entry forms.

According to  the World Health Organization, polio (poliomyelitis) is a disease caused poliovirus, which is spread by person-to-person contact. President Franklin D. Roosevelt suffered from polio.

“The initiative is because of Rotary International Push to End Polio,” she said. “Years ago, Rotary International decided their cause would be to eradicate polio worldwide.”

Harris said because of that initiative, polio has been eradicated in 99.9 percent the world population, with only four countries č India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria č remaining endemic.

According to Harris, the reason local Rotary clubs have such a huge incentive to join the effort to eradicate polio is that the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation has agreed to give $200 million in matching funds if International Rotary raises $200 million by 2012.

“And we are well on our way to reaching that goal,” she said. “So, it’s important that the local Rotary clubs donate at least $2,000 a year to help eradicate polio, which is an amazing feat.”

Harris said doctors who deliver the polio vaccine literally carry the vaccine in their backpacks to the villages where polio remains so those who need it have a chance to be immunized.

“It’s kind of amazing when you think about it,” she said.

Harris said it’s beneficial to the United States to eradicate polio throughout the world to prevent it from returning to the United States.

“Because we live in a global economy, it would not take long for polio to become a problem in the U.S. again, if we don’t take care of it now,” she said.