Dr. Kathleen Taylor, the superintendent of the Ocean City School District, needed no convincing that the annual HERO Walk on the Boardwalk was a good thing to get students involved in when it began four years ago.

“It’s easy to see the educational value of the HERO Campaign, and the HERO Walk that supports it,” Taylor said. “We teach our students about the value of good decision-making, and that’s what the HERO Campaign is all about. You don’t have to sell anybody on the HERO Campaign or the Walk.”
The 4th Annual HERO Walk (www.theherowalk.org) will be October 5 on the Ocean City Boardwalk. It’s an event sponsored by the John R. Elliott HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers, which my wife, Muriel, and I began in 2000, shortly after our son was killed by a drunk driver. He had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy just two months before.

The HERO Campaign now has its headquarters at The Richard Stockton College in Galloway Township. It promotes safe and sober designated drivers as the way to prevent drunk driving tragedies, and we use events such as the annual HERO Walk on the Ocean City Boardwalk to spread that message.

Last year’s 3rd Annual HERO Walk drew more than 2,000 participants.  Many of the walkers were members of a team. The Egg Harbor Township and the Ocean City school districts sent 24 and 12 teams, respectively. In fact, Team Halliday of the Ocean City Schools came up with the highest team donation total, with $2,475.

Team Halliday is captained by Kelly Halliday, the girls soccer coach at Ocean City High School. She agrees  100 percent with Taylor’s  thoughts on the value of the HERO Walk.  Team Halliday consisted of 81 walkers last year, the most among the 12 Ocean City School District Teams.
“Last year the turnout was unbelievable,” said Halliday, 28. “We had something like 48 soccer players, and plenty of family members and friends joined them and us. We’re hoping to have an even higher team-member total this year, but if we don’t it won’t be awful.  The value of the event is still there.”

To Halliday, that ‘value’ is in the decision-making lesson that Taylor spoke of, and in community involvement.

“The HERO Walk and the message of the HERO Campaign serve as good guidance toward making good decisions. We keep preaching good decision-making throughout a student’s school days, and being involved in the community is just good citizenship. The kids get lots of value out of it.
“When I was growing up I was always doing something in the community, so organizing a team for the Walk just kind of came natural to me.”

Taylor, who is beginning her ninth year as superintendent, has been making sure the Ocean City School District has been involved in the HERO Walk since its inception. The district includes the high school, the intermediate school and the primary school.

She doesn’t, however, captain a team herself.

“I offer plenty of encouragement to others to form or join teams,” she said. “But I usually participate as part of a primary school team.

“But overall, getting involved in the HERO Walk is one of the most concentrated efforts we make in the unified school district. Bill and Muriel spoke to our staff on opening day about four years ago, and it was very moving, very inspirational.  We’ve been behind them ever since.

“We already have within our curriculum guidance on how drug and alcohol abuse can impair good decision-making; we work with the police and others on this.

“But making students aware of the value of designated drivers, even though most of them are not old enough to drive yet, is excellent education. You don’t have to convince anybody that this is a good cause.”

So is it difficult putting together a team for the HERO Walk?

“The difficult part is simply the logistics,” Halliday said. “Getting the basic info out to everybody… then getting people to actually register, sign up – you have to keep reminding some people. The girls on the soccer team are good at wanting to help out, they put a lot of effort into following up on emails and getting people registered.

“The girls have been so good at the follow-up that now we have parents actually asking about the HERO Walk signups in the spring, and it’s an October event.

“The easy part, of course, is simply convincing people of the value of being involved in the Walk,” she said.

We raised $100,000 for the HERO Campaign with last year’s Walk. We will be kicking off our 15th  Anniversary year with this year’s Walk, which will go from 6th to 20th Streets and back.
It’s easy for you to join us, and you don’t have to be a member of a team to participate. visit www.theherowalk.org to sign up. It’s easy, and the cause you will help promote benefits all.
Muriel and I hope to see you there on October 5.