Pacelli Catholic Schools is teaching students about polio with the help of a polio survivor.

Linda L. Christianson was stricken with polio at 7 months old. There was no vaccine to protect her from the virus at the time.

Christianson is visiting Pacelli and other classrooms in Minnesota on Friday, which is World Polio Day. Her goal is to motivate people to make a difference. She will speak to the sixth- through 12th-grade students from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and to fourth- and fifth-grade students from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Christianson was admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester in October of 1948 and stayed there for 14 months. Christianson had years of corrective surgery to help with her mobility, and she was finally without brace and crutch-free as a sophomore in high school. For the next 20 years, she completed her professional training and became a wife and mother to three children. Post-polio syndrome has caused Christianson to use a brace, crutches and a cane to help with her mobility.

In the United States, polio may be a memory. But in other parts of the world — like Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan where transmission of the virus has never been halted — it still exists.

Christianson is working to take down polio in all parts of the world. To learn more about her life and movement, visit www.blog.rotary.org/2014/10/14/all-the-steps-i-have-taken-since-polio/.