Without taking a step, an Orangeburg girl, paralyzed since the age of 3, has walked into the hearts of dozens locally. She'll now walk into hearts nationwide. Eleven-year-old Teyona Webb, who was wheelchair-bound before a series of surgeries, has been selected as the poster representative for the Shriner's Hospital for Children. "I couldn't imagine it being in my school," Teyona said of the posters and billboards that will be going up nationwide.

In the poster, Teyona is shown sitting in her wheelchair with her friend and Shriner's Hospital staff member Jonathan McSurdy.

The rising sixth-grader has been a paraplegic since the age of three when she was involved in a car crash. The June 1997 accident snapped the then-toddler's spine in two.

Doctors told the caregivers of the ever-smiling child that her learning abilities might be blunted and that she would never walk again. She was left paralyzed from the waist down.

"I'd like to show them now," Teyona's grandmother, Mary Vinson, said of those opinions from 1997. "She's an honor student, and she's going to walk."

About three years ago, Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office deputies got involved. They found out the upbeat Webb could only enter or exit her home when her grandmother physically carried her.

"She didn't have a wheelchair so we got her one so she could get around," Sheriff Larry Williams said. "And then we built her a ramp" onto her Belleville Road home.

However, a series of surgeries over the past two years at the Shriner's Hospital in Philadelphia has given Teyona a glimmer of hope that she may one day park the wheelchair for good.

Although extremely exhausting, she's already progressed to the point of using a walker while using leg braces. A back brace completes Teyona's 'armor.'

"I actually like it because it makes me strong," Teyona said, laughing as she holds up her arm to show off her muscle.

It's perhaps that determination that helped the local girl walk into the lives of others around the nation on the billboards.

"She's in Florida, Chicago, Philadelphia," Edisto Shriner Bob Bruner said. "I mean, she's all over."

The Clark Middle Schooler will travel back to Philadelphia in December for yet another surgery. The prospect of a playroom, computer games and a room with a theme overwhelms any thought of doctors and surgeries, Teyona said.

"And last time, we had a Harley-Davidson one (theme-room)," Teyona said. "That was really nice."

Should the procedure at this year's end go well, the walker may be replaced with an elbow-braced walker. "They (Shriners) are really good people," Vinson said. "I'm really impressed with them."

Despite the progress, it may be another two years yet before Teyona is able to take a step completely unassisted. But she says she is still determined to walk the Kid's Walk at the Edisto Gardens at Christmas.

Meanwhile, she has written a book on her adventures and adversities. Without sharing the actual text, Teyona said it covers her good days and the bad.

Does the book reveal a sweetheart in her life?

"No, you've asked me that three times!" she said, laughing.

As to the wheelchair, Teyona said she hasn't decided its fate on the day when she completely regains the capability to walk.

"I might save it," she said. "Or throw it in the dump."

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