mswalk 2009...

I walk for my "Power Partner"; my dad. As you may know, he's had MS all of my life...and I'm pretty old :)

All this time, he has shown grace in adversity. He rarely complains. He is always happy to see you and he has a great attitude.

One of his hobbies is to paint. It's not the easiest thing for him to do, but he really seems to love it and paints every day. We've set him up with a "work station" where he has a table and cabinets to keep his supplies. My brother Ray made him an adjustable work surface that can angle up. He also made him "feet" for his table that allows it to raise up a few inches.

Jerome and I have been walking in this event since 2003 and because of a bunch of very generous people have raised nearly $9000 over those years. We set our goal low and usually far surpass it.

This year the donations were coming in very slowly. I really thought we would barely reach our goal of $600.

The economy is the worst that it’s been since I’ve been around. A lot of people I know are laid off. My company laid off over 10% of its workforce a little over a month ago. Chrysler just filed bankruptcy.

My mother offered up some of my dad’s paintings to “sweeten” the deal. She wanted me to "auction" them off, but I found that not too many people were all that interested in my dad's paintings, so we are just giving them to the highest bidder who indicated which one they would like (the winter scene with the church is still available...).
Much to our surprise, we’ve surpassed our goal and might end up being a top fundraiser for this year as well. I’m amazed. The deadline for donations is June 16, so there is still time if you’re interested in donating to the MS Walk. Click on "Donate to TheMoos".

This past Sunday was the walk. When we left our house in Romeo, it was cloudy and there were forecasts of rain all over Michigan. We drove to Rory and Heathers who live in Waterford. It started raining pretty hard. By the time we got to Ann Arbor, the clouds had blown away and the weather was really quite nice and sunny.

We did our 5k with our team members: me and Jerome, Paul and Noah (no Takki this year) and Rory, Heather and Hudson. Our team is always small, but I think that makes it easier to have conversations with everyone.

Since Paul lives in Ann Arbor, we took a little side trip down his street to say hi to Tami, but she wasn’t there. And Heathers’ sister April lives in Ann Arbor so we took another little side trip to see their house – April and Garth were not there.

When we arrived back at the school, we were served limey nacho chips and Oreo cookies. It’s evident that the economy has made them cut back on some of the extras. No pizza this year…oh well.

So far, we’ve raised $1275.00; with more coming in every day.

Comments

Tami said…
I really like the one of the stone gates and evergreens. Is that a cemetary entrance?

Good job on the walk!!!
Anonymous said…
Thanks for doing the MS walk. Hope you got my donation. Deni
baby sister said…
Yes Deni,

I haven't had a chance to send out my follow-up email.

The MS Society has received your very generous donation.

Thank you for your continued support.

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