Teams take to the 2007 MS Walk: as days get longer and soften with veils of green ... the MS Walk season is here! Friends, family, and co-workers are getting their feet and their hearts pumping to raise MS awareness and funds for research and for services.COVER STORY: Team Gooberhead Mid Florida Chapter After five years of being together, Jennifer (circled below) and Jayson Smith (both on the cover) got engaged in 2003. Then by extraordinary coincidence, they were both diagnosed with MS in 2004. After they married as they'd planned, Jennifer said, "We wanted to meet more people like us. So we formed a Walk team. It helps us stay positive. MS was a lifestyle change. Exercising, especially walking, is part of it. This will be our third year. It's amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. how many people have a connection to this disease." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Starbucks Coffee Company MS Walk Team Greater Washington Chapter Team Captain Kaycee Kiesz (circled) has worked at Starbucks since 1992. Kaycee said, "The company encourages volunteering through a number of employee programs." When she was diagnosed in 2001, she learned about the MS Walk in Seattle. The next year, she formed a team of 50 friends, family, and co-workers. The team now boasts 220 members, and in 2006 raised $78,000. "There are Starbucks MS Walk teams across the U.S.," she said. "I want to help them gain more visibility and to help grow those teams as well." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Team MS Achievers Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Chapter Johnice Jones (circled) could barely step into the Marilyn Hilton MS Achievement Center at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX when it opened in 2000. "Someone at the Center told me 'you're gonna gon·na Informal Contraction of going to: We're gonna win today. be in the Walk!'" she said. "1 couldn't walk--but I began to train anyway. I put one foot in front of the other and walked 50 feet with a walker in 2001. In 2006, I walked 625 feet. This year my goal is to walk with a 3-pronged cane cane, walking stick cane, walking stick. Probably used first as a weapon, it gradually took on the symbolism of strength and power and eventually authority and social prestige. ." Johnice is a member of Team MS Achievers, which includes her peers living with MS, family, friends, and staff from the Center. Last year they raised more than $90,000. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Team Watts Greater Illinois Chapter Elaine Watts (inset photo) first walked the MS Walk 15 years ago with a club at work. When she was diagnosed with MS in 2002, she said, "I already knew all about it. It was so ironic." Soon after, she started Team Watts made up of family, friends, and co-workers from the radio station LoveFM. "When I see our team shirts coming into the finish line, I cry," she said. "And each year there are more people with our shirts. We've grown just by word-of-mouth. I feel truly loved by my family and friends." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SIMS SIMS Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry SIMS School of Information Management and Systems SIMS Sun Internet Mail Server SIMS Student Information Management System SIMS Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences (National Research Council, Canada) Team (Staten Island Staten Island (1990 pop. 378,977), 59 sq mi (160 sq km), SE N.Y., in New York Bay, SW of Manhattan, forming Richmond co. of New York state and the borough of Staten Island of New York City. MS) New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. Chapter Made up of people from an MS support group and their friends and family members, SIMS Team is the number one Walk team on Staten Island. Co-captain Pete Dimiceli (inset photo) said, "We've raised over $250,000--from people, not businesses. It's truly grass roots grass roots pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. People or society at a local level rather than at the center of major political activity. Often used with the. 2. The groundwork or source of something. . Once you belong to a team, it's easy to grow. Every year we ask members to bring someone new." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Team Engelman Southern California Chapter When her brother Eric (circled, right) was diagnosed with MS in 2003, Traci Engelman (circled, left) wanted to do something positive to help her family: she organized a Walk team in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , where her brother and family live, from her home in New York City. Traci said, "E-mail makes it easy to do. My dad and I are the most annoying fundraisers you'll come across. We're relentless. Sometimes it's difficult to ask people for money year after year, but MS doesn't go away. So you keep asking." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Team Schiller Greater Washington Chapter After Mike Schiller (circled) was diagnosed in 2005, he wanted to "create a team with spirit," he said. To do that, he organized contests and games and gave out donated prizes during the Seattle MS Walk. "We aren't there to just walk," Mike added. "We're there to fundraise fund·raise or fund-raise also fund raise intr.v. fund·raised, fund·rais·ing, fund·rais·es To engage in fundraising. Verb 1. for MS. I do what I can to make it fun and reward the team for all their work." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Web tools work it To extend their circle of influence, people are using the Society's Web-based tools to make it easy to join a team or make a donation. In their very first year, the 82 members of Team Schiller raised over $20,000, doubling their initial goal. "The fundraising
tr.v. mo·ti·vat·ed, mo·ti·vat·ing, mo·ti·vates To provide with an incentive; move to action; impel. mo ." This year Mike thinks his team will double its goal again. He said, "There are plenty of people who want to help!" |
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