Well, hello again! Bet you’re kinda surprised at my releasing another new blog post so soon after my previous post, huh? (grin)
Well, this will be a shorter post than the last one, I promise! But I wanted to take a moment and give everyone a report on the 2021 Michigan Parkinson Foundation’s Annual “I Gave My Sole For Parkinson’s“ walk, which I once again participated in this year.
First of all, if you are not familiar with this event: It is an annual event sponsored by the Michigan Parkinson Foundation (MPF). This is a great organization that helps Parkinson patients here in Michigan – all funds stay in our state! Their goal – or mission – is to educate and provide direct patient support to people affected by Parkinson’s disease and related movement disorders, their loved ones and care partners as well as the physicians and other allied health professionals who diagnose and treat those individuals with the disease. Among some of their numerous programs are such things as: Providing patient education programs for the newly diagnosed; sponsoring more than 76 support groups throughout ALL OF MICHIGAN; and providing financial assistance for Parkinson medications and respite care (both in-home and out-home facilities). The donations raised by us walk participants help fund these needed programs.
The annual walk is held each year, in Detroit, Lansing, and the Kalamazoo area (or SW Michigan). Of course, since I live in SW Michigan, that is the event I participate in. However, this year was a little different – Grand Rapids wanted in on ‘A piece of the action‘, so to say, and it was decided to have this years event in GR, at Grand Valley State University’s Eberhard Conference Center downtown.
I’ve been attending this event since 2017 – just a few years after I was diagnosed. I wanted to participate in an event to help out the cause and “give back” something to all those who have and will have helped me on this journey. So in 2017 I was introduced to the MPF, and in that year’s walk event they nominated me as their honoree! It was an honor for me to be named that year’s honoree… But it also entailed me giving a speech for the group (well over 100+ people) that morning – boy, was I nervous! But I did it and was proud to do so. And since then I’ve participated in each year’s walk!
I’ve also captained a walk team each year (except for last year due to COVID), which I called “Tom’s Warp Speed Walkers“! Yeah, I like Star Trek… but it’s a pretty cool name I think! Our team was rather small this year as opposed to some of the previous years (when my work peers were part of the team) – this year only three of us were on the team: me, my wife, and my sister. We may be small, but we “talked the talk, and walked the walk!
The walk was held on Saturday September 25, 2021. It was a beautiful, cool but comfortable morning when our team arrived around 9:30am at GVSU’s Eberhard Conference Center. Although the walk itself was outside in downtown GR, sign-in and the preliminaries were held inside the conference center. Once we signed in and collected our cool red walk shirts, we visited some of the vendor booths there, talking to folks and grabbing some of those free “goodies” they offered – pens, note sheets, information, etc. The official ceremony to the event wasn’t starting until 10am, so we had time to grab some of the breakfast ‘snacks‘ that were offered, and watch some of the exercise demonstrations being done. And both of my neurologists were there this year too, so it was great to see them there supporting us, and get a chance to chat a bit!
The opening ceremony started around 10am or so, with the MPF’s CEO Mary Sue Lanigan welcoming all of us, and giving some stats about the organization, how much money was raised by the top groups, and such. Then this years honoree, Ryan Kelley, stepped up to the mic and gave us the inspiring story of his Parkinson’s journey.
Finally, around 10:30am, we stepped out of Eberhard Center into the warm sunshine of the day. We gathered outside the building preparing to start our walk. There were a couple of different routes we could walk… but due to my stupid left foot (dystonia), we opted for the 1-mile route. So, once some photos were done, we began the actual walk.
One of the more neat things this year was that the big Grand Rapids “ArtPrize” was going on at the same time, so not only did we walk to support the MPF, we also got to see some of the “art” displayed by artists hoping to win the big prize. Although we only got to see a fraction of what was out there, what we saw was either unusual, cool, or unusual AND cool!
Here’s just a few shots of the art we saw that morning:
Once we walked the mile route, we were back at Eberhard Center… and that was pretty much the end of the walk. I did go back inside for a bit to talk with a few of the remaining vendors – but then it was time for lunch, so off we went!
Mission accomplished! All in all it was a fun and worthwhile event.
Now you are probably wondering how we made out with contributions. Well, we all did pretty darn good, I think! I myself collected $1,805 – although it was under my goal of $2,200, it was still a great amount! Anyway, this put me in the #4 spot for top fundraisers. As as team, we collected $1,945, which put the team in the #8 spot of total team fundraising. The GREAT news, though, is that after it was all added up, the Michigan Parkinson Foundation collected $55,887.00 (so far), exceeding their goal of $50,000!! That will go a long way to assisting us Michigan Parkies!!
So again, I just wanted to give you, my readers, an idea of how this year’s walk event went. And I want to thank ALL of those who contributed to myself or our team – we couldn’t have done it without YOU. You have my sincere gratitude and thanks for all your support.
OK, that be it! I’ve got more Deep Brain Thoughts to share in the near future, so stay tuned!
