Above pictured, some of the volunteers who tirelessly helped us from donations, set-up to tear down, and everything in between!

Hello Everyone,

Angela and I wanted to send a little rundown on how our 2nd annual run/walk went in Colorado yesterday. We estimated we have raised $13,750 to date vs. $13,361 from the 2017 event, we surpassed our goal and LY dollars raised! We estimate between the walk-ups, raffle tickets and donations we made $2,044!

We had a good turnout and of course we had an energetic crowd as we did last year. We had 89 registered participants via Active.com vs last year  registered participants of 58.  We had 30+ walk ups register this year, we ran out of forms (we printed 30).  Not a bad problem to have. We would estimate 120-130 participants.

In addition to our National Sponsors, we secured additional sponsorship from, Klose Training, Body Works Compression, The Women Northern Clinic, Huntington Properties, W E S T & M A I N, American Pacific Mortgage.

Our day started early. Since I live in Colorado Springs, I (Marie) had to be on the road by 5:30am to get to the park by 6:30am where we met all of our volunteers to set-up. 

We are fortunate to have a great team of volunteers (family and friends) who support us and work tirelessy to help this be a successful event. With set-up starting at 6:30am it was an early morning for all of us, myself and many of our volunteers drove up from Colorado Springs, and we had support from as far as Kansas!

Set-up went pretty fast. The volunteers were ready as soon as their New Balances hit the pavement! Everyone took their places, knew their jobs, and with a few donuts (at a huge discount from LaMar’s), fruit (donated by King Soopers in-kind donation), and coffee (donated by Starbucks) in hand, they set off to help educate and register walkers/runners for the event!

It was a GORGEOUS day in Colorado yesterday and it was clouded over for all of the walk which made the weather PERFECT for walking. The weather was predicted to be around 86 degrees but with the cloud cover it was around 75!  Imagine the cool breeze off of the lake, the purple and blue mountains in the background, new baby goslings fluttering in the water, fish jumping, many childish giggles not only from me; but from kids playing in the field next to the basketball court where we set up, music from the incomparable DJ Drake rocking the park, National Sponsors set-up and educating patients and family on their wares, and Angela and I running around talking to everyone. It was pretty busy but very beautiful and fun!

Right before 9 (when the opening ceremony started), I was informed that it was ALSO Angela’s Birthday! Imagine my shock and surprise! I had no idea! I quickly walked over to the DJ and explained that we were all going to sing “Happy Birthday” to her before we set out to walk. He was great and very smooth on the delivery as well. (Did I mention he was incomparable?)

After the last remaining registrars were taken care of, we started the ceremony around 9. Angela and I welcomed (and thanked) our National Sponsors, our volunteers, patients, friends and family. Then I got the honor of awarding Klose Training with the LE&RN Impact Award.  At this time, Angela invited our guest speaker, Allyson Hannah, to come up and share her story with the crowd. I honestly don’t believe there was a dry eye on site after that!

Esperanza(who also sponsored us through W E S T + M A I N realty and donated water and snacks) from PR Fitness Studio, warmed us all up with aerobic exercises, with DJ Drake at the turn-table! It was an all-out party at the lake at this point!

We then sang “Happy Birthday” to Angela which took her by surprise, which in turn made me very happy! ��

We then asked everyone to meet us by the lake to cut the ribbon. We got Guenter Klose, Allyson Hannah, and our very special friend David Sanger to cut the ribbon. Quick note about David Sanger, he is a man born with Primary LE but went misdiagnosed until he went through puberty. His father had it and now his little 4 year old son was diagnosed with it as an infant. three generations of men in the family born with Primary LE! His family and I walked the Inaugural Run/Walk last year where I got to hear his story. What a story! What an awesome family!

We also met a first time attendee (Victoria) who learned of the run/walk on Wednesday from the LE story by 9news.  Here is a quote from her, "I was so glad we went to Sloan’s lake. It exceeded my expectations.”Victoria has had LE since 1977 and said she never knew anything like this existed in Denver and she wants to get more involved, we exchanged emails to keep her up to date on all things LE since she is not on social media.

And then there is Lara who Angela met via social media and she changed her flight to attend our run/walk and openly posted about LE for the first time on social media and raised money for LE&RN! This is why we do what we do, we are making a difference.

After the ribbon was cut, the walk started. I hung back and stayed with the patients and sponsors, while Angela ran and talked with walkers!

After the walk, we held our raffle. Notes about the raffle: 

The ‘bucket raffle’ format was very successful and fun.  Participants would go back and forth along the table, trying to determine which prizes they would try to get with their remaining tickets, then often go back and buy more! The raffle brought in an estimated $725!

Big prizes included a signed bottle of 7Cellars by John Elway wine!, a Hockey stick signed by Colorado Avalanche Alternate Captain Nathan MacKinnon, fitness package donated by PR Fitness Studio, BBQ grill purchased and donated by the team at Tactile Medical!, many, many hand-crafted items such as paintings, jewelry, crocheted items, and others

We held the raffle until after the walk so we could keep folks there but also so they could claim their prizes in-person

After the raffle, we everyone said their ‘goodbyes’ and expressed how much they learned and how much they enjoyed our event. We tore down around 12pm and packed everything up.

We truly have such a wonderful and impactful community for LE and LD here in Colorado! If you haven’t been to our Run/Walk, it really is a shame! We are truly blessed by so many people that live and work right here in our backyard that have a heart and vision for LE and LD awareness and for curing these diseases!

We wrapped up the event by ’Thanking Everyone’ although we feel that is never enough and we asked for Volunteers to help plan the 2019 Run/Walk (we had a volunteer sign up sheet at registration), we had seven people sign up, two of which are Nancy and Bill Burkart from bodyworks compression and who sponsored us tis year! We have included a few pictures from the event but there are many more we are waiting on from Jenna Woolam, the gracious photographer who donated her time and energy to both of our Run/Walks.