Thursday, October 22, 2009

We do it for the kids!

About this time every year my family participates in a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA)...my sister Jenny's two boys Gabe and Beau have duchenne muscular dystrophy. The MDA does a lot for the kids and of course they are working on a cure for this ugly disease. This year our efforts were joined again by several other families whose lives have been touched by muscular dystrophy.

This is Ally and she is 3. She has the most beautiful eyes and she is from McLeansboro, IL.
She is one of the rare girls with duchenne muscular dystrophy.

This is Gabe, he also has duchenne muscular dystrophy, he is 6 and is from Galatia, IL.
Lori and Jennifer are some of the MDA staff who help us reach our goals! This is Beau....he is Gabe's big brother and also has duchenne muscular dystrophy. He is 9 years old and just got a scooter, so he is showing it off. It had rained a lot lately in Galatia where the fundraiser was, so Beau got stuck in the mud and needed a push!
This is Matthew and he has the best smile!! He has DMD also (I think) and he is 7 and from Harrisburg, IL. He is an accomplished scooter rider and didn't get stuck in the mud (at least not that I saw!).

This little man is Austin, whose first birthday was Saturday. He was all bundled up against the 40 degree temperature and is shown here with his mom. They live in Anna, IL.
Austin has a congenital form of muscular dystrophy.
This is Beau and Gabe's big sister Haley. She is a great big sis to the guys!
The kids and families affected by all forms of muscular dystrophies go through so much and have to face so many obstacles in every day tasks that we take for granted. The more money we can raise for the MDA the better. Check out the MDA website to see the services they provide to the kids and families (
www.mda.org).
My sister Susan and her son Harrison
Sarah holding up one of our T Shirts for the walk. We didn't see too much of them this year because everyone had so many layers on over the shirts!

My son Sam and my niece's husband Josh

My dad selling quilt raffle tickets. My mom always makes a quilt to raffle and usually brings in close to $1000 in ticket sales.

A monarch landed on me while I was taking photos...
My nieces Laney, Liz and Ruth trying to keep warm.

Laney always steals the show!

The really cool thing about this fundraiser is all family members get involved in one way or another. This is my brother Cullen and my brother-in-law Fred and a friend of theirs.

The end...Laney and her daddy Josh

2 comments:

Unknown said...

great post ellen!!!

Jenny said...

Wow, neat post. What a wonderful cause.