Great Strides Walk
For Cystic Fibrosis
Is Great Success
Article and All photos
by Angela Mannzen
Staff Writer
Southwest Daily News - May 19, 2002
Many
people braved cold weather to participate in the Great Strides Walk for Cystic
Fibrosis
The Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis was held Saturday at the Lake Charles Civic Center. Participants braved surprisingly cold weather to raise funds for this deadly disease.
Erin Al-Green, director of special events, represented the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Louisiana Chapter in Baton Rouge.
Crystal Veillon and Laura Domingue, fitness instructors at Gigi's of Christus
St. Patrick's Hospital, led the Great Strides Walk participants through warm up
exercises.
The Lake Charles community is very supportive. Our goal for sponsor donations was $4,000. We have collected over $7,000 so far. We have 14 families in this area and they are all very involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We want to reach other families that need us. Peter O'Carroll really spearheaded the walk this year, said Al-Green. We have collected over $8,000 from walkers today. I know some people didn't make it due to the weather, but they can still turn in donations for two weeks to the Baton Rouge office. Over 89 cents of each dollar goes to research and treatment. We have two care centers in Louisiana, Tulane University in New Orleans and the Cystic Fibrosis Care Center in Shreveport. We had two walks earlier this month and nine today across the state.
By the end of the walk, $16,200 had been collected. Melissa Hansard was the highest fund raiser with $1,928. She won a two-night stay at Inn on the Bayou and a gift certificate from Montana's Smokehouse.
Hansard lost her daughter, Brittni Hamilton, to cystic fibrosis in July, 2001. Brittni was nine years old.
Hansard has a website about Brittni at www.cuteptchic.com.
Carol Schmal is Hansard's mother. She crochets hats and other items which are sold at the Exxon station on the corner of Ryan and Sale streets in Lake Charles. Schmal's husband is a mechanic at the station. Schmal donates the money she makes from these items to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in her granddaughter's name.
Everyone deals with sorrow in their own way. When Melissa told me about her idea for a website about Brittni, I told her to go ahead and do it, said Schmal.
Visitors to the website click on a blooming rose to learn information about cystic fibrosis, read the 65 Roses Story, and learn about Brittni in a memorial from her family.
A rose garden was planted at the walk. Each paper rose had the name of a sponsor.
Children who cannot pronounce cystic fibrosis call it 65 Roses.
Mary Weiss became a volunteer for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 1965 after learning her three sons had been diagnosed with CF. She would call organizations for donations to help fund research. She did not know her 4-year old son listened to her calls. He told her he knew she was working for. When asked, he replied she was working for 65 Roses. After this, the rose became a symbol for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Karen Gorum and the We Believe Pokeno Team are from Sulphur. Her 5-year old granddaughter, Elexis, has Cystic Fibrosis and is in a New Orleans hospital. This is Gorum's third year to walk with her 12-member team.
We have fund raisers twice a year. We have garage sales in the spring and fall and donate the proceeds to the CFF. These kids take our hearts and that is why we help, said Gorum. The next garage sale is planned for November.
Rachel Borill came to the walk with her 17-year old son, Brent.
Brent is a student at Westlake High School and plays trumpet with the school band.
He is in good health, but has to take a lot of medications, said his mother. He goes to Tulane every three months for a check-up. He uses a vest and a nebulizer machine at home. Cystic fibrosis is a very expensive disease. One medication for his nebulizer is $2,600 a month, another is $1,200 a month. The enzymes are $400 a month. The vest is $17,000.
Handicapped Children is a state funded organization that helps children with life threatening diseases. They are located at the health unit in Lake Charles, said Borill. Brent is a typical teenager. He just started driving and he plans to go to college. He wants to be a paleontologist. Our family appreciates what the CFF does and we hope these walks will lead to a cure. Brent has to have breathing treatments and a vest treatment before he goes to school in the mornings, and again before he goes to bed at night. It would be nice for him to be a typical teenager and live a normal life.
Courtney George is an eighth grade student at S.P. Arnett Middle School who came to the walk with her friend Tiffany Richard. Courtney has cystic fibrosis and said, It's not that hard to live with. Her mother is Jill Stratton.
We would like people to support the foundation and help find a cure, said Stratton. The first Great Strides Walk was held five years ago with 12 people in Starks walking on dirt roads with no sponsors. The past four years we have walked in Lake Charles.
Many people were wearing buttons with Courtney's picture on them. They were donated by Terry Robideaux at Profile 2 Ltd, an advertising agency.
Lynn Hohensee, regional director of public relations for Conoco, manned the Kid's Corner booth. Conoco donated a variety of toys for the children who participated in the walk.
Jeff Davis Bank donated a money pile. Children had fun searching for money in a pile of hay which they brought to Cassondra Savoy-Guilbeau. They told her they wanted to donate it. Savoy-Guilbeau is the public relations manager for Delta Downs Racetrack and Casino, the site sponsor for the Great Strides Walk.
Savoy-Guilbeau, Lindsay Ardoin, Curt Bollotte, Peter O'Carroll, April Papion, Jennifer Wallace and Cassondra Savoy-Guilbeau are the members of the planning committee for the 2002 Great Strides Walk. Peter O'Carroll Advertising was sponsor for the walk. Donors were Montana's Smokehouse, Inn on the Bayou, Lake Charles Civic Center, Joe Toups; Waste Management, Wendy's Old-Fashioned Hamburgers Lake Charles, GiGi's, Apex Broadcasting, Papa John's Pizza, Med Xpress, Women's Health Center of West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital, Robert King, Doug Gehrig, PPG Friends, Coca Cola and LA Radio. Also participating were Comfort Suites Sulphur, Sleep Inn Lake Charles and Reeves Development. Sponsors in the Rose Garden were Susan A. Jones, M.D., Sabine Pools & Spas, P. Walter Jessen, the Westlake Group and Cameron Communications. Door prizes were donated by Inn on the Bayou, Montana's Smokehouse, Wendy's and McDonald's.
Scott Rogers has a radio show on WJBO in Baton Rouge. He has written a children's book called The Little Red Boat. He donated 200 books to the walk.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation can be reached by calling 877-753-9990 or visit the website at www.cff.org
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