Challenge Walk Can be a Path to Friendships

Hello MS Challenge Walkers,

It truly is a small world.

My wife, Jenny, and I attended a graduation party this weekend where we unexpectedly ran into a couple we met at the first Wisconsin Challenge Walk in 2008. The same couple also walked in 2009. Both Challenge Walks were highlighted by conversations with this couple that stretched over several miles. It turns out they are good friends with my aunt, who was hosting the party. We had a great time at the party reconnecting and swapping “war stories” about our Challenge Walk experiences.

There is clearly a social aspect to the Challenge Walk which frankly caught us completely by surprise during our first year. The walkers and volunteers seem to morph into a community over 2.5 days, dedicated to a common goal and connected by a common struggle. There is a lot of time to kill over 50 miles, so plan on striking up a conversation or two. It is a great way to pass the time and meet new friends.

Hopefully everyone is in full-on training mode and having success in their fund raising efforts. We often struggle to stay motivated to train, especially with all the other summer activities. We find it helpful to recall how we felt for miles 18 through 20 of the walk on Friday and Saturday of last year’s walk. The more effort we put in now, the easier those miles will be this go-round.

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Two time walker - walking words of wisdom from Jill

Summer 2008. It was my first summer training for Challenge Walk MS. On one especially hot Saturday in June the training plan said to walk 8 miles. So I headed out to walk 8 miles.

At the end of mile 7, I thought I would never make it home. I sat down on a patch of grass on the side of the road and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get up. Ever. I set out to walk 8 miles, but I brought nothing with me. I had no choice but to get up and walk home, and I did, but I never did a training walk empty handed again.

Here’s what I take with me now on my walks.

Water – Essential! Even for short walks. I like having something to carry, but there are bottles that you can loop onto your belt or even carry in your belt. I constantly have to remind myself to drink even if I’m not thirsty.

Munchies – You burn 100 calories for every mile you walk. Bodies need fuel for energy. I like to fill little Ziploc bags with cheerios or pretzels. Last year I got hooked on bite-sized pieces of cinnamon bread. Trail mix or granola bars are good too. (And most likely better for you than cinnamon bread!)

Sunscreen – Being outside for a long walk will likely require a reapplication. I carry a travel-size container in a Ziploc bag

Tissue – Even if you don’t have allergies.

Cash – Not a lot. But if you pass a gas station or fast food restaurant, a cold bottle of water or a fresh snack can be heavenly. I also take my credit card just in case I get in trouble and need to cab it home. (I have never done it, but I like having the option.)

Cell phone – Just in case.

Identification – Again. Just in case

A walking partner – Walking with someone makes training walks go by a lot quicker. And usually much more entertaining.

iPod/mp3 player - If I am walking alone, I don’t leave home without this. A good song can give you a great boost of energy. I also download books or podcacsts (free!) for the especially long walks. Safety is always a concern so I make sure I can still hear what’s going on around me.

I put all of this stuff (except the walking partner) either in my pockets or a super lightweight backpack. Nothing is so heavy that it makes it more difficult to walk.

Thankfully, I only have to worry about all of this during training walks. One of the many great things about the Challenge Walk MS event is how well the staff and volunteers take care of the walkers along the way. Every three miles there are rest stations with cold water, snacks, and volunteers with so much energy you can’t help but catch some. In between those rest stations, volunteers in support vehicles check in with walkers to make sure everyone is doing ok. And of course there are fellow walkers to count on for encouragement. The level of support is fantastic. I only wish the staff and volunteers could be on all of my training walks too!

Jill Hassenfelt will be participating in her third Challenge Walk MS in September. Check out her blog at http://steppingoverms.wordpress.com/

Greetings Challenge Walkers! The weather around Port Washington has been more like early March than mid-May, with persistent cold winds off the lake. This kind of climate makes it difficult to keep motivated with our training regimen. Well, let’s be honest, we have not started said training regimen. We are starting the 18-week program in a few weeks … promise.

But we have not been exactly idle either. In late April we held the 3rd Annual We’re Egan to Cure MS Fund Raiser at TJ Middle School in Port Washington. More than 50 vendors and crafters participated. The event was a big success. Hopefully your fund raising efforts are off to a great start as well.

As we swing into the busy summer season, it may become more difficult to stay motivated with respect to training. It is safe to say that everyone who has accepted the Challenge has been affected or knows someone affected by MS. As we set about what can be tedious and time consuming road work, it might help to keep in mind the singular purpose in which we are all involved: to find a cure. Or as one gentleman at last year’s candlelight ceremony succinctly and tersely put it: the goal is to “find a cure for this god damn disease and put the MS Society out of business.” (Any chance this can become the new MS slogan?)


By Mike and Jenny Egan

Hello Challenge Walkers!

Spring has sprung, which means the flowers are blooming, the trees are budding and another season of MS Challenge Walk training is about to begin.

This month’s theme is training and recruitment. In terms of training, the last two years we have followed the 18-week program, with some minor tweaks. For example, we stuck to the 3 to 4 mile walks prescribed during the week, but we never walked more than 13 miles on the long weekend walks. This was mostly because babysitters are expensive! In addition, we found that the most important thing is consistency—no long gaps in training—vs. pounding out 15 or 20 mile training sessions.

The MS Society provides a 12 and 18 week program on their website. This year we have decided to follow a program that is between the 12 and 18 week program, with other exercise mixed in.

One great way to recruit new members is to bribe them with cash. If that does not work or is simply prohibitive from a budgetary standpoint, you can always tell them your plan to walk and invite them to join you to train for as much or as little as they would like. It is a great way to stay in shape, socialize and simply get some fresh air. Who knows, they may discover it is not as hard as they thought and may decide to sign on for this year or next year.

Another “soft sell” idea is to talk to walkers already committed to the shorter MS Walks throughout the year. Many of these participants may be eager for a new challenge but not aware that they can chose to walk the full 50 miles or a shorter 30 mile route. You might be surprised who accepts the challenge!

- the Egans

“The MS Challenge Walk of 2009 was an incredible culmination of strength, generosity, love, tears and laughter. It gave me the chance to experience the discomfort that might be close to someone who has MS. What a humbling experience it was...one that I will never forget.
I am truly honored to be a LaDorka and call these women my friends.”

-- Adriane Powell, Team LaDorka

How does a woman living in Richmond, VA wind up in Door County, WI walking 50 miles? The same way every LaDorka team member wound up there.

In the spring of 2008, I decided I wanted to do more than a three-mile walk to raise funds for multiple sclerosis. I saw a flyer in the local sub-shop for the 3-day, 50-mile Challenge Walk in Tapahannock, VA. I was fairly excited about this possibility, until I saw that they did the walk in August – one of the hottest months in Virginia. My MS symptoms seem to worsen tenfold in the heat. I knew there was no way I could do this. I tabled the thought and focused on my local three-mile walk.

I had a successful fundraising strategy for the short walks. I had started blogging for fun on MySpace and had built up quite a following. People would help me raise funds, we put together a couple of auctions, and it was as simple as asking people for help. It still didn’t seem like enough.

I looked into Challenge Walks in other parts of the country where the temperatures would be friendlier to me. And there was Door County. In July of 2008, I decided that I would be in Door County, WI for the 2009 Challenge Walk. I didn’t think there was any way possible I could walk all 50 miles, but I was determined to try.

Why Door County? I grew up in Wisconsin. I knew the beauty that Door County held. It was familiar, it was home and the weather would be gorgeous in September.

I had become very close to a small group of women on MySpace, and many of us have since migrated over to Facebook. We were scattered throughout the country. Though some of us were able to meet at times, we always talked about how wonderful it would be for ALL of us to get together.

When I mentioned to a couple of them that I was going to do the Challenge Walk, the response was the same. “I’m in.”

At the beginning, it was me in Virginia, Adriane in Illinois, Tina in Missouri, Donna in Michigan and Kristina in Mississippi. We had a silly name for our group, much like the Yaya Sisterhood. We dubbed ourselves “LaDorkas” for reasons that no longer seem important.

Our small group of five grew. Carla from Georgia, Deonne from Nebraska, Janet from New York, Jennifer from Florida, Kristin from Washington, Patty from Wisconsin, Priscilla from Arizona. When I registered in January of 2009, imagine my surprise to find out that these other women all started registering too. Some registered to walk, some registered to volunteer, but everyone registered to make a difference and help in any way they could.

Many of us had never laid eyes on each other. It didn’t matter. The unconditional love and acceptance of each other was truly an amazing feeling. The majority of the women I had never met face-to-face before, and yet they came. They trained; they spent money on flights, hotels, registration fees; they came to walk, to work and to support a cause near and dear to my heart. We greeted each other one by one at the airport in Milwaukee, and made the drive to Door County, further solidifying our bond.

Together, we raised over $15,000. Not bad for a group of women who met on the internet. We managed to collect donations from 49 of 50 states and several foreign countries. This was important because for us, it signified unity. We were all in this together. Our missing 50th state was Rhode Island. It came late, extremely late, but it came. I remember Day One of the walk as the walking LaDorkas got on the bus. We were happy and excited, looking forward to whatever the day would bring. The volunteering Dorkas had been networking. I’ll never forget Donna walking up to the bus window where we were and yelling, “We got Rhode Island!” Amazing! All 50 states accounted for.

Somewhere along the trail on Day 1, we had talked about being a traveling group. Our big plan by the end of Day 1: We’d do the walk in Cape Cod in 2010. By the end of Day 2, we all knew that we would not be doing a Challenge Walk in Cape Cod. We were making Door County our home.

Through the course of that life-altering weekend, we made many new friends. We heard and shared stories. All of us were moved. Several people were made Honorary LaDorkas. We even had someone from the Great Wolf Lodge Team earn that honor.

This year, due to life situations and financial obligations, we cannot all make it back to Door County. As saddened as we are by this, it’s understood, unavoidable and perfectly OK. Those who are unable to join us are still helping us with fundraising. This year we’re going big. LaDorkas are doing a raffle, where even those who cannot be there are selling tickets. We’re collecting donations to sell in an auction where all proceeds will go toward our fundraising efforts. We’re asking past donors to donate again, possibly more.

We’ve recruited a new LaDorka walker so far and hope to add a few more to our fold. We’re looking into adding some new state representatives this year. North Carolina, Texas and Indiana are on my list of states to add.

We’ve started a website at www.ladorkas.com to try to raise funds, awareness and support for this cause that has brought us all together.

We walk for those who can’t and those who may not be able to tomorrow. Our team shirts are adorned with the slogan, “Hope in our hearts. Strength in our soles.”

If you’re considering walking in 2010, just do it. If you need a team, start one. If you don’t know enough people and want to join us, we’ll accept you with open arms. We hope to see and meet more of you in Door County this September.

From one LaDorka with MS to each of you who will be walking or volunteering, thank you. You really do make a difference – more than you may ever be able to imagine.

Hello Challenge Walkers! - March

Hello Challenge Walkers!

March is officially in like a lamb; hopefully the lion has better things to do this time around. To date 28 walkers have signed up for Challenge Walk MS and four individuals have signed on as Crew Members, with a total raised of just over $9,000. This is a great start.

Fundraising is never easy, especially in such difficult economic times. We thought we would share a few strategies we have used in the past to meet the Challenge Walk MS goal.

• We send out an e-mail to past and potential donors that provides an update on Jen’s status, a recap of the Challenge Walk and a summary of our fund-raising efforts from the previous year. We also let them know what our goal is for the current year. In short, this is sort of like an official notification – or warning – to let them know we will be shaking them down (a/k/a pestering them incessantly) until they give.
• For the last three years we have hosted a fundraiser which takes the form of a vendor/craft fair. The inaugural fair was held in our home with 11 vendors; it was a tight squeeze. Last year we held it at the local middle school and had 64 vendors, a bake sale and food booth. The vendors pay a fee to attend the fair and must donate an item to a raffle. We also solicit merchants from near and far to donate items to a silent auction. Last year’s big draws were a Play Station 3 and Guitar Hero video game. We are considering hiring some security this year, because the bidding got a little intense at the end. Of course 100% of the proceeds go to the MS Society.
• We created our own website to provide updates on our fund raising efforts: www.egantocurems.webs.com. Jen also actively posts updates on the vendor/craft show’s Facebook page.

This strategy has worked for us, but we know there are many other creative fundraising solutions. One idea we have (but have not implemented) is to host a movie night with our friends, wherein we supply the snacks, beverages and movie, and the attendees pay premium movie ticket prices (say $20 per family). This seems like it would kill two birds with one stone: you raise money and enjoy time with friends.

That is all for now. We will check back in a month with more ideas on recruiting members and training for the walk.

Hello Challenge Walkers! - February

We are Mike and Jenny Egan. The folks at the National MS Society-Wisconsin Chapter invited us to compose a monthly Challenge Walk update. With this being the inaugural edition, we will kick things off by providing a little background on the two of us.

We live in Port Washington, WI with our three children: Emily (age 10), Elizabeth (age 9) and Aedan (age 6). Jenny was diagnosed with MS in 2005; this will be our third Challenge Walk.

By all accounts, last year’s event was a huge success, with an improved route, two course options (30 miles and 50 miles) and BEAUTIFUL weather. Last year 86 walkers, 16 super crew and 59 crew volunteers participated. Together, we topped the $250,000 fund-raising goal! And although it can’t be precisely measured, our efforts no-doubt increased awareness of the disease.

We expect this year’s walk will be better than ever. The goal this year is to raise $220,000, with 90 walkers, 10 super crew and 25 volunteers. If the past two years are any indication, the 2010 Challenge Walk will be a great success. We are off to a strong start with 16 “veterans” and one new recruit already committed to walk. This is ahead of last year’s pace, but we still have more work to do!

For those of you who have yet to register, we encourage you to do so now at challengewalkMSwi.org. Or better yet, form a team or recruit a friend to join in the effort. We have found that one of the best parts of training for and participating in the Challenge Walk is the social aspect.

We are confident our persuasive prose has convinced you to register. So look out for next month’s e-mail, wherein we will discuss strategies for recruitment and meeting your fundraising goal.

We would love to hear from you. Feel free to send us your questions or comments.