A little report about our event this weekend. Saturday was our second annual 'Walk in the Park for PWS Research". The event started out a bit rough since the day before it had rained (unexpectantly in August, even for Seattle) and Saturday morning looked very cloudy and a bit damp. The park we were at had no cover. But, fortunately the weather held out and we had no rain. Last year it was very hot so the cloud cover actually provided some nice shade especially for our kids who don't do so well in the heat.
The event included a brief walk along a path with many trees and blackberry bushes. We had excellent walk leaders (Thank you Jon Schwartz, my brother; and Howard Levine, Julia's husband and Sasha's dad) who provided songs and goofy exercises to keep the walk interesting and fun even for the little ones. Then we had many wonderful and creative children's games and face painting (Thank you to Marie Johns, Abby's mom for the ideas, supplies and staffing of the games with her older children and their wonderful friends). We also had a great band and even some dancing, Lauren McCabe (Marsha's & Kevin's daughter) and Jack Kuna (Mike & Lori's son) were especially into the music and did some great dancing, as did some other kids and grown ups. There were probably about 10 PWS familes attended which was great. It is so fun to see how the kids are growing and all the things they can do now, since we first started getting together when the y were babies. There were lots of siblings there too and other families who were friends and relatives. We had about 75 people there all together. Everyone had a great time!
At end Mike Kuna spoke a bit to the crowd about being a parent of a child with PWS and how great Jack is doing and how important the research is. He also talked about the Seattle to Portland Bike Race ( a Northwest Tradition, a 3 day ride) that he did with his brother Scott Kuna to raise money for PWS. They raised about $4,000 during the bike ride this year through Dream Dinners and presented me with the check at the walk on Saturday. It was so exciting! Mike is also looking for some more riders to join a PWS Team for next year's race in July 2008. So if anyone is game, let me know and I'll connect you. Lastly, Emma, my lovely daughter who is almost 8 and has PWS, made a speech (she wrote herself : > thanking everyone for coming to the walk and supporting the research. Many of the kids joined her on stage.
