Training begins today!

Written by on May 7, 2013 at 10:13 am

Hello, Challengers!

I wanted to check in with you and see the status of your training. We are now 18 weeks out from the MS Challenge Walk and I thought I'd give you some motivational tips and information to help get you going!

To train correctly for this event, you need to progress slowly and listen to your body at all times. First, begin by adjusting the frequency of you walking, then the duration and finally the intensity.  The essential components of a good walking program are warm-up, walk, cool-down, stretching and strength training. We have an 18-week training schedule you can follow that will get you ready for the walk, starting with a three-mile walk today!

Five Good Reasons to Start Walking (besides the MS Challenge Walk)

  1. Reduces cholesterol levels
  2. Decrease high blood pressure
  3. Reduces risk of heart disease
  4. Increase energy
  5. Decreases stress

Five Ways to Incorporate Walking into Your Daily Life

  1. Walk your dog (or someone else's dog — with permission, of course!)
  2. Take a pre- or post-dinner walk. This is a great time to just be by yourself or take along your family for some quality time with them!
  3. Skip the elevator and take the stairs
  4. Do errands on foot, or park in the rear of the parking lot and walk to the store
  5. Walk to work — even if you telecommute, take a half-hour each morning to do a lap around the neighborhood, ending at your "office"

Five Steps to Take to be Successful

  1. Make a commitment to yourself
  2. Reserve time in your schedule
  3. Create a habit first
  4. Establish your long and short term goals
  5. Reward yourself when you meet your goals (a new bestseller, tickets to a concert or play, etc)

Beginning in June, we will be hosting MS Challenge Walk Group Trainings. I'll keep you informed on those dates as we get closer to June!  As this is my first Challenge Walk, I will be training every step of the way with you all!

Registered walkers should have received all your materials in the mail by now; if you have not, please let me know.  The recommended training schedule is in your guide and located online on our website. It’s time to dust off those sneakers (if you haven’t already) and get moving!  Be sure to contact me if you have any questions, otherwise I’ll be in touch with you soon.

Aileen is the Development Manager for the Greater New England Chapter of the National MS Society responsible for the 2013 Challenge Walk. She has interned with the National MS Society at the Greater Delaware Valley Chapter with Program Events and is looking forward to working closely with the Steering Committee and Challenge Walk Teams to make this year's MS Challenge Walk a memorable one!

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When sitting on the sidelines is not an option

Written by on May 6, 2013 at 12:22 pm

I recently made an unexpected decision to register for this year's MS Challenge Walk, 3-day, 50-mile option on Cape Cod. I say "unexpected" because I anticipated the Cape MS Challenge Walk I proudly completed in 2003 to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. That changed late last year after receiving continuing news that too many of the volunteers activists I have worked with closely were experiencing a changing, progressive course in their disease. Some with primary and secondary progressive MS were now facing other significant underlying health challenges.

Sarah, an extraordinary chapter volunteer and MS activist, inspired my decision to walk this year. Sarah has completed the chapter's MS Challenge Walk every year since its inception with a team of family and friends. Having supported Sarah, I knew I could not simply cheer her on or donate this time. Sitting on the sidelines is not an option for me this year. I do not have MS, and I can walk without difficulty — yet I do not take this for granted. The totality of the impact of primary and secondary progressive MS is both professional and at times unexpectedly personal.

As an MS activist, I know meaningful strides made collectively improve people's lives, one step at a time. MS Challenge walkers are truly activists, too. Advancing public policies that address gaps in community supports and removing barriers to health care for those with more progressed forms of MS is critical. Funding for biomedical research and daily support is just as vital and additional funding is needed. All of us collectively are contributing toward this goal. While a treatment or medication for primary progressive MS remains elusive, the progress in recent years is very encouraging. I want in some small way to expedite this process and provide additional support to individuals facing progressed MS.

I am honored to join the Sarah's Sponsors team which includes Abby & Jamie — two MS colleague activists! My personal focus and motivation is progressive MS and the individuals who inspire me facing the challenges of disease progression.

I thank everyone for their commitment to this event and I hope I have the opportunity to meet many of you along the route in September!

Michelle has been a staff member for the Greater New England Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society since 2000. She currently serves as the Director of Public Policy Advocacy and works with volunteer activists and lawmakers in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. She most recently lead the chapter's delegation at the 22nd annual MS Public Policy Conference in Washington D.C.

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Help create awareness about MS Challenge Walk!

Written by on May 2, 2013 at 3:20 pm

Mother Nature is finally smiling down on us and giving us great weather for walking! Can you believe that in a few months you will be walking 50 miles to create awareness about multiple sclerosis? The awareness that the Challenge Walk builds helps raise funds that fuel local programs and services as well as fund critical research aimed at stopping MS, restoring function lost to MS, and to ending MS forever.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Help us get the word out about the Cape Cod Challenge Walk coming up on September 7–8. Reach out to your local newspapers, television (community stations) and radio stations and ask them to tell your story. By sharing why you walk, why you have a team and why this is so important… you could inspire someone to join your team while others may want to make a donation to your team.

We are available to assist you with information about the National MS Society Greater New England Chapter, multiple sclerosis, Challenge Walk and more.

Thank you for all you do to support our vision of a world free of MS. MS kills connections… but it is through our connections with each other that we WILL kill MS.

Thank you for your help!

Aileen is the Development Manager for the Greater New England Chapter of the National MS Society responsible for the 2013 Challenge Walk. She has interned with the National MS Society at the Greater Delaware Valley Chapter with Program Events and is looking forward to working closely with the Steering Committee and Challenge Walk Teams to make this year's MS Challenge Walk a memorable one!

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Bouncing into fundraising action

Written by on April 26, 2013 at 12:02 pm

April 20, 2013, was a cold and raw Saturday morning. Despite the less than desirable weather, approximately 50 people came out to the Mercy Centre in Worcester, MA to support Team Walk With Wheels for our first ever MS Volleyball Tournament. Among the teams who came out, we had one of our very own MS Challenge Walk teams (Team Sole Train) come out!

This event was a new event idea for us as a team, and it helped demonstrate how reaching out to your extended team members can help raise funds for your team event. Oftentimes, people think that actual walkers on a given team are the only people who can organize and run events. This is far from the truth!

About one month ago, Carolyn and I reached out to a friend from our church. We knew that this friend had a passion for volleyball and he also organizes sport based activities for our church. We asked him if he would be interested in organizing a volleyball tournament. for us He happily agreed to pull something together.

A few weeks later, Dan informed us that he had designed a flyer for the event and that he already had a few teams that were interested. He also informed us that he had secured a facility and a referee for the event. The event was open for up to eight teams.

Fast forward a few weeks and all eight teams arrived at the Mercy Centre ready to compete and to help raise funds for MS. Dan started the event out with an introduction to Carolyn Rossi (captain of Team Walk With Wheels) and explained that the funds collected for this event were helping people like her.

One at a time, teams went up against teams, slamming the ball around the court. The first game started at 9 AM sharp. As the morning went on the brackets started to fill and teams were advancing toward the final game. As teams took breaks, Dan's wife Loraine graciously stood and served a variety of home prepared foods, baked goods and drinks, which also benefited the National MS Society.

By the end of the event, it was down to two remaining teams of the original eight. The games had become super competitive, and we saw some pretty serious moves! In the end, team Spike City won the tournament and were rewarded with extra large chocolate bars!


After the clean up was taken care of and everyone had returned to their homes, the final tally came in for funds raised. On April 24, 2013, I delivered roughly $600 to the MS Society office for Team Walk With Wheels! Great job to everyone who came out and helped! We couldn't have done it without your support.

I hope this recap encourages you to reach outside the box. It has been mentioned many times at kickstart meetings and the like. If you try to take it all on your shoulders alone, it seems burdensome. Look among your friends and social circle for people who already enjoy doing a particular activity and see if you can leverage their passion and joy of that thing for the benefit of helping people live a life free from MS.

Brian, a resident of Central Massachusetts, has participated for several years in the MS Challenge Walk as a member of the bike support crew.  Not only does his wife Carolyn have MS, but his grandmother had MS and eventually died from complications related to it. Brian is best known to as the provider of tropical flavored Starbursts and Jolly Rancher candies along the trail.

Posted in Fundraising | 1 Response »

I'd like to introduce myself…

Written by on March 1, 2013 at 10:42 am

Hello! It is a pleasure to reach out to you today as your new MS Challenge Walk Manager and contact. I have just started to work at the Greater New England Chapter for the National MS Society and am excited to join the Challenge!

I have just moved to the Boston area from Philadelphia, where I was born and raised. In Philadelphia, for the past three years I was working at a homeless youth shelter called Covenant House, where I was in charge of all of their special events and fundraisers. Before that I interned at the National MS Society in the Greater Delaware Valley Chapter and am very familiar with all the amazing work that the NMSS achieves each year. I've loved Boston for many years and am excited to finally be living in such a great city and greater community!

I am grateful to be back at the National MS Society and I look forward to meeting you all. Please be on the lookout for future blogs from me with updates about the MS Challenge Walk, fundraising and training tips and other Chapter news.

I would love to hear from you about your past experiences with the MS Challenge Walk and if you have any questions for the upcoming one this year! You can e-mail me at [email protected] or call me directly at: 781-693-5102.

Let's keep making strides together!

Aileen is the Development Manager for the Greater New England Chapter of the National MS Society responsible for the 2013 Challenge Walk. She has interned with the National MS Society at the Greater Delaware Valley Chapter with Program Events and is looking forward to working closely with the Steering Committee and Challenge Walk Teams to make this year's MS Challenge Walk a memorable one!

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Getting the word out on public access TV

Written by on February 20, 2013 at 10:25 am

MS Challenge Walk is a dynamic community that draws people from around the world — yet it is a community that, like multiple sclerosis, is largely unseen. As we go about our day-to-day lives, our friends, family, and neighbors can't see what it is that drives us to walk 50 miles. Many people may not know what MS is, or that there is an event dedicated to seeing it end.

Volunteer Dan Young, who each year donates his photography skills to MS Challenge Walk, recently took an extra step to increasing awareness of MS by recruiting his employer to the cause: Access Nashua, a public access television station in Nashua, New Hampshire. Host Denise-Marie McIntosh invited four participants of MS Challenge Walk — Kevin Lombardi, James Derick, Marisa Bonanno, and me — onto her talk segment, Fairy Tale Access. We discussed how MS works, how it has affected our lives, what we do about it, and how viewers can help.

The show is scheduled to air during MS Awareness Week, March 11–17, on television stations around New England as well as YouTube. Watch for it next month on this blog, and in the meantime, enjoy this behind-the-scenes sneak preview!

Ken, a Framingham resident, joined the MS Challenge Walk in 2005, more than a decade after his mother was diagnosed. After walking for three years and 150 miles, he switched to the support crew and now rides his bicycle along the trail, providing whatever encouragement (and snacks!) he can to the 600 walkers. He is also on the event's steering committee and is this site's webmaster.

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Jumpstart your online fundraising

Written by on February 8, 2013 at 8:11 am

A growing percentage of MS Challenge Walk fundraising occurs online — and why not? Which is easier: sending a letter to your friend in Nome, Alaska, her writing a check and returning it in your self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE), you then writing a receipt and mailing the check to the NMSS; or sending your friend an email and asking her to punch in her credit card online?

Not only does the online approach get the money into the bank more quickly, it also gives the National MS Society a bigger cut, as fewer hands need to be hired to process a check. It's a winning situation for all parties.

There are other online fundraising tools, too: you can make every email into a fundraising solicitation; a handy Facebook application can do your fundraising for you; you can promote your offline events in an online event calendar; you can even get Amazon.com to give you a piece of the action.

I reviewed all these tools and more at last month's Jumpstart Your Fundraising meeting. Didn't attend? A 20-minute recording of that presentation is available in the below YouTube video:

If you want more details about any of these opportunities, please email me or leave a comment. For more advice from Jumpstart, listen to the MS Challenge Talk audio recordings. To be alerted to future Jumpstart sessions, sign up for free email notifications!

Ken, a Framingham resident, joined the MS Challenge Walk in 2005, more than a decade after his mother was diagnosed. After walking for three years and 150 miles, he switched to the support crew and now rides his bicycle along the trail, providing whatever encouragement (and snacks!) he can to the 600 walkers. He is also on the event's steering committee and is this site's webmaster.

Posted in Fundraising, Online Tools | No Responses »

Jumpstart Your Fundraising with Sue McCook, Ann Scannell, Steve Urquhart

Written by on February 4, 2013 at 9:00 am

Didn't attend the Jumpstart Your Fundraising meeting on January 26? Not a problem! We recorded the best advice, inspiration, and success stories for how you can fundraise toward a cure for multiple sclerosis.

In this audio recording, you'll hear from Sue McCook about how to recruit restaurants and bars to your fundraising efforts; Ann Scannell about her team's fundraising efforts; and Steve Urquhart about corporate donations and company matching.

Stay tuned for more episodes of MS Challenge Talk!

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Welcome to MS Challenge Talk, a weekly audio recording that shares the stories and experiences of veterans of those who have walked three days and 50 miles to bring the world closer to a cure for multiple sclerosis, courtesy the National MS Society's MS Challenge Walk. You can subscribe to the show for free in Apple iTunes!

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