Posts by Ken Gagne

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.

    Getting the word out on public access TV

    Written by Ken 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.

    Posted in Publicity | No Responses »
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    Jumpstart your online fundraising

    Written by Ken 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 »
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    MS Challenge Walk 2013 commercial & PSA

    Written by Ken on January 20, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    Every September, Brenda Neary and her Red Dirt Productions crew come to Cape Cod not just to bear witness to MS Challenge Walk, but to share the experience with a wider audience. They do so by recording the event on film and editing an amazing three-day adventure into a three-minute commercial that captures the essence of what it means to be a part of the MS Challenge Walk community.

    The 2013 video is now out, having been filmed at the 2012 walk. Not only will you see many familiar friends and faces, but you can use this video to recruit even more heroes into our ranks. Use the "Share this" buttons at the bottom of this post to take advantage of this recruitment resource. Make them the stars of next year's commercial!

    And here's a separate, shorter video that features different heroes:

    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 Publicity | No Responses »
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    What's in a podcast name?

    Written by Ken on September 24, 2012 at 11:14 am

    When it comes to naming something, I'm better at quantity over quality. Whether it's a book, dog, slogan, or podcast, I'll throw out dozens of awful ideas and ask someone with more sense which one is the least bad.

    Take for example these team names I proposed back in 2009, from which my teammate Tracy selected "MSChief Makers"

    • MSbehavior
    • MScreants
    • MSfits
    • MSchief Makers
    • MSery Loves Company

    In the instance of launching this blog back in 2009, I started off with what Internet domain I would want to register, since a site's Web address can determine how easily it is found by both users and search engines like Google. Todd Krohne made the final selection from these candidates:

    • threedaysfiftymiles.org
    • challengeblog.org
    • challengewalkers.org
    • mschallengewalkNE.org
    • MAchallengewalk.com

    Three years later, we decided to add a podcast to the show. Danielle Kempe and I had to choose from these suggested names:

    • Talking for a Cure
    • The Challenge Talk
    • Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk
    • Talk the Walk
    • The Walkthrough

    It was suggested that "Talking for a Cure" might capitalize on Google searches for The Talking Dead, a television show and podcast about the AMC television series The Walking Dead. But we were launching an interview series about multiple sclerosis, not zombies, and we decided to avoid that overlap as much as possible, lest we confuse our visitors.

    Once we settled on MS Challenge Talk, I went to register challengetalk.org. Like any good online business, my registrar tried to upsell me by asking if I wanted to corner the market by purchasing several similar-sounding domain names. The list of suggestions read like a thesaurus run amok:

    Suggested alternatives for ChallengeTalk.org

    My favorites: "Dare Chat", "Venture Talk", and "Hazard Call".

    I wonder how Danielle would've felt about talking to me on any of those shows??

    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 Online Tools, Podcast | No Responses »
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    Notes of support from the trail

    Written by Ken on September 13, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    In the eight years I've participated in MS Challenge Walk, I've made plenty of connections. From friends and family who support my training and fundraising, to the steering committee that tolerates my off-the-wall ideas, to the walkers and crew who cheer each other on, the relationships formed around this three-day weekend are ones that I cherish year-round.

    This year, not only did I receive notes of encouragement before the walk, but I had more letters waiting for me even after I arrived on the Cape. A former formal member of Gordon's Team and now an honorary one, I arrived at their annual pre-walk homestead to find a sealed message waiting for me. It came from one of the team's youngest members, Emma, who this year made the transition from crew to walker. Here's what she wrote:

    Letter from Emma

    A transcript follows:

    Dear Ken,

    Excited for another year? I know I am. I just want to say how glad I am that you decided to be a part of this. It has shown me how pure determination and hope can form amazing friendships. No matter what team you are listed under officially, there will always be a spot for you on Gordon's Team, and we will always claim you as one of us. So thank you for everything you have brought to our team. Thanks for a smile along the route (which I'm sure I will need this year), that trolley ride (it is in my top walk memories), and a friendship the whole family holds dear.

    Smiles,
    Emma

    What a wonderful way to start the walk! How could I not be eager to get out there and support this family, without whom I never would've heard about or joined MS Challenge Walk?

    That wasn't the last note of support I'd find that weekend. A friend who spent her Labor Day weekend on Cape Cod knew I'd soon be following in her footsteps, so she stopped by Nickerson State Park — better known to us as Day 2, Rest Stop #1. There, she engaged in a bit of letterboxing, a distant cousin of geocaching. At a specific place in the park, she left me a message, one I could find only by following these clues:

    This is a "drive-by", "walk-by" or "bicycle-by" letterbox with one caveat. It is located right off Flax Pond Rd, and this road is very busy with cars coming to and from one of the park boat ramps. If traveling by car, it would be best to enter the Area 5 campground, and park near the Restrooms. [Proceed] down Flax Pond Rd until you see a large glacial erratic on your right. Approach on foot, and look into the "jaws" of the boulder. The Nickerson State Park Letterbox is hidden inside.

    Near the end of the walk's first day, where I found Pocahontas handing out hugs to walkers just 0.42 miles from the Cape Cod Sea Camps, I abandoned my post and took a detour off our prescribed route to follow the above instructions. I wasn't far into the park when I found the boulder in question.

    A large boulder in Nickerson State Park

    I dismounted my bicycle, climbed into the "jaws", reached my hand in… and came out with this!

    Letter from Cara

    My thanks to Cara and her fiddler crab for taking the time and effort to support me and all our walkers! And to everyone else who let their humanity shine this challenging weekend. Before, during, or after, be it a hug, a tweet, or these letters, there's no limit to the support to be found at MS Challenge Walk.

    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 Challenge Walk | 1 Response »
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    MS Challenge Walk 2012's tweets

    Written by Ken on September 10, 2012 at 9:24 am

    Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's MS Challenge Walk! Over 550 walkers and 200 crew collaborated to bring us three days, fifty miles, and $1 million toward a world free from multiple sclerosis. What a team!!

    We couldn't have done it without the larger support network of friends, families, and co-workers who cheered us on physically, emotionally, and financially. We gave advocates a blow-by-blow report from the route courtesy the microblogging site Twitter. Jennifer Rebecca Yates assumed control of the account, issuing 58 "tweets" over the course of the weekend (40% more than last year!). For the first time ever, these tweets included photos from the trail and were also streamed to our Facebook page, opening the event to an even wider audience.

    We'll now resume our usual Twitter schedule, but for posterity (or for those of you who missed it), here are Jen's tweets, presented in chronological order. Watch this blog in the weeks to come as we publish more media, including audio, video, and photos!

    Click to continue »

    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 Challenge Walk, Online Tools | No Responses »
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    Live tweets from MS Challenge Walk 2012

    Written by Ken on September 5, 2012 at 9:00 am

    We're pleased to welcome committee member Jennifer Rebecca Yates back to our Twitter account. As she did last year and Emily Kahm did the year before that, Jen will be tweeting live from the Cape Cod Rail Trail using the official @MSChallengeWalk account starting tomorrow. This means that throughout the weekend, you or your friends and family back home can experience the event live in real time by visiting this blog to see short text messages and even photos from the route. All our tweets will also appear on the MS Challenge Walk's Facebook page!

    Jen won't be the only Twitter user at MS Challenge Walk; you can follow our list of walkers to get even more perspectives. Their tweets will also be included in the below stream (but not on our Facebook page). Will you be tweeting? Let us know, and use hashtag #MSCW (short for MS Challenge Walk) in your own tweets!

    [The live tweet has concluded! Please see Jen's archive of tweets for the full story.]

    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 Challenge Walk, Online Tools | No Responses »
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    The Hall of heroes that keeps me walking

    Written by Ken on August 22, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Six years ago, the Nintendo Wii came out. As someone who was raised with Mario and Zelda, I was first in line at the game store to get the new video game console. As I'm also Computerworld's youngest editor, I didn't share this interest with many co-workers, but I nonetheless brought the Wii to our annual editorial retreat, figuring it would be a novelty.

    Sure enough, the intuitive way in which the Wii's tennis and bowling games are played made it a hit. As he tried the bowling game himself, one co-worker, Mark Hall, commented that his late mother, an avid bowler, would probably have lived longer had she been able to enjoy her favorite sport in this low-impact, risk-free fashion. I empathized, saying that I hoped my mother would similarly enjoy the Wii, since she's not as physically active since being diagnosed with MS.

    Mark paused his swing and looked at me. "My wife has MS," he said — not a secret, but not one we expected to have in common.

    Although I was still Computerworld's newest hire, had just met Mark and had never met his wife Cathie, and had been doing the MS Challenge Walk for only two years at that point, I boldly solicited them in my fundraising efforts, sending them a letter that concluded, "I am truly grateful for your support and feel fortunate to be able to walk the paths of Cape Cod for those who cannot." What I received in return was more valuable than any impact on my bottom line.

    I have noted on this blog and in person what I first do when I receive someone's donation in the mail: I look not at the value of the check, but at the donor's words of encouragement. Every year, Cathie — whom to this day I have still not met — takes a deeply personal and generous perspective that she shares in a note enclosed with her donation. With her permission, I am sharing her letter this year:

    Letter from Cathie Hall

    A transcript of the above scan follows:

    Dear Ken,

    I am compelled to echo your own words, in your fundraising letter:

    "I am truly grateful…" for your and others' consistent MS fundraising efforts and participation in MS Challenge Walk(s)!!!!! Year after year.

    and

    "I feel fortunate…" to have been the beneficiary of consistent support & aid from family, friends, and even strangers during my 30 years face-to-face with MS; to have a life better than I imagined it would be.

    I send you Mark's and my contribution to your 2012 Cape Cod 50-mile Challenge Walk for MS; our very best wishes for perfect walking weather, Sept. 7—9; and my deep, heartfelt appreciation for all you do to defeat MS!

    Thank you!

    Cathie Hall

    I am humbled and awed by the spirit of individuals such as Cathie. It is for heroes like them that I am glad to walk, peddle, and cheer my way across Cape Cod time and time again, until it is no longer necessary.

    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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