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Notes of support from the trail

Written by on Sep 13, 2012
Ken

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 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 an alumnus of the event's steering committee and is this site's webmaster.

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My version of crew training

Written by on Aug 13, 2010
Jill

Wow! Only a month until the MS Challenge Walk. I better start doing some training.

Crew training, that is. There's the official training session that the chapter just held, but I'm referring to the training that we all do on our own. Here's how I recommend my fellow crew members prepare for the big event:

  1. Rest your vocal cords for the next month. Keep talking to an absolute minimum, because you are going to need all your cheering volume when the walk rolls around in September.
  2. Toughen your hands by practicing clapping for extended periods of time. Otherwise, your hands will be stinging shortly after you start on the first day, and you will have no feeling in them by the end of the weekend.
  3. Give up all pretenses of dignity as you prepare your outfits for the themed rest stops (when I think of some of the things I have worn).
  4. Make sure you know what poison ivy looks like (I have sat in it twice now). The pink calamine lotion doesn't look good on anyone.
  5. Make sure you practice your picture-taking skills and that you're on the right side of the camera when #3–4 happen.
  6. Prepare to have a great weekend!

Jill lives in East Taunton with her husband and a very annoying cat. She was diagnosed with MS in 1998 when she was 24. She has been participating in the Challenge Walk since the beginning as a crew member and can also be found at many other fundraising events.

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Hands

Written by on Jun 28, 2010
Patty

The other day was my grandson's last day of kindergarten, which got me thinking about the very first day I walked a child to school.

My oldest daughter was always very grown-up and mature beyond her years. On her first day of kindergarten, she informed that she could go by herself and didn't need me to walk her in. I wasn't about to let that happen and insisted I walk her up the stone steps, down the hallway and to her classroom. "All right," she reluctantly agreed, "but no hugging or kissing."

We drove to the school and parked. Students were streaming into the building, yellow buses lined up along the driveway. Cars were parked every which way as more children raced to the doors.

My daughter got very quiet and as I opened her door, she hugged her backpack to her chest. We started up the steps and she peeked up at me. "Mommy?" she said. When I looked down at her, I saw that her eyes were filled with tears. "Are there mean people in there?"

And I was filled with this overwhelming love and a fierce protectiveness. "No honey," I said. "They will all be very, very nice." She didn't look convinced, so I reached out to her. "My hand is right here," I told her; "All you have to do is reach for it." She did, and holding hands, we walked in together.

It's taken me a long time for me to admit when I need a hand. That's what the Challenge Walk, the crew, walkers and volunteers represent for me: a helping hand, support, encouragement and, yes, love. I've learned to reach. Thank you for reaching back.

Diagnosed with MS in 1994, Patty responded the way many do: she refused to discuss it. It took her ten years to realize that silence isn't the answer. She, her friends and family formed the Blister Buddies for their first Challenge Walk in 2004. Patty is now on the Challenge Walk Steering Committee and chairs the PR Subcommittee. In November 2008, she became a member of the Greater NE Chapter's Board of Trustees.

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Biking and walking for a cure

Written by on Sep 23, 2009
Ken

Note: This post is courtesy guest author Jim Moran.

This was my third year doing the MS Challenge Walk, and my third year on the bike crew. Riding support is always a fun time, as I get the chance to ride with some really great bike riders; it felt like we'd been riding together for ages!

The best part of being on the bike crew though is getting to see and meet the wonderful people that walk in the event.  We get a great opportunity as bike crew to frequently check in on the walkers and get to know many of them rather well.

The stalwart Jim Moran, victorious over both heel and wheel. Photo courtesy Sara Wells.

The stalwart Jim Moran, victorious over both heel and wheel. Photo courtesy Sara Wells.

That said, this was the first year that I actually got on my feet and walked the final ten miles with the rest of the D-Terminators team and get the chance to experience the walk from their perspective.  To their surprise — and mine! — there were no blisters or other anticipated aches and pains.  But I did get the chance to feel the support and the kindness that's always being given by the crew we encounter on the route.

The only down side of walking was I only got to interact with the few walkers that were in the same area that I was in, instead of seeing everyone's smiling faces as I rode up and down the trail. Everyone on the walk is so great, I can't help but want to see them all!

Being on the support crew is a great way to support the walk and be a part of it.  Consider registering as crew for the 2010 event. That's the way I plan to continue doing the walk for as long as I'm "young enough" to do it.  Hopefully the cure we all pray for will be found before I'm "old enough" to have to stop.

Ken 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 an alumnus of the event's steering committee and is this site's webmaster.

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Crew training — no, not the training you are thinking of

Written by on Jun 15, 2009
Jill

The Challenge Walk is only three months away, which means it's time to be training. But crew training is so different from walker training. For crew, now is the time we come up with our themes for the rest stops — the wackier the better for my crew!

We need to be inventive in how to keep the walkers entertained and give them a few smiles as they go through our rest stop. Who knows what costumes we'll get for this year? Over the years, I have been a pirate, a leprechaun, a Jedi Knight, an evil clown, and the world's largest Munchkin, to name a few. With the little bit of rain we got last year, my Jedi Knight costume, complete with bright yellow Wellington boots, looked more like the Gordon fisherman. I didn't look very professional in any of these costumes — but that wasn't the point. The point was to make the walkers comfortable and happy!

I'll soon be looking through the huge tote of costumes that I have been accumulating and see what I can pull out. After I've made my selections, my luggage will be about four times as much as any walker brings. How else would I fit in a military-sized squirt gun, Wellington boots, cowboy hat, and who knows what else? I'm hoping that someday, my appearance will be that of a person cured of MS — but that it won't be a costume, it will be the real me. That will be one costume that I will be happy to wear for the rest of my life.

Jill lives in East Taunton with her husband and a very annoying cat. She was diagnosed with MS in 1998 when she was 24. She has been participating in the Challenge Walk since the beginning as a crew member and can also be found at many other fundraising events.

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Starting the crew experience — in a van

Written by on Jun 1, 2009
Jill

Somehow, I have become the driver of the crew van for my crew. I've been driving since that first year when we were all still trying to figure out how to manage this great new event, the MS Challenge Walk. A fifteen-passenger van filled with strangers seemed like nothing to me. My first car when I was 16 was a 1979 GMC Cargo Van. How different could it be?

Quite a bit different, it turns out. When I was driving my beloved van (black with a big white smiley face on the side) in high school, I'd have only one passenger in the other bucket seat, in addition to anyone who wanted to sit on the floor in the back. But in the crew van that first year, we were stuffed in like sardines with all our gear for the stops. People and gear there was plenty of. Sense of direction? Not so much, but plenty of back seat driving. I made so many three-point turns in that huge van, it was comical. And I managed to hit only ten curbs in the process!

As I continue driving the crew vans every year, the amount of gear increases, but fewer people means less cramming, and the strangers are now my dear friends. We still don't ever have any sense of direction, we still get lost at least twice each year, and I still hit curbs, though fewer of them. But we get there. What would the walkers do without us? And what would we do without them?

Jill lives in East Taunton with her husband and a very annoying cat. She was diagnosed with MS in 1998 when she was 24. She has been participating in the Challenge Walk since the beginning as a crew member and can also be found at many other fundraising events.

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