Entries categorized as ‘great strides’
Spring is upon us and that means our annual Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis.
On Saturday, 6/13, we’d love to see all of you come out to the walk at the Naperville Riverwalk Pavilion or to the after-party at our house. The walk is always just the right length (not too long) and the day is really family friendly, including breakfast and lunch, a DJ, and a few surprises. The after-party at our house is open to everyone, whether you walked or not.
This will be Colin’s 7th walk. Those first months threw us so many curves and so many unknowns all at once and only because of all of the help of our family and friends did we make it through. So, so much has changed since Colin’s first walk, when he was just two months old. The median life span of someone with cf has increased from 31 years old to 38 years old and better, more effective drugs now exist that cut down on the number of pills he has to take during the day and the amount of time he needs to spend on nebulizers, which is currently at about an hour a day.
There is one thing that hasn’t changed since the time Colin was born: There is still no cure for cystic fibrosis. There is still a shortened lifespan, there are still numerous drugs a day, there are still doctor and hospital visits a half dozen times a year.
We relied heavily on our family and friends to help us those first few months of Colin’s life and we continue to rely on you. There are some absolutely amazing drugs in the works and a greater hope now than ever before that we’ll see a cure to this disease in Colin’s lifetime. But we’re not there yet. The drugs in the CFF pipeline require over $100million in funding every year to keep the research and trials going. As you are no doubt aware, there’s been a bit of a financial issue going on in the world and our fundraising has not been immune to it. Unfortunately, this disease hasn’t paused while banks figure out their plans.
Please help us this year. We completely understand the financial situation and we’re not looking for massive donations. We’re asking you to donate what you can, and because asking is free, we’d like you to ask your friends and family for whatever small donations they can provide as well.
Please donate and help us find an end to this disease. Thank you so very much.
1. Online Donations: http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/ChristopherWalsh594873196(Press Click to Donate at the bottom)
2. Join our team (6/13 at Riverwalk Grand Pavilion) and donate at the walk: http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/ChristopherWalsh594873196 (Press Join My Team at the bottom)
3. Come to our party and donate there. Shoot me an email and I’ll provide details as the day gets closer.
Chris and Trisha Walsh
Chris@CureCFNow.com
Categories: Events · cystic fibrosis · great strides
Another huge delay from me in updating this site. I’ve been doing more than writing. What has happened since December?
The Naperville wine event was closed out and was very successful. We actually just just started planning for the 2009 event and may have found the venue yesterday. Stay tuned.
Poker is underway. I spent a lot of time this year talking to other charities and how they do their tournaments. Picked up a few tips and a lot of great contacts. Learned a few laws along the way too. This year’s CFF Casino Chicago is April 4th.
Walk talks have started. We had the first one at our house about a month ago. A couple new committee members. Not much to report yet.
CFF will be in the South Side St. Patty’s Day parade again this year. For the first time in years it sounds like a number of people will actually come out for it. We had a dismal showing for a few years after we were grand marshal, which was a little embarrassing. Hopefully we come back strong this year.
Hopefully more updates to come. I find it easier to update Facebook and LinkedIn with events, so hopefully I can find an easy way to update this site as well. No clue if anyone even reads it, but maybe someday I’ll have something interesting enough for people to come here regularly and read.
Categories: Events · great strides
Hello Family and Friends,
We would really like to thank you for your continued support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We have had another very successful year of fundraising. Once again, you blew us away with donations raising over $20,000 in Colin’s name in Illinois and totaling over $30,000 with our other three states. Chris and I were recently telling someone about the fundraising efforts we do to for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and we were referred to as “heroes” for working so hard to find a cure. We feel that all of you are our “heroes” for your endless (and I mean endless) support for our cause. We WILL get there someday.
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Categories: Events · great strides
Colin’s Clan had their 6th Naperville Great Strides walk this past weekend on June 14, 2008. The weather was perfect and the turnout was awesome. Check out the pictures:
Categories: Events · Video · cystic fibrosis · great strides
This year, we added a Florida chapter of Colin’s Clan. Dina Sakowski formed a team and raised over $3500 in their first year. Way to go Colin’s Clan Clay County!!!
Categories: Events · cystic fibrosis · great strides
Tagged: great strides florida
Principal Kevin Suchinski and the Hickory Creek Middle School in
Frankfort, IL had a real hang up about raising funds for CFF this year, as you can see. Mr. Suchinski promised the school that he would hang on the wall an entire day if they raised $5000 this year in their own walk at the school for CFF. Colin’s mother and father (Trisha and Chris) also promised to arrange for ice cream for the winning grade level. After a successful May 23rd walk, on May 29th, Mr. Suchinski, Chris and Trisha Walsh all kept their promises to the school. While Mr. Suchinski was stuck to the wall in the main foyer of the school, Colin’s grandmother helped serve ice cream to 250 sixth graders. Local newspapers covered the event and Mr. Suchinski’s hope is that the online donations will continue to come in once the story runs this weekend.
This all started four years ago when Colin’s cousin Ashley attended Hickory Creek. Her teacher at the time wanted to get the students involved in some social awareness and fundraising campaign and a paper Ashley had written on cf was the perfect springboard. So, starting four years ago, when Colin was one, Trisha Walsh, along with Colin and his twin Megan, have given presentations to the school on what cf is and is not and have pumped up the school for their walk. Since then, the walk has become a school-wide event and Principal Suchinski is now ready to push the concept to the rest of the school district and Colin and his family plan to be there to help.
This year, the school has raised about $4000 and money continues to come in.
Categories: Events · great strides
Tagged: fundraise, school
I am finding it hard to keep up on this blog. I spend most of my free time actually working on the events that I should be promoting or discussing here instead of promoting and discussing. I am thinking about spinning off the “Cure CF now” portion and finding someone that just wants to CF blog and allowing them use of the name and space. It would be of much more value to people.
Update on Poker/Casino: The 2008 Horseshoe Casino Casino Chicago was held on April 18 at the Marriott Michigan Avenue. The night was amazing and went without any bumps. The entire committee did a great job and the volunteers were amazing. The room itself wasn’t overly decorated, but for the first time in 4 years, we actually had space for everyone instead of trying to cram into an area 3/4 the size of what we needed. We really went big on blackjack, craps, and roulette this year and I am interested in seeing how it did compared to the poker side of the room. The final winner of the night was from Bears player Jerry Azumah.
Update on Night at the Museum: Trisha and Kirsten did an amazing job on museum. It brought in about $11k this year. The evening was great for kids with the museum wide open for them to play in and kid-centric raffles just for them. The silent auction did well too. It’s a lot of work, but one of the few kid-friendly events for CFF.
Update on Walks: We hit 2 walks and a walk party this weekend. Overall, not bad. The CFF staff works like crazy to put these together and in general people are happy. The Orland Park walk had great weather and a good turnout. Unscientific guesses put the attendance a little lower than previous years. The Chicago walk was a bit colder and the guess on attendance was also that it was a little lower. I talked to a number of families and participants and there is still a LOT we can do to make the walks better. I’ll end up talking to the CFF staff on what we can do to make it better and better.
Wine: Finally, it is off the ground. We had our first committee meeting in early May and 20 people attended. 20 people! That’s a whole lot of people wanting to help us make a great event. We have booked the venue, Tessa’s in Naperville, for November 8. We already have the sommelier scheduled to fly in the night before and attend the event. In addition, we have a live auction package of a trip to Sonoma, a private plane ride around the area, hotel, and a tour of some of the winerys. This should be huge. We are trying to figure out now what a VIP ticket for the event will consist of, what it will cost the purchaser, and what it will cost us to make it happen (free hopefully). Stay tuned.
Categories: Events · great strides
Tagged: museum, poker, walk, wine
To Colin’s Clan,
Dear Family and Friends,
It’s almost time for our annual walk for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation on June, 16th. We got a huge head start on our fundraising this year with a very successful event at the DuPage Children’s Museum. Thank you again to all who attended and donated. (more…)
Categories: great strides
Dear Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, Grandpas, Neighbors, Friends, and Friends of Friends,
As most of you already know, my mom and dad are always trying to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to cure my CF. Dad says there are a lot of new drugs in development that are going to help me someday soon and that doctors and scientists are making great progress. Dad says progress is expensive and this is why we need your help. (more…)
Categories: great strides
We’re coming up on our third Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis and the beginning of Colin’s third year of life with this disease. We pray for a better year and we really need your help to provide a better life for him, a life without this disease. You can’t tell Colin has CF by looking at him and if I didn’t tell you, it might be years before you knew. CF is a degenerative lung and digestive disease and over time, it will get worse until the lungs just fail. There currently is no cure. The disease is too small for pharmaceutical companies to invest time and money on. It’s not cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, but the end result is the same. We are the only way this disease is going to be cured. The money has to come from us. Some say that a cure is less than a decade away. Say you were a part of it.
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Categories: great strides
Tagged: 2005, great strides, walk
