By Edna Ball, Team Parkinson
Team Parkinson had a great time on race weekend! We started with the traditional setting up of our booth at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Thursday afternoon. Now we were ready to go!
The Expo opened on Friday morning and we eagerly greeted our participants who came by the booth to pick up their TP t-shirts. We also had the pleasure of having our booth sponsors, join us as well.
Early on Saturday morning we headed to Dodger Stadium for our participation in the LA Big 5K. TP fielded a team of over 70 runners and walkers, all smiles in their beautiful blue TP t-shirts. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and all our starters finished as well. Special kudos go to Phil Miller, Eddie Schindler, John MacDougal and Debbie Jew for walking over the finish line upright and proud. And congratulations to all our 5K participants from Sarah’s 5K Training Team and our START support group. Thank you Sarah Ingersoll and Steve Mackel for leading the troops again! It’s so inspiring to see so many who are living with Parkinson’s disease (PD), work so hard to stay fit and thereby improve the quality of their lives. Wear your medals with great pride!
On Saturday evening we hosted our traditional carbo loading dinner at Taix French Restaurant. Over 80 people enjoyed an inspiring evening of speakers and camaraderie. Carol Walton made the initial introductions. Dr. Gal Bitan gave us a very hope filled update on his research that Team Parkinson is helping to fund. Dr. Jeffrey Wertheimer and Didi Matthews gave an excellent presentation on all the positive things one can do both physically and mentally to improve one’s quality of life with PD. Much of their advice focused on community, and this group at dinner was a glowing example of how involvement in community is so beneficial. John Ball spoke about all the support we get every day from those in our lives and thanked his personal ‘team’ that keep him going. Edna Ball thanked those who worked so hard for this event to come off without a hitch, including Susan Saxonberg, our dinner coordinator and Lee Stacy of Norm Reeves Honda for sponsoring the evening. Carol Walton reminded everyone to please read up on the latest research we fund by checking the Parkinson Alliance website. And lastly Steve Mackel gave some advice to Sunday’s marathoners and relay runners about running in the heat that was expected. It was a great evening!
Sunday morning saw the runners meet bright and early at Dodger Stadium or at the transition zone for the 2nd-leg relay runners. Although the course was hot in some parts, for the most part it was cooler than predicted and at the finish line in Santa Monica it was foggy and chilly. We set up our cheering area at Ocean and Alta but didn’t need the sun canopy at all. It was thrilling to see the elite runners whiz by as we waited for our own heroes. And it was exciting and gratifying to see our own approach the finish line as well.
And so we wrap up another year as an official charity of the marathon. So far we’ve raised over $67,000 and counting. This campaign will stay open until March 31st, so please continue to fundraise. Take a selfie of you and your medal and let everyone know what a great accomplishment this is. When you post on social media, remember to include @teamp4acure on twitter and Instagram.
There are too many people to thank individually for the success of the weekend. We do however want to single out Carol Walton and Terri Hamran of The Parkinson Alliance and Nessa Weinman as well for putting the long hours at the Expo.
Please continue to check our website at www.team-parkinson.org for the most up-to-date total number of donations. And please continue to spread the message of our mission to raise awareness of PD, to improve the quality of life of those living with PD through exercise and to raise funds for research!
All photos from our race weekend are now on our Shutterfly site, where you can download and print them. Check out photos from the 5K race, our Carbo Dinner, and Marathon day. Thanks again to everyone for sending us your snapshots!
Thanks for all your continued support!
