Read To Participants on September 23rd, 2012
1st Annual TeamHD Prince George Run For Lor
We had our first annual TeamHD Prince George Run for Lor today. Pamela from the Hutington Society of Canada asked me to to speak about how I got involved with the Huntington’s Society as well as my reasons behind organizing and doing the run. My reason was simple, Lorelei Dale. A year ago today, I lost a very good friend to Huntington’s and I wanted to plan something for here in Prince George because this was her home. I wanted to be involved and help make a difference with The Huntington’s Society and to raise awareness for those that don’t know what people with Huntington’s suffer from. I wanted to do it because I felt that I should have done more for Lor before I lost the chance, before I lost one of the most amazing friends I have ever had. When people asked me about how she died, I would tell them she had Huntington’s disease and they would ask me what that was. I answered them as best as I could, but it is hard to do that when you don’t have all the answers.
I think back to when I learned about her diagnosis and how I didn’t know enough about Huntington’s disease. The realization was that I was afraid of finding out more. I knew enough to know that this disease would eventually take the life of my friend, but I didn’t know how, or when. Learning about Huntington’s made it all too real. Why does it take losing someone close to us to cause us to open our eyes, to raise our own awareness? The answer to that question is different for all of us. For me, I did not want to accept that one day Lor would be gone. Whenever I would see her she would have the biggest and brightest smile on her face, her eyes full of warmth and love and her laugh….well that was one of the best sounds a person could ever hope to hear. She would never let on about her illness, which just shows how much strength she had. I am blessed to have had Lor in my life. She was taken from us too soon, but will remain in our hearts and thoughts forever.
It is time to open our eyes and become aware. We need to make sure that the awareness of Huntington’s disease grows. When a teamHD event in Prince George went from thinking about it, to planning it and finally to actually having it, we made the decision that this was not going to be a onetime thing. You can never get something 100% right on the first try, things take time. Making a difference will take time. And for me it is time well spent so I can only hope that this event continues to occur in Prince George along with the Amaryllis campaign that Kathleen and I will be starting in October.
Spreading the word and raising awareness will make the difference between fundraising and having to explain to people what Huntington’s disease is and see the confusion in their eyes to simply having to mention what are fundraising for and having people willing to give of themselves.
Our goal this year was $3000. Online donations show us at 138% of that goal with $4145. With all the people that came to the event today and registered to walk and made donations we are currently at $5792 raised which is 193% of our goal.
Next year we will aim higher. And even higher for every year from then on, because we have shown that we can do it. Thank you to everyone who has made a donation, who has given us fundraising gifts and for those that are donating their time to helped with the event today.
