Support families dealing with muscular dystrophy at ‘Muscle Walk’ fundraiser at Freeman Park
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IDAHO FALLS — The Muscular Dystrophy Association will host its second annual “Muscle Walk” fundraiser event Saturday in Freeman Park.
Jessica Coats, a development specialist at MDA, who is in charge of the fundraiser, said the event is to raise funds so the organization can help families in eastern Idaho and Utah “to live longer and grow stronger.”
What is muscular dystrophy?
Muscular dystrophy is a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. Patients with muscular dystrophy have abnormal genes (mutations) thatinterfere with the production of proteins needed to form healthy muscle.
There are many different kinds of muscular dystrophy. Symptoms of the most common variety begin in childhood, mostly in boys. Other types don’t surface until adulthood.
There’s no cure for muscular dystrophy. But medications and therapy can help manage symptoms and slow the course of the disease.
Coats said the event is going to be a community gathering with a bounce house, cotton candy, raffle, networking activities and entertainment. Registration opens at 9 a.m. The actual “muscle walk” starts at 10:30 a.m., when participants will walk around a half a mile in the park. The fundraiser will go until noon.
Walkers who register on the MDA website and raise at least $100 will earn a participant T-shirt, which will be mailed to them after the event, Coats said.
“When we fund raise for events, that money stays very local, so money raised at ‘muscle walk’ can go towards sending kids to summer camp,” Coats said. “Or it can go to help fund our neuromuscular clinic up in the University of Utah, (where) patients from Idaho Falls come … to see our doctors down here and get treated.”
Tracey Wilson, executive director of the MDA in Utah and east Idaho, said the MDA has an impactful mission. She said the MDA funds research as well as treatments to make life better for patients and their families.
Wilson said she’s excited to see the enthusiasm and growth of the community of Idaho Falls, and hopes to network with families and provide resources for them.
“It is a thrill to be able to come to work and know that the smile on that child’s face was directly impacted by the behind-the-scenes work that we get to do in fundraising,” Wilson said, “Knowing that we’re making a difference for people, whether that be the patient or their families, is extremely rewarding, and that’s why I am here.”
The fundraiser goal for the Idaho Falls “muscle walk” is $25,250, with already 35 percent funded, according to the association website. To find more about the event, call (801) 278-6200 or click here.