Great Strides 2014 is Tomorrow!!

The radio silence on my end is typical around this time of the year. Besides the other stuff going on in my life - work, podcasts, family - fundraising and stressing out about cystic fibrosis tends to consume everything.

This year we started out slow in raising money for Great Strides, the annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation fundraiser to find a cure, but things really kicked into gear these last two weeks. Our team set a goal for $5K, and we surpassed that by over $2,000. Among the ways that we had people contribute (beside the usual soliciting of money through emails and posts) were a fund rasier at Jacob's school, a bake sale at the school where Julie works, Sophie's own efforts, and a bucket I placed on a table at my office. All of these proved to be successful ways to raise money. It was very, very thrilling.

One of the coolest things that happened was the contributions by Brave New World, the comic store in Santa Clarita where Jacob buys his comic books. Portlyn, the owner, donated a basket for the walk raffle, and she posted a wonderful note on her weekly email blast to all of her customers. It was amazing for me to read, but for Jake it was one of the coolest things ever. In the comics world, I feel like he has found kindred spirits and a way to escape being the boy with CF. The folks at Brave New World have embraced Jacob and his cause and made him feel like one of their family.

I can't believe that it's been 12 years that we've been doing Great Strides. I can barely recall the first one. I know I was emotional, as I will be tomorrow. No doubt I will have to escape to a bedroom at some point tomorrow night during our annual dinner with all of the walkers and weep over the outpouring of love our family has been show. I've been in a funk all week; the tears have been on the edge for a couple of days.

To all of you reading this, thank you for giving your love, support and money to find a cure. We are optimistic about what is in store for CF people in the next 10 years. Your money has helped in the development of new therapies that will someday put an end to this damn illness.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.