2017 Walk to Defeat ALS

jjj0urney
Oct 7, 2017
3 min read

Thank you all for yet another year of support in the Walk to Defeat ALS. Our team raised close to $57,000 for this years walk, placing our team in first place! Please know that for us the participation and weekend renews our spirits and revives us. It reminds me that it is my responsibility to all of you to make every day the best possible for Jason.

I did do a speech prior to the walk, and I was so nervous that only Jason and his mom knew, but when I disappeared, everyone found out and we have several recordings of it. I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to post them without success. Click on the links below to see two different slide shows of pictures and my speech! Thanks Bonnie and Angela for making these :)

Bonnie's video with the entire speech

Angela's video with the cutest graphics!

I just love the :47 mark where you will see Kristopher. He is the most thoughtful, sweet, and caring 9-year old you'll ever meet! He checks on us nearly daily!

Jason's mom, Diana wrote such a sweet and heart felt message after flying back from coming for the weekend

(and ya'll thought the last few words of the speech were tear jerking!)

"Attending the Atlanta walk was such a positive experience for me. I have read every entry that Jason and Liz have added to their blog and have been amazed by all of the love and support shown to them by their neighbors, friends and coworkers. To actually be there and see the love has made my distance from them a little more bearable. Thank you Wes for clearing a path for me so that I could get Jason up front in order to see Liz give her speech. Thank you Bonnie for the awesome shirts we wore. Thank you to Angela, Debbie, Trish, Karen, Pat and Maggie for the delicious sides and desserts you provided, and Sean for cooking all those hamburgers and hotdogs. Ande, I enjoyed our conversation and I might just take you up on your offer one day. Thank you Tim, Derrick, Josh, Courtney, Morgan, Doug, Daniel and Karen for traveling such long distances in order to support your friends. I met so many more people on the walk and at the cook out and I cannot remember all of your names but I can still feel your love and support for Jason and Liz. Thank you for that. Elizabeth, the speech you delivered at the walk was amazing. I don’t know how you managed to get through it. My eyes are starting to fill up with tears as I write this. My friends told me that when Jason married I would lose him to his wife. I disagree. I feel like I have gained a daughter. You strength through all of this is unbelievable. Thank you for standing by my son and helping him through this. I know that it is not easy. Remember that I am here whenever you need me. Jason, I have always been proud to call you my son and even more now. Your strength and courage is beyond anything I can comprehend. You have always been an independent person so having to rely on someone for your basic needs must be so frustrating for you. So many people at the cook out kept telling me how much they depended on you before your illness and still do now. You give people the freedom to be themselves around you without judging which is probably why you continue to have friends from when you were a child. I love you more than you will ever know. I wish I could kiss you and make it go away like I did when you were little."

THANK YOU (along with all listed above)

Courtney was assigned the "picture taker" role and she over did herself by providing 192 photos with videos. My sister was the "picture taker" for family that walked the neighborhood in NC.