Great Strides 2008

This past weekend we attended our first ever Great Strides for Cystic Fibrosis event. Many people came to walk with us and many more pledged money. We're still tallying but it looks like our team, Cam's Crew, will have raised an incredible $12,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. That's great news! Thank you so much to everyone who donated. All told the Minneapolis event raised over $600,000.

We were worried about the weather report for the day. It was supposed to be gloomy and cold with a chance of snow and rain. All of the rain passed the night before and just before the walk started the cloud bank blew over to reveal blue skies. It was still cold and windy so Camden stayed home until after the actual walk.
Here's the little man hanging out in the shade of his cool jogging stroller sporting some sun glasses. He was actually pretty out of it when he was there. I think he was tired.
Here's the whole family at the end of the walk. Grandpa Dave, Grandma Gail, Kirk, Chelsey, Grandpa Bob, Aunt Kim, and Grandma Linda. Camden is all bundled up in the stroller.I just had to include this alternative version as well. If you click the photo you can see Camden has his right fist raised in the traditional "fight the power" pose.

Here's Cam's Crew before the walk (minus Chelsey's family who was watching Cam and dealing with some car troubles.) The back row is Grandpa Dave, Lowell and Cay Hellervik, Nathan Awe, Jim Erickson, Beth Pinkney, Craig Larson, Doug Addison, Vanessa Merchant, Tom Maloney, Mike Corbett, Nancy Corbett and their son Ben in the carrier. Front row is Grandma Linda, Kirk, Chelsey, Bodie the Dog (who everyone though was our dog Odin) and Mike and Nancy's Dog Sasha. We had 17 people walking with Cam's crew (19 if you include Ben and Cam)


Everyone is sporting the Cam's Crew T-shirts that Chelsey designed. They were the coolest team shirts there! It was so cold we all had to layer them on top of three or four other layers. Chelsey and some of her friends had purple extensions put in their hair and she dubbed it "Aware Hair." Whenever people asked her about it she told them about Cystic Fibrosis.

It was a great event. The money we raised will go directly toward finding a cure for CF and adding years to Camden's life. We can't tell you how much your support means to us. Thanks again to everyone and we'll see you next year!

~Kirk and Chelsey