Society: Arthritis Walk raises big monies

June 6, the weather took a break from drizzle and instead radiated brilliant San Diego sunshine. And it was just in time for the Arthritis Foundation San Diego Area Chapter Walk.

Held at the NTC Promenade in Point Loma, the walk drew hundreds and hundreds of walkers to put their ‘Let’s Move Together’ feet in motion.

Sneakers were the footwear of choice. Especially with the Arthritis Walk shoe laces. Everyone wore them.

Teams of families, sponsor teams and just plain wonderful individual walkers were there.

KOGO’s LaDona Harvey put some walking behind that radio personality. Her team was comprised of Brett Cameron, her mother Dena Harvey, Michelle Darby, Mike Hancock, Kevin Murphy, animal rescue television personality Darlene White, and Scott Johnston with his dog-daughter Kima.

Kima is the 2009 four legged Dog Honoree for the Arthritis Walk. For this special occasion, Kima wore her custom made Arthritis Dog gown made by Jemima Dutra. It’s reversible. But the side with tulle and pink bows got the biggest ‘bow wow wow’s.’

And there were many other ‘bow wows’ there too! Walkers were encouraged to bring their four legged friends, because dogs get Arthritis too.

Adults, children and animals all can get Arthritis. It is one of the leading disabilities for the workforce, for families, and yes for wagging furry friends.

Among the supporters there joining in for the group stretch before the walk were Elaine Evans and Don Erlich, they joined because of Kima, and Anita Bye, Tony Norton and the whole Sycuan Casino Team. Anita put a lot of salsa dance emphasis into her warm up!

More there were quite a few WalMart employees. They had a whole lot of team spirit coupled with tremendous team fundraising for the cause. WalMart presented a whopping $20,000 check to the Arthritis Foundation!

Additional cool people there raising big dollars for the cause were Bernie Murphy, his daughter has JRA or Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Kailey Berry who also has JRA, Eileen Silverman, Diane Gilbert who has rheumatoid arthritis and is also on the board, and Julia Smiley, she has JRA too.

Veronica Braun was there, she’s the President of the Arthritis Foundation San Diego Area Chapter, Andrea Muir, the Director of Development, and Dave Uemera.

Dave was not only the terrific Arthritis Walk Chair, but his day job keeps him busy too. Dave is an Immunology Specialist at Abbott Labs in San Diego North/Orange County.

More there included Melanie Walsh, Danielle Allison, Sandra Hayhurst, Cheryl Farhood, Kim Brown, Amanda Andreen, Marie Smith, David Oates and Angie Robert.

Angie did a lot of the public relations work. And she did it with her two energetic dachshunds in tow!

Yes there was a ‘doctor in the house’ too. Dr. Gregg Silverman was there. He was Honorary Chair for the event for numerous reasons.

Dr. Silverman is a noted practicing Rheumatologist at U.C.S.D, known for his boundless energy directed towards new productive treatments. He also developed the Arthritis Clinic, which offers Rheumatology care for individuals without insurance at free to low cost.

Over $122,000 was raised at the Arthritis Walk….significantly more than last year!

To learn more about the Arthritis Foundation San Diego Area Chapter visit www.arthritis.org and visit www.arthritis-sandiego.org/walk

To view more photos and coverage of this event, visit www.thesocialdiary.com

Margo Schwab is the editor of TheSocialDiary.com and the society writer for San Diego News Network. To notify her about your upcoming event, e-mail mschwab@san.rr.com.

Tags: SDNN

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Columns, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.