Chelsea L. McGowan
cmcgowan@weatherforddemocrat.com
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has sponsored its Great Strides Walk annually for the last 20 years. But this year marks the event’s first time in Weatherford, and the walk’s coordinator said the response has been unbelievable.
“We’ve had a huge response from Weatherford,” said Shannon O’Fallon, special events coordinator for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. “We have 19 teams, and that’s amazing for a first-year walk.”
The Great Strides Walk in Weatherford will take place Saturday, May 2, at Love Street Park. No fee will be charged to individual walkers or teams, as O’Fallon said the emphasis is on getting out and raising money for the cause.
“We just ask that you register online, form a team and get out and raise money,” she said. “Our teams have come up with lots of creative ways to raise money. Some have garage sales, some get their companies to donate.”
With several families in the city dealing with the effects of cystic fibrosis, O’Fallon said the decision to organize a walk in Weatherford was a natural one.
“We have one family who’s small son has CF, and another family where the mother has CF,” she said. “We did a walk in Granbury last year and had a good turnout, so this year it seemed right to include Weatherford.”
The walk itself will start at 9 a.m. Saturday morning, with registration starting at 8 a.m. At three miles, it’s quite a clip, but O’Fallon said the event has been organized as family-friendly all the way.
“People even bring strollers,” she said. “Obviously, our participants are free to run if they want. But it’s very much family friendly ... an at-your-leisure kind of walk.”
After the walk, participants will have the pleasure of hearing how much money they’ve raised for the cause.
O’Fallon said that moment is rewarding, as everyone’s working together to further research, and hopefully find a cure for this disease.
“While everyone’s walking, we’ll add up what they brought and then announce the rough estimate of what Weatherford raised,” she said. “Everyone comes together. We won’t turn anyone away, even on the morning of the event. If we can have a head count to make sure we have enough food and water, that’d be great. But there’s no deadline.”
For more information or to form a team in participate in Weatherford’s inaugural Great Strides Walk, visit the organization’s Web site at www.cff.org/greatstrides.
