Team Kristen at Great Strides 1999

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Team Kristen
at the Great Strides walk for cystic fibrosis
Saturday, May 15, 1999

Great Strides is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's big walk. Every spring, in towns all over the country, families and friends get sponsors and walk together to raise money for CF research. Our family has walked every year since Kristen was a baby (the first year she rode in a stroller, and Matt pushed it with one hand and held a coffee with the other). This was our biggest team ever.

The Team

Nineteen walkers, one wagon, one three-year-old in the wagon and, for most of the second half, one six-year-old on her grandpa's shoulders. (She was still five then. She turned six in June and wants everyone to know.)

We had Matt and me and the kids, Grandma Audrey and Grandpa Carl (my folks), Matt's brother and his wife, three of the guys Matt works with, two of the girls from my office, our neighbors, and a whole bunch of our Sunday school class. I asked everybody to be at the park by 8:00. Everybody was there by 7:45. Grandpa Carl was there at 7:15 with lawn chairs.

The T-Shirt

Kristen designed it herself. In March she sat at the kitchen table with her crayons for most of a Saturday afternoon and drew a rose. It is a big red rose with a long green stem, two leaves, and a smiling face in the middle, because, she explained, "it's a happy rose." Matt's cousin has a screen printing shop and he printed it for us at cost on rose-pink shirts. On the front: Kristen's rose and TEAM KRISTEN in her own wobbly printing. On the back: WALKING FOR 65 ROSES.

Levi's shirt was a little kid size and still came to his knees. He wore it as a dress all summer.

The Day

It was a beautiful morning. We had sunscreen and jackets both, because it's May in Boise. The walk followed the river, with balloons, a DJ, volunteers handing out water, and a clown making balloon animals at the finish (Kristen got a poodle, Levi got a sword, and Levi was very disappointed later when it turned out you can't fight with a balloon sword for very long).

Before the walk they had families who live with CF come up front, and Kristen held my hand and Matt's hand and looked at all those people in their team shirts, hundreds of them, and said, "Are they all walking for me?" And Matt said, "For you and all the other kids," and she said, "Okay. But mostly me." Which, yes, honey. Mostly you.

Thank you to everyone who walked with us. We packed a cooler with salty snacks and juice boxes, and of course Kristen had her enzymes in my pocket for the hot dog at the end.

Thank You, Sponsors!

We couldn't have done it without these wonderful people. Some gave five dollars and some gave a lot more, and every single dollar goes to helping kids like Kristen. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Our Rose Garden
Grandma Audrey & Grandpa Carl, who sponsored every single walker on the team Adam, who works with Matt and went around the whole warehouse with an envelope Alice, who runs the dental office where I work, and put a jar on the front counter Weldon, our neighbor, who sponsored Levi by the block Cindy and Donald, two of Matt's customers on his route	Sondra, who taught Kristen's preschool class Pamela, our CF clinic nurse, who walked with her own team and sponsored ours too Suzette, my sister-in-law Irma and Yolanda, from our Sunday school class, who baked six dozen cookies and sold them after church Kristen, who emptied her piggy bank ($14.37, mostly pennies)

Team Kristen raised
$2,861.37
for cystic fibrosis research and care!

Last year we raised a little over $1,200, so we more than doubled it. I cried a little when they read our total. Then I cried a little more because Grandpa Carl cried.

Kristen's Report

She told me what to write and I typed exactly what she said, the next day. She asked me to put it on the computer "so everybody can read it."

MY GREAT STRIDES
by Kristen

We walked for sixty-five roses. That is what I have.

I had a pink shirt with my rose on it. I drawed the rose. It is happy.

There were so many people. Daddy said they were walking for all the kids but mostly me.

Grandpa carried me on his shoulders for a long time. I could see everything. I could see a dog.

Levi rode in the wagon. He got a balloon and it flew away and he cried. It is in the sky now. Maybe it is in Utah.

There was a clown. She made me a poodle.

I did not get tired until the end. I got a hot dog. I had my enzymes.

Mommy says we got lots of money for the doctors so they can make my lungs better. I want to walk again next year. I want to walk the whole way by myself.

The end.

Next year's walk is in May 2000 and Team Kristen will be back. If you live near Boise and want to walk with us, write to me and I'll put you on the list for a T-shirt. Kristen is already working on a new rose.

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Last updated Tuesday, September 14, 1999