The Johnnie Walkers

Join The Johnnie Walkers and Walk For MS Research on May 22nd

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Gregory) — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:36:23 PDT

Anybody who steps foot into our house gets dragged downstairs to watch The Myelin Repair Foundation’s latest video: Making Connections for a Cure I’ve watched it a hundred times and I still get choked up…but not for the reasons you might think. The people with MS who are spotlighted are very compelling. I can relate to their overwhelming desire to get their lives back and walk their daughters down the aisle. However the part that gets to me is what Mike Gresser, MRF’s Chief Scientific Officer and Scott Cook, Co-Founder of Intuit and MRF Patron say. They both articulate that what the MRF is doing is a whole lot bigger than an individual, a specific disease or even a single noble cause. The Accelerated Research Collaborative model is the future of medical research--whether it is applied to MS therapies, other autoimmune diseases like Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis or the goals of The American Cancer Society and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. This is where, we, The Johnnie Walkers Team, want to spend our energies; raising awareness and funds to repair the damage caused by MS. Join us and be part of our team; walk and donate on Sunday, May 22nd in Lincolnshire. At 10:30 am we will start a 4 mile neighborhood walk, followed by an afternoon of camaraderie and a backyard BBQ. If you can’t make the trip join our group by donating online through ChipIn or by writing a check:
The Myelin Repair Foundation
c/o Bob Gregory

10 Londonderry Lane

Lincolnshire, IL 60069

It’s tax deductible!

Ask your friends to donate.

Every year I say there’s no way we can surpass last year’s numbers but this year I think we just might. The Village Club of Lincolnshire has selected MRF as the beneficiary of their philanthropic efforts and many of their members want to join our extremely loyal locals on the 22nd. More out of town people are saying this year they’re going to make it. Two of our rock star scientists, Drs. Steve Miller from Northwestern and Brian Popko from the University of Chicago and their families are returning. Our goal is to raise $30,000. If we exceed this goal, we are going to request that the incremental funds go to the collaborating scientists’ summer intern programs.

Thanks for your continued support!

noreply@blogger.com (Justine Lam) — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:38:07 PDT

SUCCESS! After a very gratifying month of fundraising, our Walk on the 16th culminated in a “perfect storm” of positive energy and results. The over 60 walkers included very generous and enthusiastic friends and family with a couple of us with MS and two of The Myelin Repair Foundation’s Principle Investigators; Drs. Steve Miller and Brian Popko. If you’re going ask people to part with their hard earned money it helps to put a face on what group is going to benefit and who is actually going to do the work to achieve the desired result: Reversing the damage caused by Multiple Sclerosis and restoring function in the shortest time frame possible. Did I mention the weather was spectacular? The financial results exceeded our high expectations. We had set a goal of raising $15,000 to be match dollar for dollar by an anonymous benefactor for a total of $30,000. We are now approaching $25,000 with a match to get to $50,000. The Johnnie Walker’s previous record was $37,000. People are still donating. Even the most hardbitten among us couldn’t help but smile ear to ear, be full of hope and overwhelmed in gratitude. Record Walkers…record donations. Can’t wait until next year. THANKS!

We are the Johnnie Walkers

noreply@blogger.com (Justine Lam) — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:30:02 PDT

We are the Johnnie Walkers. This group of friends, kids, and dogs has been getting together on the first spring Sunday each year for almost 15 years to walk, donate and bar-b-que to raise awareness and funds for Multiple Sclerosis research. This started in the 90s when there were no MS therapies on the market, 5 of us walked on a cold and sleety day and raised $500. We are now 100s of members strong. There are 10 MS drugs available, it’s always sunny and warm on the day of the walk (Chicago standards) and over the years we have raised over $200,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The NMSS is a great organization that not only funds research but educates the public and medical community, advocates for disability rights to the government and provides many support services for people with MS.

This year we are turning our attention and energy to the Myelin Repair Foundation.

I’ve been working with and observing MRF for 5 years. The simple but game changing concept on conducting medical research, pioneered by founder Scott Johnson, has combined the entrepreneurial of a startup business with the power of academia to accelerate drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. In other words, have the best scientists in this field proactively collaborate with each other on a coordinated research plan within the architecture of a business that provides support structure in communication tools, advisory boards, deadlines and funding. All with keeping the focus on real people with MS and other medical challenges.

The results have been impressive. The goal was to identify and license one target (a target is a biological process that if you manipulate with a drug, a positive result happens) to a pharmaceutical company in 5 years. In actuality, 19 targets have been identified, 24 new research tools have been developed (including a mouse who glows in the dark when myelin repair happens), one patent issued with 8 pending and negotiations ongoing to license these targets. To get a quick idea of how MRF does this please watch this 7 minute video.

This is the fastest approach to repair damage caused by MS, will get us all moving again and fulfill my GMOOTS program (Get My A-- Out Of This Scooter)

So join our cast of characters in Lincolnshire, IL on Sunday, May 16th.

At 10:30 am we will start a 4 mile neighborhood walk, followed by an afternoon backyard barb-b-queue. The usual suspects will be there including our out of town swat team members from Connecticut and Cleveland (Rhode Island and Sunnyvale), our extremely loyal locals and my family who show up under duress. This year, two of our rock star scientists, Dr. Steve Miller from Northwestern and Dr. Brian Popko from the University of Chicago will be with us (as the Intel commercial says “our rock stars are not like your rock stars”). A very generous anonymous donor has generously pledged to match all of our donations one for one.

If you can’t make the Walk, join us for the bar-b-queue. If you can’t make the trip join our group by donating online or by writing a check:

The Myelin Repair Foundation
Bob Gregory Fundraiser

18809 Cox Ave, Ste 190

Saratoga, CA 95070

It’s tax deductible!

Ask your friends to join us. We can never have too many team members and we never run out of good cheer or gratitude.

Thanks,

Bob