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Physically Oriented Programming Thanks to Fundraising Collaboration with Ecofitness

On May 3rd, DSAL partnered with Eco Fitness to hold the 2nd annual Ride for Kids. The event was a huge success and over $15,000 was raised! This money will help pay for upcoming athletic camps and programs, including our first ever Climbing Camp August 11 to 15th at James Island CP!

A huge thank you to our sponsors: Earthfare, Sweetgrass Cycles, The Bicycle Shoppe, Mike's Bikes, The Sprout, Lowcountry Plastic Surgery Center, Hauck Realty, Try Sports, Lowcountry Beauty and Wellness, Jenn Cady Photography, Vanity Salon, Southern Bling, Andrew Peterson. Also, we want to thank our volunteers from DSAL: Michelle Annibale, Grant Baker, James Bethea, Katie Beck, George Ramsey, Eddie Gregory, Hope Banks, Frankie Antonelli and Robert Smith. Our volunteers helped with the raffle, distributed water and fruit, biked and did an awesome job (working the crowd or cheering on our riders).

Of course, this fundraiser would not be possible without the support and real passion for special people from the staff and members of Eco Fitness. A special thank you to Grace Ayers, Laura Gauntlett, Kyle Radaker, Catherine Vaughn, Lois Newberry, and Daryl Payton! Julia Slattery and I always look forward to our planning meetings with the Eco team and recognize how fortunate this partnership is for our organization and the special needs community here in the Lowocountry.

The program in only its second full year has already raised over a quarter of a million dollars for cognitive research being conducted at institutions like Johns Hopkins, Stanford and UCSD, and it is growing. Interest and participation across the country is helping RDS re-state public support for research that has the potential to develop therapies that will assist memory and learning in persons with Ds, and perhaps offset the increased likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease.

For more information, see their website- http://www.researchds.org/

RDS runners has some teams for specific marathons, but people (like me) can elect to run a marathon--or half, in this case--and fundraise through crowdrise.com. I would like to invite anyone else in DSAL to do this with me for the Charleston whole or half! It's easy. See http://www.researchds.org/rds-runners/. You can make your own fundraising page and run (it would be fun to train together!) or contribute to mine: http://www.crowdrise.com/FoolsforJules/fundraiser/kathyrogers1.

Please feel free to email me at beresrogers@gmail.com with any questions, or if you'd like to run together!!

Best,
Kathy Rogers