b"MS population. We are all independent andregional paper. Hopefully, we can speak to stubborn but sometimes we need help.more churches and other civic groups. Lastly, Thecurrent walkformatiseasyforwe can send letters to the churches to include participants and sponsors. Participants meetin their newsletters.and, after a short orientation, embark on theThe Heppner MS Walk has gone quite well one-mile walk. They can join anytime that isin the years since COVID-19. We started out convenient for them. Most people in the areasmall but are growing each year. The rst year know about the previous walks and are verywe had only a dozen or so walkers. This year, supportive.we had about 45 walkers. This group uctuated Many people know someone who battlesthroughout the morning. Some started with with MS. We try to bring people together, noteveryone, some met up along the way as the onlyforafunmorning,butalsotoraisemorning went on. Some may have just taken awarenessaboutMSbyprovidingthemthe short route to brunch. Regardless of the some facts about the disease. The Multipleroute choice, everyone had a good time. People Sclerosis Foundation is quite helpful puttingsaw friends they hadn't seen for a while, and together information about how MS is asome made new friends along the way. debilitating disease.I would like help in getting the Heppner People can see only physical side of thisMS Walk to reach more people; more social illness. It is the nonevident effects that peoplemedia posts, more ideas and help for after the don't know about such as missing words,walk, which I am hoping for results in more swallowing problems, depression, vertigo,contributions. It is difficult to do this myself, and exhaustion to name a few.as you know, warriors have limited time. Most challenging Are there others you'd like to thank?The most challenging part of hosting theIhavemanytothank.I wanttothank walk was inviting people to participate andeveryone who showed up, donated, or gave sending out Thank You notes afterward. Aencouragement. I would also like to thank friend put all the names and addresses on anMerilee McDowell for starting the Heppner MS Excel spreadsheet so this process should beWalk 27 years ago. Others Id like to specically less time-consuming next year.call out who helped this year include Bucknam's The other part of getting the word out wasTavern for brunch and a nice place to cool down, fun. There were notices for the Heppner MSSteve and Tia Egbers for displaying information Walk on social media and three stories forand 'swag,' Dale Bales for the photography, the local paper, including an article thankingand Dan for being the rescue driver for the the community on the success of the walk people who were unable to nish the walk.with pictures of participants and events.If you live in a small, rural area, you can I spoke of the walk and the disease at themake a difference. $5,000 was collected from weekly senior lunch, a couple of churches,this small population, which is amazing! This and at city council meetings in the area. Duringmay be a small walk but it made a difference the last month before the walk, I wore an MSin many lives. t-shirt everyday as a reminder to people.I don't host the Heppner MS Walk for myself. Advice to others When a cure is discovered, I might be too old for Next year I hope to make more contactsit to do me any good. I host this walk for younger and use more volunteers. The article for thepeople with MS. Warriors need hope that there local newspaper will also be sent to themay be something to make their lives easier. 45 msfocusmagazine.org"