Friday, February 18, 2011

14 Strong & Growing!

With the completion of the first team week upon us, CraniuMS welcomes four new members for Walk MS Grand Rapids 2011! Lets give a big CraniuMS clap to our newest members who have joined the movement this week!
In only our second week of fundraising we have raised $850! With new members joining everyday we are well on our way to meeting our goal this year.
Keep up the great work!
Captain Crunch

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

It's Team Week!

Did you know that this week is Walk MS Team Week? That's right! This year CraniuMS is placing a huge emphasis on recruiting more members to join our movement. The Michigan Chapter team that recruits the most participants from Monday, February 14 - Friday, February 18 at 11:59 pm will win a $100 VISA gift card!!!! That is $100 to donate to our team just by simply joining for free!

Today's special team challenge will enter us into a drawing to win a MS Awareness Kit! For every TWO members that join CraniuMS by 11:59pm our team gets entered into the drawing to win this great fundraising kit for each member of our team. Participants that have already registered prior to today are automatically eligible. That means that CraniuMS has five chances to win so far!!!!!


Today's CraniuMS clap goes out to Lisa Slagter! Congratulations to Lisa for joining the movement and becoming a team member of CraniuMS! If you would like to join CraniuMS CLICK HERE and follow the simple registration process.

Lastly, lets wish CraniuMS member Megan Heuer a HaPpY bIrThDaY!!
Captain Crunch

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

Did you know that the phrase "Wearing your heart on your sleeve" dates back to the Middle Ages? Young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their Valentine would be. They then wore these names on their sleeves for one week. CraniuMS wears our hearts on our sleeves every day in support of Multiple Sclerosis!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Love,
Captain Crunch

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Grand Rapids 2011

Walk MS is our rallying point, a time and a place for us to stand together and to be together — to help raise critical funds that support cutting edge research, drive change through advocacy, facilitate professional education and provide programs and services to help people with MS move their lives forward. Join the Walk MS movement!

CraniuMS is on the move to Michigan on Saturday, May 21, 2011! Plans are underway to make this year’s event a great day of fun and festivities in support of those living with multiple sclerosis, their families, and caregivers. Already in our first week of campaigning we have topped the leader board as #1 team and raised $550 of our $15,000 goal!

Lets give our first CraniuMS clap of the year and welcome those who have joined the movement for CraniuMS Walk MS Grand Rapids 2011!

If you would like to join our team click here and follow the simple registration process. We are starting out by recruiting as many people as we can! Once you have joined the movement start fundraising and recruiting yourself. Individually we are one drop, but together we are an ocean!

It's good to be back!

Captain Crunch

Saturday, February 5, 2011

READY.SET.GO!!!!

Walk MS 2011 is underway and CraniuMS is going to move it bigger and better than ever before! Stay tuned for details!

View this years CraniuMS fundraising page at http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/craniums2011

Monday, August 2, 2010

What's New?

Earlier this week i read a saying, "You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result." It made me think of CraniuMS and all of those out there who have chosen to take action. There has been some exciting recent developments in research for MS, all of which would not be possible without the funds we work hard to raise for the National MS Society. I thought i would share some of the most promising results of our efforts!


So what's new?
  • Two experimental oral treatments for relapsing-remitting MS, which have been shown to significantly reduce relapse rates in clinical trials, are nearing market approval. If approved, cladribine and fingolimod could become the first-ever oral treatments for people with MS.
  • The FDA approved Ampyra, a new oral drug to improve walking in people with all types of MS. Ampyra is the first drug ever approved specifically to treat an MS symptom.
    Thanks to the efforts of MS activists, an additional $5 million was set aside for MS research out of the 2009 Department of Defense budget.

  • Scientists studied abnormalities of blood outflow from the brain to the heart and found many people with MS had significant evidence of slowed or obstructed blood drainage. This could mean abnormal blood flow may actually set off an immune response consistent with MS.

What's new with you?

Captain Crunch

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Penny Wars for MS

The children of today are our future for tomorrow. Two of CraniuMS very own members, Bridget Heuer and Stacy Geyer, have used their teaching skills to educate their students on Multiple Sclerosis and ignited a passion inside each and every one of them. The efforts of these children was amazing, and our little community was able to raise $1744.82 for the National MS Society! And what is even more amazing is that one of these children could grow up to be the person who will cure MS. Inspiration has no age limit, and below is a story written by Bridget Heuer and Stacy Geyer which was published in the Drummond Island Digest!

Starting Tuesday, April 6, and concluding Thursday, April 22, the students of Drummond Island Elementary and DeTour School K-12 school participated in the 2010 Penny Wars. The Penny Wars was a fundraiser to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The way it worked was like this: the winner was determined by a points based scoring system. It all depends on what coins are put into each jar! Pennies and Bills= Positive points while all silver = Negative points. Participating in the penny wars allowed our schools to help raise critical funds that support cutting edge research, facilitate professional educations and provide programs and services to help people with MS move their lives forward and help to create a world free of MS. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), which is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild or severe. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another. Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by the disease. We walk to make our steps the steps that bring us one step closer to finding a cure! Two teachers from DeTour Area Schools, Bridget Heuer and Stacy Geyer, drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota to participate in the MS Walk 2010: Minnesota, Twin Cities May 2, 2010, with their team CraniuMS.


The Drummond students started off with a bang and in just the first day raised $69.44. The competition was intense with Mrs. Geyer's 1/2 and Mrs Plowman's 5/6 battling it out throughout the week but on the last day is when it all mattered and that is when Mrs. Moser's Kindergarten overtook them all and ended up winning the war. Not to leave out Mrs. Newell's class who also contributed a tremendous amount of money as well. After all of the money was counted, (thank you Mrs. Newell, Mrs. Moser, James Geyer, and Jerry Newell for all of your help and for the ladies at Central Savings Bank for taking it all) the total amount of money raised by the K-6 on Drummond Island was $931.59.

The Kindergarten class was given their choice of a pizza arty or an ice cream party and they decided to go with the ice cream party and they will be enjoying that soon. Because of their hard work and the IMPRESSIVE amount of support and money raised the whole school was given an ice cream social.

DeTour K-12 competed in this friendly and simple competition between classrooms that made a HUGE difference. The winner was determined by a points-based scoring system. The first place winner for DeTour Elementary was 4/5 beating K-1 by only 1 penny! The 4/5 class decided to share their ice cream party with the whole elementary because EVERYONE did such a great job. The Middle school competed against the High School and the High School pooled together all of their bills on the last day to win against the Middle School. The total amount of money raised from DeTour K-12 was $813.23! A small school with HUGE HEARTS! The whole school enjoyed popsicles to celebrate their kindness and generosity!

During the fundraiser we were touched by the students who were discussing MS, what it was and how it has affected some of their lives. You could hear students discussing on their own someone in their family who had it or someone they knew who had it and how they were raising money for them, not for the party. Sometimes we just don't give enough credit to the young people in our lives and to the compassion and understanding that they have. We are blessed and proud to be a part of this community and school. Thank you to the students, parents, community members and teachers who donated to this cause.