I Would Run 100 Miles…. for Myelin Repair

One man did and he crossed the finish line on his last race recently.

Dennis Smith’s life was affected by multiple sclerosis early on.  His father was diagnosed with MS in 1967, before Dennis was born, and spent much of his time in an assisted living facility while Dennis was growing up. Sadly, Dennis watched the progression of MS ravage both his father’s mind and body.

For Dennis, growing up with a sick parent taught him some important life lessons:

- Live in the moment – not to be confused with ‘living for the moment’ which is having a disregard for consequences against immediate satisfaction. He tries to live in the moment knowing that his world could change overnight, as his father’s did at age 26 when we has diagnosed with MS.

- Take advantage of what you can do to be healthy and stay healthy. Certainly there are factors outside of our control, but be pro-active and managing your health is something you can do. Dennis does it to ensure that he is around for his children, both now and later.

His father passed away in 2005 due to various health complications. Afterwards, Dennis searched for a way to contribute to the current and future state of drug development for MS.  Like many people looking to get involved with MS research, he first volunteered with the major MS nonprofit organizations for years. However, he often found the volunteer opportunities too uncertain or not the best use of his abilities.

In 2008, he came across an article in The New Yorker (“Buying a Cure,” January 2008) about the Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF)’s mission and innovation in the medical research/discovery field.  Finally, he found an organization that was taking an innovative approach to make this happen.

At first Dennis got involved with MRF on the R&D side, working with Jay Tung on finding technological tools to help our scientists more easily share research and data.

This summer, Dennis told me about his desire to raise more awareness and funds for the MRF – to become an MRF Evangelist. We were, of course, happy to help him become our Evangelist.

Dennis had the idea of combining his personal interest in distance running with his volunteering. So, he just “ran” (pun intended) with the idea and decided to run three marathon events in September, October and November to raise money (Goal: $3,000) and awareness through his participation. The marathons he ran were:

• Akron Marathon (26.2 miles) in September
• Baltimore Marathon (26.2 miles) in October
• JFK Ultramarathon (50 miles) in November

Next, Dennis asked friends and family to support the Myelin Repair Foundation. It helped that he was running 2 marathons and 1 ultramarathon. This showed his personal commitment to the MRF and made it a more tangible ask.

He finished his last race recently, and as of today he has raised $1935 for the Myelin Repair Foundation. Every dollar that he raised was matched; his impact is actually $3870.  You can help him reach his goal of raising $3,000 and donate on Dennis’ Blog “Doing What I Can”.

Becoming an MRF Evangelist has led to unexpected connections for Dennis. Through the use of  Facebook Dennis found out that two of his friends were both recently diagnosed with MS. He is among a small group that knows of their condition and he hopes that he can provide comfort to his friends and be a person to turn to for discussion, venting or sharing of thoughts. Although he doesn’t have MS, he can personally relate to the impact the disease has on families. Finding out these additional MS connections, provided Dennis with even more drive and desire to bring myelin repair treatments more quickly to his friends with MS.

Nothing can stop Dennis, sure he’s toning down his workouts a bit, but he is still planning on doing another a marathon in February and a 50K race in March 2010. Throughout the spring/summer he will race shorter distances but in the fall he will run at least two more marathons. His fundraisers for MRF look like they’ll be an annual event tied to his fall marathons.

Making a Bigger Impact

Dennis learned that it takes a lot of time and persistence to be an MRF Evangelist.  People’s attention is in huge demand. The key for him was in being persistent in approaching people and being ready to provide an MRF 30-sec. elevator speech in order to capitalize on opportunities. He says, “You never know when you might run into someone who is interested, has a connection to MS or is just looking for a good cause to support.”

Persistence is also required in providing updates on race progress, notable interactions, and MRF updates. He realizes that sharing those stories help to reach more people and provide his supporters with information that they can share or spread.

Dennis also found at his races that most people are open about hearing about the MRF especially when prompted by a cool t-shirt. During all 3 events people asked him about his homemade MRF shirt, what myelin was and why he was raising money. This happened during the race itself and provided a great opportunity to talk to a captive audience.

In the future, he will create business cards with MRF’s name, link, email address and bulleted list of accomplishments, ‘why donate’ info and he will hand it out to anyone who might listen for a moment.

Thank you so much Dennis Smith for crossing the finish line for the MRF and continuing to be our Evangelist. You are one of the many reasons the MRF can boast much success in such a short period of time.

How Can I Run a Fundraiser for the MRF?

If you are looking to run a fundraiser like Dennis’s with your own personal network, we recommend opening up an account on Chip-In (www.chipin.com) at no cost and having the donations directed to donate@myelinrepair.org

With regards to using Chipin, Dennis says, “It was a very easy way to facilitate donations to MRF. For me it worked very well to have one spot for people to donate via credit card or paypal and immediately show progress against goal.”

Note a few limitations with Chip-In, not being able to end the end date and also edit the info displayed on the Chipin. If you are gathering money from individuals via check you can’t show that in the total gathered on the Chipin. The Chipin only shows what was donated, by credit card or paypal, directly through the Chipin widget.

Do you have ideas on how to  help to get out the word about the Myelin Repair Foundation?  Please write your suggestions below in the comment section. Be an MRF Evangelist like Dennis!

Tags: assisted living facility, columbia, dennis o. smith, dennis smith, finish line, Marathon, md, ms run, multiple sclerosis, myelin repair foundation, ultra marathon, Ultramarathon

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 9:30 am and is filed under Fundraising, Interviews, Stories, Take Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.