MENTONE – For the Second Annual Walk for Lupus, organizer Mikayla Wireman hopes they can get more participants and raise more money than in 2010.
“This year, more people know about it so hopefully (we’ll do better),” she said.
Last year, there were about 70 walkers and $1,500 was raised to help fight lupus.
According to Wireman, a senior at Tippecanoe Valley High School, the Walk for Lupus this year is scheduled for Oct. 22. Registration is at 10 a.m., with the walk at 11 a.m., rain or shine. People can register at the walk.
“We’re hoping to have a grant from Walmart to buy tents,” Wireman said. “We got offered one last year and we are following up this year.”
T-shirts are $10, and bracelets are $2.
The walk begins at the Bell Memorial Public Library in Mentone, heads down to the park and back to the library. Wireman said the walk is less than a mile.
The walk started last year in honor of Amy Reed, Wireman’s friend’s mother, who has lupus.
“More people in our community have it than people know,” Wireman said. “I know a girl at school has it. It’s not highly talked about.”
According to the Lupus Foundation of America, “Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). Chronic means that the signs and symptoms tend to last longer than six weeks and often for many years. In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria and germs. Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain and damage in various parts of the body.”
People also can make donations for the walk at TVHS, or at donation boxes across the Tippecanoe Valley community. Boxes are located at Good To Go Mini Mart, Akron; Viking Foods, Akron; Mentone gas station; Java Jacks, Mentone; and Allen’s Country Market, Mentone.
Wireman said she’d like to collect at least $2,000 during this year’s event to help fight lupus.
Next year, Wireman wants the walk to continue even though she will be in college, perhaps Grace College. She hopes she won’t have to be the sole organizer next year.
For more information about lupus, visit the Lupus Foundation of America website at www.lupus.org
