“Alison’s Angels has taken on a life of its own.  It continues to grow every day,” Deanne remarks. The reason for its success? Each year, they look for new ways to expand the team’s reach in the community.

After meeting with the Whites this past year, Top Food and Drug grocery store became the newest member of Alison’s Angels. They organized storefront barbecue fund-raisers, held a two-week pin-up campaign and provided lunch for all 250 walkers.

Alison’s Angels walkers also remembered to ask donors if their companies offered matching donations. Of the team’s amazing $63,158 raised, more than $6,000 came from matching funds. The community’s generosity did not go unnoticed. “On walk day, I looked around as we were taking a team photo. There were people that I didn’t know, but there they were standing beside me,” recalls Deanne. “If there is a ‘silver lining’ to having a child with CF, it is being a part of this community we’ve come to know and love.”

Inside the lab, Vertex Pharmaceuticals is hard at work identifying possible treatments for cystic fibrosis. Outside the lab, Team Vertex is busy raising funds for the CF Foundation. Since 2000, Team Vertex has been involved in GREAT STRIDES. This past year, their focus was to increase the number of teams and walkers. They were so successful that their fund-raising increased by more than $10,000.

Vertex teams participated in walks in San Diego, Boston and Quad Cities, Iowa—and even in the UK!  San Diego team leader Karen Sylvester recruited 205 walkers and the team raised $21,402. In Boston, Carol Nicosia led a team of 128 walkers and raised $15,693. And finally, Ute Muh and her team of 12 in Iowa raised $2,075.  Thanks to Vertex for a job well done!

After being honored as one of Bluegreen's Leading Men in South Florida, Cameron Benson was motivated to get more involved with the CF Foundation. When the Foundation asked him to help launch a new walk site in Hollywood, FL Cameron stepped up to the plate and became the honorary chair for the walk.

As the city manager, he brought together some key city employees and asked them to support the walk. City of Hollywood's Director of HR Joe Roglieri followed Cameron's lead and challenged the city departments to form teams. In total the City of Hollywood formed 10 teams raising close to $12,000!

Pre-natal screening showed that Maryann and Nate's soon-to-be-born daughter had cystic fibrosis. They immediately formed the walk team "Strides for Sofia." Using the GREAT STRIDES website to do an online letter-writing campaign, they designed their homepage with a photo of Sofia's sonogram and began asking for contributions. They also engaged family and friends in fund-raising activities like a garage sale and salon party.

Nate's employer, a local top construction company, also got involved. They formed the Mascaro Construction walk team, as well as become the walk site sponsor. At the walk, Mascaro's management decided that they wanted to donate an additional $50 per walker! In total, these two teams raised more than $24,000!

Just a couple months before GREAT STRIDES, Chris and Kristen Garberg were informed that two of their three sons had cystic fibrosis. While this news was still fresh in their minds, and armed with determination, they contacted the Southern California Chapter and learned of a GREAT STRIDES walk close to their home.

Within a matter of weeks, The Garberg Force was formed. Their mission was to rid the universe of CF. They contacted their entire network—family and friends, co-workers, their sons' sports teams, and church contacts to raise support. Their team consisted of 50 walkers each setting up their own online letter-writing campaign. So far, they have raised more than $30,000! May the force be with The Garberg Force!

Rob and Marikka Ostermann instinctively understood that the more people you get involved raising money for you on your team—the bigger the impact! When they found out that Jonah, one of their twin boys was diagnosed with CF, they knew something had to be done. With an initial goal of $20,000, they knew the only way they could accomplish this was if they were able to recruit their family, friends and co-workers to join their team as fund raisers.

The Ostermanns kicked-off their fund-raising efforts by hosting an ice cream social for their team to introduce them to CF and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Their family and friends rallied behind Team Jonah and began their own on-line fundraising campaigns. With 30 fund-raising walkers all using the on line letter writing tools they raised more than $33,000! What great people power!

You never know who will give, until you find the courage to ask! As a personal trainer, Christy Scott is used to motivating clients by creating hope and opportunity. Christy witnessed the poser of the “ask” first hand when she spoke to her good friend Stuart Ray, a prominent Wichita businessman. She talked to him about CF and her sister, Marsha, who passed away in October 2002.

The tandem of Stuart Ray and Christy Scott not only elevated Marsha’s Team to new heights but the entire Wichita GREAT STRIDES community. Christy and Stuart were able to reach out to business connections all over the Southwest in a corporate letter writing campaign. An initial goal of $10,000 increased to a final tally of more than $53,000 through the power of the “ask.” Catching the fever, other team leaders began to increase their goals in response to the success of Marsha’s Team, which led the Wichita GREAT STRIDES site to surpass its overall goal by $70,000! Ask and you, too, shall receive!

When Jenny Bulach's three year old daughter was recently diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, she wanted to know what she could do to help find a cure. GREAT STRIDES was the answer!

Jenny quickly organized a team of co-workers at Duke Energy in Cincinnati, held an internal company kickoff for her team, and challenged her 61 walkers to raise dollars online. Her efforts really paid off! The Duke Energy team in their first year raised an amazing $20,190!

Janet Baker has a 6-year-old grandson with CF. She started participating in GREAT STRIDES in 2000 after Brendan was diagnosed.  This year, she decided to expand her efforts by getting her company, People's Health Network, involved and has helped turn them into the largest corporate walk team in New Orleans. In addition to recruiting fund-raising walkers, Janet and her co-workers raised money holding raffles, and doing pizza and ice cream sales. Employees also paid $5 to wear jeans to work on a Friday and a number of them also sent out online letters to solicit donations. Almost 20 people participated on the team, and the company raised more than $9,000. 

Last year Brice Fukumoto, general manager of American Airlines in San Jose, attended the 65 Roses^® Casino Royale event. At that time, he heard about GREAT STRIDES and decided to form a team. Brice went to a GREAT STRIDES kick-off party with a few of his potential teammates. At the kick off, he committed to formally putting a team together and to raising money. Brice and his team raised more than $5,000 in their first year out and are committed to doing even more in 2008! A big thanks to Brice and to the American Airlines family for making our great partnership even better!

Sharon and Jason DeLorenzo, leaders of the DeLorenzo's Dashers team continue to prove that letter-writing campaigns are the best way to raise money. They added a new twist this year—they asked their friends, family and walkers to forward the Sharon and Jason’s letter to their contacts.

By expanding the universe of those who now know the story of their daughter Sophia, son Jack and nephew Joseph, they raised $90,000 more than last year making their team total more than $210,000!

The commitment of Solvay Pharmaceuticals to the CF community goes far beyond its pancreatic enzyme CREON^®. During GREAT STRIDES season at Solvay's headquarters in Marietta, Ga. employees want to know when they can do to support the event. As a national sponsor, Solvay has been a partner of GREAT STRIDES since the walk's inception in 1989.

Today, nearly 200 employees rush to fill up the team roster each year to participate in the Zoo Atlanta walk event. Solvay's field sales reps participate in 100 local walks across the country, inviting their friends and family members to join, as well. Solvay has already contributed more than $500,000 to the Foundation this year alone, and the tens of thousands of dollars its employees raise on top of that are icing on the cake.

"Our employees are deeply devoted to the families served by the CF Foundation," explains Solvay CEO Laurence Downey, M.D. "We are honored to partner year after year with the Foundation in a joint mission to find a cure for CF, and to improve the quality of healthcare options available in the meantime."

Keri King of Las Vegas is the mom of 6-year-old Taylor who has cystic fibrosis and has been a volunteer of the Foundation since 2001. As an employee of the MGM Mirage, Keri has been successful in garnering significant sponsorship for GREAT STRIDES and her associates have joined her existing family team.

In 2007, she proposed a friendly challenge to the other big guy in town -- Harrah's. They graciously accepted the challenge and have since formed a team called "Harrah's Heroes" and set a goal of raising $1,500. Keri's "Thanks A Walk Team" has grown considerably each year and is currently Nevada's top fund-raising team!

Darrin Brooks, director of sales & marketing for RCA Championships and his co-host, Amber Cleveland of ProLiance Energy, invited several close friends from various local companies to their Indianapolis GREAT STRIDES Corporate Recruitment event. They shared the importance of funding CF research and how to get involved through GREAT STRIDES. They emphasized to those attending the need for corporate support from the local community and challenged each attendee to not only create their own corporate team, but also to help the CF Foundation by bringing in their sphere of influence and more teams from the people they know. One of those attending was Randy Henry of Duke Realty.

Randy returned to his office energized and ready to recruit. He signed up Duke Realty online and secured a pledge of $500 from his company. He is now challenging those within Duke Realty to either sign up to walk with Duke Realty or to sign up as a team leader and form their own team. For all those who sign up as new team leaders, he is entering their names into a raffle for some really great prizes. This is a great example of business leaders joining the CF fight!

Stephanie Davis knows how to make things happen!  After her daughter, Faith, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis she rallied her family to put together a team. Two years later she is the Pin-up Chair for the Sacramento (Calif.) walk. While looking for pin-up partners, she also has recruited two new corporate teams!  Blue Northern Builders, her husband and father-in-law’s company, as well as Kleindfelder’s where her father works!  Stephanie understands that it will take a whole village to cure CF and she’s getting them involved one step at a time!

After Susan Braden, a key volunteer at Wachovia, contacted Eric Lloyd, a managing director for Wachovia, about joining GREAT STRIDES, Lloyd knew he wanted to help. Already, the two were excited about helping their colleague, Peter Barry, whose son has CF. Together, they decided that getting their Wachovia colleagues involvement with GREAT STRIDES would be a rewarding experience for employees—one where teambuilding was emphasized and a friendly competition was endorsed.

Thirteen teams were created, all vying to raise the most money in three weeks. Each week the top fund-raising team for that week received a prize and the pride of winning. By the end of the first week, $14,000 was raised!! From there, the competition took on a life of its own with employees getting more and more creative in their fund-raising! From auctioning off a week at a beach house to organizing a Texas Hold ’Em night to getting both families and vendors involved! In the end, their hard work and dedication to our cause paid off and Wachovia raised $125,000!