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.

Over the past three years, as the City Manager, he has continuously brought together key city employees to support the walk. For example, City of Hollywood's Human resources Manager, Joe Roglieri, challenges the city departments to form teams and compete against each other to see what department can raise the most amount of money.

In total, the City of Hollywood has formed 20 teams and raised more than $18,000!

Erica and Aaron Bryant did not waste a moment when they learned their son Samuel had cystic fibrosis — they immediately started raising money for GREAT STRIDES. In their first year, team “Striders for Samuel” raised more than $7,000 by reaching out to family and friends. The next year, Erica and Aaron asked four of their best team fundraisers to form new branches of the team.

In 2008, the five teams raised more than $13,000! The success of branching out the “Striders for Samuel” team was so overwhelming that four additional branches were formed for 2009. Each of the team leaders set a personal fundraising goal for their branch, and the end result was nearly $18,000 was raised! Kudos to Erica, Aaron, and all the "Striders for Samuel!"

When Jenny Bulach's two-year-old daughter was 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 raised an amazing $20,190 in its first year!

But Jenny didn’t stop there. Jenny has continued to inspire her co-workers and, last year, she recruited 11 Duke Energy Cincinnati teams that raised more than $55,000. Moving forward Jenny’s goal is to help build Duke Energy teams across the country and raise more than $100,000!

When Amy Paule found out she was pregnant with her first child, Maddie, in 2003, she joined an online discussion board of first-time moms called “January Joys.” As their sons and daughters were born, the moms exchanged photos and stories from the frontlines of parenting.

“We shared everything our babies did — including when our kids would spit up and if they were colicky,” Amy says. “What I didn’t expect to share was the news that my daughters had cystic fibrosis.”

Soon after Maddie’s diagnosis, Amy and her family began fundraising for GREAT STRIDES, and the "January Joys" immediately stepped forward to help find a cure. Their support was only fortified when Maddie’s sister, Gracie, was diagnosed three years later.

As team leader for the "Miles for Maddie and Gracie" walk team, Amy Paule is a powerhouse and has inspired additional "Miles for Maddie and Gracie" teams to branch out and form in Tennessee, Colorado, Hawaii, California, Alabama, Texas and Ohio. Each team annually raises thousands of dollars for GREAT STRIDES.

The January Joys discussion group of about 25 women keeps in touch online and by phone and depending on location, in person. Most important, the Paules have grown a network of love and support for their girls, Maddie, now 5, and Gracie, 2.

“Greg and I want to teach Maddie and Gracie everything we can about CF so they can be as healthy as possible, but we also want them to know they have a crowd of friends and family to look out for them,” Amy says. “It’s the greatest feeling to have so many people behind our family — on GREAT STRIDES walk day and every day.”

“'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 fundraisers, 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 fundraising 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!

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 Web site 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 fundraising 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" team 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 fundraisers.

The Ostermanns kicked-off their fundraising 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 online fundraising campaigns.

With 30 fundraising walkers all using the online letter-writing tools they raised more than $33,000! What great people power!

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 fundraising 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!

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 fundraising team!

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 team-building 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 fundraising! 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!