Joanne and Machu Picchu

Despite the holiday season and the many demands on our time and budget, people are still generously making donations to The Arthritis Society. Today I am making a deposit to The Arthritis Society in the amount of $863! Thank you so much to the following people for their support: Peter and Shelley Frombach; Susan and Dan Zivec; JoAnn Buhr; Pete and Ev Peterson; Bill and Bebe Gillis; Harry Joynes; Verity Willway; Art and Marj Wakabayashi; Shirley and Larry Schneider; Kim Langston; Merlin Peterson; Ken and Joyce Ellis; Gary Thomas; Ann and Colin Nicolson; Al and Millie Dickson and Muriel Griffin. Thank you as well to Carla Lowthian, Marie Roman, Brenda Brick, Alison Deters, and Marj Farmer for purchasing Arthritis Society Christmas cards. The spirit of Christmas and giving is certainly alive and well, and it is very life affirming to be part of it. I have a most wonderful running friend who is originally from Chile. She is currently fundraising for her third Joints in Motion marathon. I was so touched (but not surprised!) to hear her recently say that the thing she likes most about Canada is that she is free to help people here. Wow - that still brings tears to my eyes! Happy New Year to you all - I wish you all a year to be grateful for!!

I realize it has been a long time since I have updated my blog, but I have been making progress. I have completed a letter writing campaign to all my previous Joints in Motion supporters as well as others who I believe may be interested in supporting The Arthritis Society. I hesitated to call upon people who so generously supported my previous fundraising efforts, but I reminded myself that The Arthritis Society is a very good cause - one that I hope many people will be happy to support again. I am also confident that people will make their own decision, and will not feel obligated to make a donation if they do not wish to do so. Within days of my first mailing I had three donations in my mailbox - the generosity of people still inspires and humbles me! Many sincere thanks to Marg and Art Reine, Pat Collins, and Edith Fowler for their generous donations to The Arthritis Society.