Community Corner

Poway Gives Back: Local Parkinson's Patients to Climb Mt. Everest

Flu shots, backyard produce and the annual Poway Days Parade are among the ways for our community to give back over the next month.

By Bill Stoudenmire

For the 1.5 million Americans living with Parkinson's Disease, finding a cure has been a hurdle as big as climbing a mountain. 

That's why 10 local Parkinson's patients, family and friends will depart from San Diego to Nepal on October 9 to begin a 3-week trek to the south base camp of Mt. Everest, altitude 17,589 feet, to raise awareness, hope and funds for a unique study to make suffering from this disease a thing of the past. Hikers will pay their own expenses of about $6,000 each. Two Poway residents, Cassandra Peters and Michael Radunsky, have Parkinson's and are subjects of this study.

 

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The trek was organized by Sherrie Gould, nurse practitioner at Scripps Clinic Movement Disorders Center and spokesperson for Summit4StemCell, the charitable foundation dedicated to funding the research. Researchers can now turn skin cells from a patient's own skin into induced pluripotent stem cells, abandoning the use of controversial embryonic stem cells, to put a patient's life back on course. 

A climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2011 raised $350,000 for the research. You can help move mountains with a donation, big or small, to www.summit4stemcell.org.

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ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES

 

A flu shot clinic is planned by the Health and Wellness Ministry of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church from 9:00 a.m. to noon on Sunday, September 8 in the parish hall, located at 16275 Pomerado Rd. The cost is $20. Medicare patients should bring their insurance and Medicare cards. Get your flu shot now and beat the rush. For more information call the church at 858-487-2459.

 

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

 

The Backyard Produce Project is ready to collect your ripe and unwanted fruits and vegetables to feed your neighbors in need this Thursday, August 22, between 8:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.  Bring them to Seven Oaks Community Center, 16789 Bernardo Oaks Drive in Rancho Bernardo and The Connection Church, 14047 Twin Peaks Road in Poway. Your bounty will then be distrbuted by the Friends and Family Community Connection. Don't have time to harvest yourself? Call Jane Radatz at 858-485-5449.

 

I LOVE A FIT POWAY!

 

That's the theme of the 49th annual Poway Days Parade, presented by the Rotary Club of Poway-Scripps and its Foundation on Saturday, September 7. The parade starts at 9:00 a.m., and is preceded at 7:00 a.m. by a 5K Fun Run and 1-mile Walk in the Park. In addition, the Poway Kiwanis Club is putting on a pancake breakfast at 7:00 a.m. in the area near the race starting line.

 

The parade and run are coming together nicely thanks to Pauline Getz and her enthusiastic committee. We are close to reaching our fund-raising goal thanks to generous contributions of $1,000 or more from Walmart store 1700, Live Right Wellness Centers, Sheldon Site Utilities, Toyota of Poway, Firstat Nursing Services, Liquid Design/Blanca Fisher and Edward Jones Investments/Mark S. Wozmak, CFP. Individual sponsors of $500 or more have come from Janet DiPrinzio, Mary Karscig and the Mickey Cafagna Family. Register a float, or for the 5K, donate and volunteer at www.powayparade.org and visit our Facebook page. See you on the 7th!




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