Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Meadowlark Parkinson's Program on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 236
Meadowlark's Parkinson's Program provides free education, exercise, and support services to anyone affected by Parkinson's disease throughout the Flint Hills region. The program helps combat the depression, anxiety, and apathy often associated with Parkinson's while providing crucial exercise opportunities that are proven to slow disease progression.
• Boxing therapy shows immediate results with participants taking larger steps by mid-class
• Virtual and hybrid formats connect participants from as far as Indiana and Kansas City
• The 17th annual Speedy PD race aims to reach 1,000 participants this year
• Race features a half-mile memorial walk/run, 5K, and 10K events starting at 8:00 am
• Special recognition for VIPDs (Very Important People with Parkinson's Disease)
• Post-race celebration includes food, drinks, and activities - "a party with a purpose"
• K-State's Ireland game has sparked international connections with Dublin Parkinson's organizations
• Coach Kleiman and wife Rhonda support the program through their personal connection to Parkinson's
Register now at runspeedypd.org, in person at Meadowlark, or at the event on Saturday, August 23rd at Tuttle Creek State Park.
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on NewsRadio KMAN. We are back with the GMCF Community Hour and we are going to get caught up today with Michelle Hobb. Michelle is for our English-speaking friends, let's say that again. Michelle is with Metal Ark and today we're going to talk specifically about the Parkinson's program. But you're the special programs leader and it's always a delight to have you in the studio because you always bring a smile and good things to talk about that are happening at Metal Ark and there's a lot of good things.
Speaker 2:Yes, there are. Thank you for having me, and likewise, it's always good to see you as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there are. Thank you for having me, and likewise it's always good to see you as well. Yeah, yeah, I'd rather be seen than viewed. Yes, agreed, so it's always nice to be seen. But we've got you know, your big annual event, the Speedy PD race, is coming up and I know we want to talk about that. But you might visit with us a little bit about what the Parkinson's program is and what you do at Meadowlark.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely so. The Parkinson's program provides free education, exercise, outreach and activities just to bring people together that are affected by Parkinson's. So it's not just for people that live on the Meadowlark campus. It's open to anyone throughout the Flint Hills region and everything is free. That's why we do this big race, so we can keep all of our services free.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things I think that surprises maybe a lot of people that this is not limited to your residents. I mean you do have a number of residents there that are dealing with Parkinson's. Sure, sure, I mean you do have a number of residents there that are dealing with Parkinson's. Sure sure, and the opportunity for others who are, you know, regardless of what their stage is and where they are in their Parkinson's journey, mm-hmm, that's got to be just highly impactful for them.
Speaker 2:Yes, it really is. You know, parkinson's tends to cause some depression and anxiety and apathy because of the chemical changes within the brain and when you are dealing with those things, it's really hard to get out and make yourself want to be involved and to do exercise, which we know right now is the only thing that is proven to slow the progression of Parkinson's. So when you're having those emotions and those feelings that make you want to stay home and not do things, when you know that you have a community that supports you and provides everything that you need from learning about nutrition to sleep, to personal relationships, to voice exercises All of those things are there at your fingertips. You just open the door and there we are for you.
Speaker 1:I think one of the neat types of and maybe we should just call it therapies is boxing yes when you can. I suppose that it's great that you could take out your, your frustrations of what your condition is and what you're dealing with on a bag. But but how so effective it is for you know for that, you know for for for them to help deal with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Um. So I'm fortunate enough to be one of our certified coaches and it is truly one of my highlights just to see people you know that they may walk into class and they're taking these tiny little shuffling steps and midway through the class they're taking bigger steps. They're not shuffling, they're not squeaking on the floor. The exercise is truly transforming and also, like I said, that engagement that they have with their peers there is. It's really powerful to see them cheer each other on and have a little bit of good competition, if you will, as well.
Speaker 1:That social aspect is so good on anything especially as we age. And you know there's been. You know, see, clyde Jones would say this you know, having that social life continuing is highly impactful as you get older.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and giving you that sense of accomplishment, you know, when you think about the fact that. You know. Well, I have this progressive degenerative disorder. I should just be getting worse. And what's the point? Well, come and hang out with us in the Metal Parkinsons program and you'll figure out why you should be getting to doing things, because there is a point. There's so much more life to lead. It's not a death sentence.
Speaker 1:You're in your 17th year of Speedy PD, yes, which is a great event, and I know you get a tremendous amount of turnout for this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And always hoping for more because the need is greater.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So when is it?
Speaker 2:the need is greater. Yes, yes. So then, is it? So yeah, so we're right now sitting at about 915 people that are registered. So, yeah, this is our biggest. This is definitely going to be our biggest year. Last year we capped out at 936. So our goal for a couple of years has been a thousand participants and by golly I think this is going to be it. So it's super exciting the amount of support that the community and even people throughout the Flint Hills region and beyond. You know we even have sponsors from the Kansas city area. You know like that's pretty prolific to be able to get that type of support for our folks here in Manhattan from Kansas city.
Speaker 1:Do you have people that come use the Parkinson's program from outside of Manhattan Riley County area?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and one of the reasons for that is because when COVID came, we started, everything we did in a hybrid or in a virtual format, and since then we've continued to maintain a hybrid format. So we have a gentleman that participates in one of our memory classes from Indiana. We've got a couple of people from Kansas City that zoom in for boxing class. We even now have a new relationship. Well, it's new from a boxing perspective, but in Hays, kansas, we have a group of people that gather monthly and they zoom into our monthly education meeting and now we've got a couple of folks that are doing the boxing class virtually with us because there's so many people that don't have access to the support they need, and Metalark Parkinson's program is lucky enough to be able to be that resource.
Speaker 1:What a great attribute.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, a great way to say, hey, we got this feather in our cap. We're serving so many people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you're at nine. How many 919? About 915.
Speaker 2:I think when I walked out last yeah.
Speaker 1:When is it?
Speaker 2:It's Saturday, august the 23rd, at Tuttle Creek State Park. That's this weekend. It's this weekend, I know. Thanks for the reminder If you couldn't see the stress lines.
Speaker 1:Thanks for the reminder If you couldn't see the stress lines on my face.
Speaker 2:So, no, it really is. It's a great opportunity to come out to Tuttle Creek. The weather forecast is looking nice. It's going to be a little bit cooler, but it doesn't even really matter because there's so much joy. We really highlight our people with Parkinson's, our VIPDs very important people with Parkinson's disease. They sing the national anthem at about 745 in the morning. Then we have team announcements, which this is also our largest year for teams. We're at about 45 teams that have registered for our event this year, and then the half mile memorial walk or run starts at eight o'clock. Um, great time to come out and see all of our VIPDs. We have a lot of them that are participating in that half mile. And then the 5k and 10k start at 830. Um, and we have several of our VIPDs that are walking or running in that 5k as well. Um, so it's super wonderful. The post-race party is something that we've always been well known for and we're going to continue to knock people's socks off with that. We're kind of like a little Dublin.
Speaker 1:K-State pregame. You'll be done before kickoff.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. You can come and you get your exercise in and you can have your little tailgate party with us. We're going to have sandwiches from Hy-Vee, smoothie, king, fruit from A&H, we've got Pepsi, we've got Budweiser beer, we've got chocolate milk, I mean, we've got cookies. There's pretty much everything you need.
Speaker 1:It is a party with a purpose, party with a purpose for Parkinson's yes, something like that, yes, and even face painting and photos. Really.
Speaker 2:I mean we've got you covered, so there's no excuse to not come out and have a blast.
Speaker 1:So we can still get signed up.
Speaker 2:You can still register Absolutely Even the day of. So you can register online now still, or you can come to MetalArk and register. You can also that registration is runspeedypdorg. And then on Friday you can come to the Holiday Inn campus between 4.30 and 7 and either pick up your packet or register there, and then Saturday come on out as early as 6.30 to title and we'll get you registered.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we talked a little bit about the game in Ireland. How has that impacted your efforts and what kind of connections are you utilizing for people to you know advance your cause?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, when the game was announced at first, we were really nervous, like, oh gosh, what are we going to do? We're going to lose so many folks by not being able to travel. But this has really been an amazing opportunity for us to increase the awareness and education for people with Parkinson's. Increase the awareness and education for people with Parkinson's. We have reached out to the Dublin Parkinson's community. So Eugene DeDonder is a gentleman with Parkinson's and he's one heck of an advocate and he made contact with people with Parkinson's Ireland Dublin branch. And then I had a contact with a gentleman from Parkinson's Europe and so we have had a couple of meetings and we are really forging forth with making this opportunity of the K-State football game to be an international venue.
Speaker 2:Basically, for raising awareness for Parkinson's.
Speaker 1:Now did you change the shirts to green? Oh my gosh, they're so cool.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir. So the participant shirts this year are green, but it's an homage to Ireland. It's got the little hat, he's got a little shamrock on his shirt, our little PD runner guy. But then our VIPDs their shirts are purple, so that way that helps to distinguish them. Yeah, so awesome. And we're also so grateful to Coach Kleiman and his wife Rhonda. They've been really big supporters of ours and you know they're just a big part of allowing this to happen. As far as making more connections, because Rhonda's dad has Parkinson's, she did an interview with D Scott Fritchin and that helps again, you know just anywhere that we can get the word out that Parkinson's is something, that it's not an easy disease but you can live well with the disease for a long time. And now we're being able to make that Manhattan, Kansas, Dublin, Ireland connection and we're hoping it's going to be like the future, you know, fun little sister city for Parkinson's relationships.
Speaker 1:What's the website again?
Speaker 2:wwwrunspeedypdorg.
Speaker 1:Easy to do. Good luck on Saturday.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Have you looked at?
Speaker 1:the forecast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really not looking too shabby.
Speaker 1:As long as it's not 100, I'm all good 87, with mostly sunny, but you'll be done way before that.
Speaker 2:We'll be done way before kickoff. We'll be done before kickoff.
Speaker 1:Unless you expect me to run the 10K Nobody's done. No, we're going to just keep it, we're going to just keep it.
Speaker 2:Get your run on, get your pregame food and then go home, shower and plop yourself in front of the TV for the kickoff. You'll covered. I think so. Yeah, just want to thank you guys for your support and we hope to see many, many people out there for the Speedy Petey on Saturday, august 23rd at Tattle Creek State Park.
Speaker 1:Michelle Hobb with Metal Ark. Always a delight to have in, and for a very good cause, as we continue to assist with the promotion of the Metal Ark Parkinson's program in the Speedy Petey race, assist with the promotion of the Meadowlark-Parkinson's program in this BDPD race. Sunflower Children's Collective, carson Cobers, going to be joining us along with Jennifer Anguano, and we'll talk about some new training opportunities that they have and we'll learn a little bit more about their operation because they've had a lot of significant changes over the last three or four years. So that's our next segment on the GMCF Community Hour, which we do every Monday morning at 10 here on News Radio KMAN, brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. You can always find out more about the foundation's work at mcfksorg.