The Walk

The Walk for Pulmonary Fibrosis that I've been writing about all week is now over. We enjoyed a beautiful, cool Mission Viejo Sunday morning as we took the 3.2 mile hike on the streets around Lake Mission Viejo. Here are some photos from the day:

Liz, daughter of Ed Kahout, the man for whom this walk is named and who passed away on this day in 2006, signs in the walkers at the registration table. Various stores had donated water, bagels and coffee for the walkers. Altogether there were a little more than 100 participants.

The missus and I doing our pre-walk warm-up - holding up a tree.

We had seven participants in the walk. My wife and I, my sister and her husband and two girls, and my mom.

Mom is greeted by Bette Kahout, Ed's wife. Unfortunately, they both share the experience of losing a husband to this terrible disease.

Liz and her daughter give words of encouragement and thanks, and some last minute instructions to the walkers.

The walk is underway as we head down Olympiad from the park.

Mom couldn't walk the 3.2 miles so she took her scooter, accompanied by granddaughter Hannah. I had my doubts the battery would hold up for that long of a trip, up and down hills, but it made it with power to spare. I had concerns that we would end up leaving Mom somewhere along the route until we could get the car back there to pick her up.

At the one mile mark we came alongside Lake Mission Viejo. The sun started to break out of the clouds and the day began to warm up.
A couple of fisherman pretty much had the lake to themselves.

Near the 2 mile mark we're heading up Marguerite Parkway. After a nice long downhill start to the walk it was time to start climbing again.

Near the 3 mile mark, and right before we got back to the park, we passed Orange County Fire Authority Station 31. The firefighters and paramedics from this station responded twice to help my dad during his final weeks. The first was on August 14th when he blacked out during a coughing spell and fell, hitting his head and opening a bad cut. He spent a week in the hospital after that and came home in a much weaker condition.

The second time was September 17th, the day he left home for the last time. He passed away just five days later. We're fortunate to live in an area served by such a highly professional and well-trained agency like the OCFA.

I have to offer special thanks to those of you who contributed to the fundraiser. Altogether nearly $10,000 was raised for research into pulmonary fibrosis, a disease which needs far more support. It kills as many people each year as breast cancer, but isn't one of those politically correct diseases that get all the research support. Unlike breast cancer, there are no survivors of this disease walking around.

And thanks to you donations, it turned out that I was the top fundraiser for this event (outside of the host family) and ended up being awarded a couple of very nice prizes. That was a pleasant surprise since I didn't even know there were awards for the top 3 fundraisers. Thank you very much. (And thanks for the $125 in donations that showed up after the Walk.) You can still donate using the widget below:

We hope to be involved with this organization even more in the future as other events take place. For the first time out, I think this turned out very well and hopefully more people will be involved next time.