Recently a basketball team in Virginia, the Richmond Spiders, held a charity event that raised $2,200 for the National Arthritis Foundation’s Virginia Chapter.
“The Spiders received a special waiver from the NCAA to play in the charity game against members of the Tuckahoe Middle School faculty. All proceeds for the event went to the Arthritis Foundation Virginia Chapter in honor of Dymond Carle, a Tuckahoe Middle School sixth grader who suffers from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis”(CSTV.com).
The event was so popular that people had to be turned away at the door, and the Spiders gave Dymond an autographed basketball, Spider gear and courtside seats to a game next winter.
I love hearing about fundraisers for RA. I feel like so many are out there for cancer, diabetes, boys and girls clubs, etc. And not that those other causes don’t deserve the money, but RA rarely gets attention. I feel like this is often because people confuse RA with arthritis and don’t realize that it is an autoimmune disease that needs funding for research just like diabetes. I push you all to set up a fundraiser for RA organizations such as the Arthritis Foundation!
Sorry if I am a little flakey with the posts in the next two weeks. I am on vacation and will try my best to post regularly, but it can be hard. But I’m excited. I get to go to Disneyland tomorrow!
Anyways, for today’s post, I wanted to take a more international look at RA. According to the Dubai City Guide, ENOC has recently extended its support to the Women’s Initiative for Rheumatoid Arthritis (WIRA), which is exciting since I think all RA organizations need as much support as possible! According to the article, WIRA is a campaign to raise awareness of RA:
“The campaign seeks to educate the public on the high incidence, symptoms and consequences of the disease if left untreated, as well as on the importance of early detection. Informational material and posters on rheumatoid arthritis have been made available in 30 of the busiest ENOC service stations across the UAE” (Dubai City Guide).
As many of you are probably already aware, RA affects three times as many women as men, which is probably why the campaign has a female angle. Men shouldn’t get upset, though, because anyone knowing more about RA is a good thing, and they will benefit just as much as us ladies. I just think it is great that other countries are getting the word out about RA and helping people get diagnosed earlier on so that major tissue and joint damage can be avoided. I’ve seen the effects of what untreated RA can do, and trust me, it ain’t pretty.
