On Sunday, Dec. 13, Bothell Firefighter Adam Lamb will trade in his fireman boots for jingle bells on his running shoes as he laces up for the 2009 Jingle Bell Run & Walk benefiting the Arthritis Foundation. The annual Seattle run is celebrating 25 years of community involvement and fundraising for the 2.2 million people in the Pacific Northwest living with arthritis.
The fundraising efforts enables the Arthritis Foundation to support research, provide programs, promote advocacy efforts, and host summer camps for children with arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation is the largest private health organization dedicated to arthritis research.
The local chapter of the Arthritis Foundation has a goal of raising $750,000 at this year’s Jingle Bell Run. Lamb hopes his efforts will help the foundation reach that goal.
Lamb lives with Osteoarthritis and joined in the fundraising efforts to raise both money and awareness about the disease that affects more than 46 million Americans, including 300,000 children.
He joined Team Jessica in support of Jessica Leonard, a family friend who was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. Team Jessica has a fundraising goal of $4,000. With just a few days left until the runners will step up to the starting line, Team Jessica and the 35 members are still trying to raise more funds.
Along with Jessica, the funding will help local kids like Hannah Gordon of Bothell. Hannah was diagnosed with arthritis at the beginning of seventh grade in 2007. Doctors told her she has Enthesitis, which is an inflammation of the entheses, the location where a bone has junction to a tendon or a ligament.
Hannah’s parents began to notice something was wrong when their daughter began to complain of ankle and knee pains in the second grade. Doctors chalked it up to growing pains and sent her home. The diagnosis of Enthesitis wasn’t made until several painful years later.
“I would get up in the morning and barely be able to walk. My mom described it as, watching a 90-year-old man walk,” Hannah wrote on the Seattle Jingle Bell Run Web site.
Her diagnosis was finally made after she paid a visit to Children’s Hospital. Today, Hannah is a typical 14-year-old who manages her Enthesitis and enjoys singing, playing piano, drawing, writing, and hanging out with friends.
She was chosen as one of this year’s Jingle Bell Run Honorees.
To help support Jessica, Hannah and the millions of others living with Arthritis, visit www.seattlejinglebell.org to join in the race or to donate online.
