Transverse Myelitis Association
Volume 5 Issue 1
December 2002

Page 46
Transverse Myelitis Hop-A-Thon
Steve and Colleen Blandford

It is a tradition at St. Paul’s Nursery School to have a hop-a-thon in April of each year to raise money for a charitable cause.  The 3- to 5-year-olds who attend St. Paul’s select the cause and raise money by getting pledges to sponsor each of them while they hop 100 times.

In 2001, St. Paul’s Nursery School decided to hold its hop-a-thon for Caroline to raise money for The Transverse Myelitis Association. Our daughter contracted TM when she was six months old. She was paralyzed from the waist down. Caroline is five years old and has had a good recovery from TM; she works very hard.

The preschoolers at St. Paul’s decided to hop for Caroline and The Transverse Myelitis Association again in 2002. We asked that the money that was raised be used for the TMA Children’s and Family Workshop and also to fund TM research. In addition to the fundraiser at St. Paul’s, Michael Flannery became involved in our efforts. Mr. Flannery is a reported for WCPO, an ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, and has a program called “9 On your kid’s side.” He did a program about Caroline and about the hop-a-thon. He also asked for pledges and participated in the fundraising.

Through Caroline’s efforts and those of her friends at St. Paul’s, and through the generous support of Michael Flannery, the hop-a-thon was able to raise $10,170.40 for The Transverse Myelitis Association.

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