october2009 newsletter updatedkatimavik · nesbitt burns who contributed $500 to this event and to...

MS Connection Fall 2009

2009 Kamloops & Area Chapter Annual General Meeting

Find the MS Society online! Our Chapter Website:

www.mssociety.ca/chapter/kamloops

www.youtube.com/MSSocietyCanada

Search: “MS BC” to find the official BC Division fan page.

twitter.com/MSSocietyCanada

Letter from Ross Parkin

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2009 Bike Tour 4

Family Events 6

Wellness Activities 7

Community Services

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Change By Heidi Redl

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Welcome Katimavik!

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Inside this issue: A newsletter for the Kamloops & Area Chapter of the MS Society of Canada Office Location: #180-546 St Paul St Kamloops, BC V2C 5T1 Phone: 250-314-0773 or 1-888-304-6622

Please Join Us…

When: Sunday October 25, 2009 1:00 pm Where: Desert Gardens Seniors Centre 540 Seymour Street

It is our 10th Anniversary!

Please join the celebration as we reflect back on how the Chapter & Area office has grown in the past 10 years and where we hope to go in the fu-ture. We will also be giving Marcia Wilson, past Executive Director of the Kamloops & Area Chap-ter a special Thank-you. The meeting will be followed by special recognition to Chapter supporters and volunteers. Please RSVP at 250.314.0773 or email [email protected] Please contact the Chapter & Area office if you need transportation to this event.

All attendees will be entered into a draw for a $100 London Drugs gift certificate.

Thank you for all of your support over the last

10 years!

FALL 2009 Connection


Letter from Our Chapter Chair

Marcia Wilson

W elcome to our Fall newsletter. We have just completed the MS Bike fundraiser and it has been a great success. At the time of the writing

the total amount raised was $57,000. Events like this just don’t happen without the great work done by our staff and an army of capable volun-teers. Thanks to all of you! We had a very successful Feldenkrais session in late August and as a re-sult we will be continuing these sessions on a once per month basis this fall. I would like to also recognize other fundraising activities. Thanks to the Pineridge golf course and all of the golfers who were involved in our fundraiser there. The Thompson Valley Potters for their do-nation of the soup bowls for the Charity Bowls or “buy a bowl and we will fill it with soup” sale. The A&W restaurants for their national cruise for a cause. The funds raised go to client services and re-search to find a cure. As we prepare to wrap up our fiscal year we will be saying goodbye to Marilyn Poncelet a dedicated director of the local chapter. Marilyn spent 7 years on the chapter board, two and one half as the chapter chair. Marilyn stepped in to relieve our former chair when she was asked to do so. She served on numerous committees and provided well thought out counsel at all times. Her leadership and input was extremely valuable and she will be missed. You are all probably aware that Marcia Wilson has left us now as well. Marcia’s tenure goes right back to the start of the chapter. Marcia became the “Face of MS” in Kamloops during her time with us and she too will be missed. We will recognizing both of these fine people at our annual meeting in late October. Please join us. Ross Parkin Chair

Updates and Gratitude

Recent Support from our Community • We would like to thank to the Kiwanis Foundation of Kamloops BC for contributing to the Kam-

loops & Area Chapter. • We would also like to thank the Canada Summer Jobs program, through Human Resources and

Development Canada, for funding our summer student Charlotte Rollans. She has now returned to the University of Western Ontario to continue her studies. Thank-you also Charlotte!

• Finally, we would like to acknowledge the Pineridge Golf Course and their Manager Jeff Kent for organizing and hosting the First Annual MS Charity Classic. We would also like to thank BMO Nesbitt Burns who contributed $500 to this event and to Checkmate Fire Prevention Inc who also contributed $250. Thank-you!

Ross Parkin


Staff News

Staff Trina Radford, Chapter Manager & Fundraising Co-ordinator

Cyndi Lion, Community Services Coordinator

Leanne Fisher, Administra-tion & Communications As-sistant

Board of Directors Ross Parkin, Chair

Dr. Paul Dagg, Vice Chair

Lee Ennis, Secretary

Ian Fillinger, Treasurer

Leah Card

Marilyn Poncelet

Darlene Kelly

Britt Antoniuk

Joan Hughes

Hilda Buchanan

I am excited to be reflecting on my first two months at the Kamloops and Area Chapter Office. It has been a full and interesting time! As

some of you may know, I started at the MS office in the middle of July as the Administration and Communications Assistant. I currently work 24 hours per week and am usually in the office Tuesday to Friday. My time here so far has involved orientation to the office, getting to know members, database training and much more learning! I’ve also been fortunate to attend some of our client services events such as the August Feldenkrais Class lead by Tyson Bartel and the MS Social Lunch. At the A&W Cruisin’ For a Cure event both Trina and I were able to promote the event on Radio NL. Joanne Williams, one of our active chapter members, also provided some more in-depth interviews about her experience with MS. I also assisted with volunteer coordination and organization for our MS Bike Tour. Although I was not able to attend the actual event day, I could feel the spirit of this event through the photos and being involved in the event wrap up. Thank you to all who volunteered and partici-pated! This is my first time as the newsletter “Publisher” and I’m grateful to all those who take the time to contribute to this publication and assist with distribution. I must also thank our summer student Charlotte Rollans (who is now back at university in Ontario) for her hard work on our Summer newsletter – she left a great template for me to work with! Many of you may already know that you have the option to receive our newsletter via email instead of a paper copy being mailed to you. If you would like to receive your newsletter by email please let me know! My email is [email protected]. I am also working on improving and updating our Kamloops and Area Chapter website. I am hoping that our website will continue to be a helpful resource to keep you informed of our Chapter activities and ser-vices. To access our page visit www.mssociety.ca/chapters/kamloops. I look forward to continuing to work with you! Leanne Fisher

Letter From Leanne


Chapter News: Fundraising

T he participants, teams and volunteers that joined us year are fantabulistic and are what makes the Kamloops Thompson River Ride everything that it is! The K-City Rollers were back in force

with over 30 people on their team, and who could miss the Hot Sweaters and their red toques! We had 22 teams overall, with 6 corporate or organization teams riding for MS as well as teams from Williams Lake, Lillooet, and Vancouver who were a major presence – now that’s dedication! We were also incredibly lucky to have everyone from our volunteer committee join us again this year. Thank-you to everyone and we look forward to seeing you again next year!!!

Thank you especially to these top teams (totals as of press time):

Top Friends and Family TeamMS:

You Go Gang $7,580

K-City Rollers $6,526

Top Corporate TeamMS:

New Gold Block Cavers for a Cure $2,120

Postie Pedal Pushers $1,222

Best Team Spirit:

Hot Sweaters

Best Team Name:

The Daoust Nuts (pronounced Do-nuts)

2009 Rona MS Bike Tour

Thank you to Our Community sponsors:

Interior Savings Credit Union, Rotaract Fusion, Thistle Farms, City of Kamloops, White Spot, Kips Kettle Corn, Kamloops Triathlon Club, Interior Grasslands Cycling Club, Old Dutch Foods, Gar-dengate, Coopers Foods – Brocklehurst, Gary’s Euoropean Sausage and Deli, Total Balance Health and Fitness, Pacific Coastal Airlines and McGavin’s Bread Basket, Kamloops Daily News, B100, CFJC TV.

The Daoust Nuts Team


• RAAM is the toughest endurance event in the world; a non-stop, continuous race in which cy-clists ride as fast as they can, 3,000 miles, from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland.

• There are 28 solo riders competing in 2009 (only 2 of them are Canadian). • The number solo participants typically range from 15-35 people. • The solo speed record was set in 1986 at 24.64 km/hr. • The time record was set in 1992 at 8 days, 3 minutes and 11 seconds. • The rookie time record was set in 1996 8 days 14 minutes and 26 seconds. • The rookie speed record was set in 1985 at 22.90 km/hr. • In 27 years, only 178 racers have officially finished Solo or Tandem RAAM at least once, com-

pared with over 1,300 individuals who have climbed Mt. Everest. • At least one third of riders who begin the race will not finish the race. • Austrian adventurer Wolfgang Fasching has won solo RAAM and climbed Mt. Everest. “Everest

is more dangerous, but RAAM is much harder,” said Fasching.

RAAM Facts:

I an Fillinger of Kamloops, will be competing in the

3200 mile Race Across Amer-ica (RAAM) starting in June 2010 to raise $250,000 for the MS Society. The RAAM ultra-marathon bicycle race is one of the longest annual endur-ance cycling events in the world. Unlike most multi-day bicycle races, the RAAM has no stages; the clock runs non-stop from start to finish, with the rider cycling approximately 22 hours a day for eight to nine days. Ian is continuing to ramp up his preparation for RAAM. At the beginning of September, Ian completed an Ultimate Training Ride through several communities in BC and Al-berta. Ian began his ride at 6am on Thursday, September

3, 2009 when he departed from the Kamloops Curling Rink. From there, his route took him to Clearwater, Blue River, Valemount, Jas-per, Lake Louise, Golden, Revelstoke, Enderby, Salmon Arm and back to Kamloops. Due to unplanned condi-t i o n s I a n ' s r o u t e was shortened slightly to just over 900km. He completed this ambitious ride (including 7 major climbs) in less than 45 hours! Supporters can follow more of Ian training and preparation schedule on his web-site www.raceacrossamerica.ca, Twitter site or search "Ian Fillinger's Race Across Amer-ica" on Facebook for more in-formation.

Ian Fillinger’s Race Across America to end MS

Ian at Alp de Huez in the Canadian Rockies during his

training ride


Family Events

The summer family event in July was attended by a small, but energetic group. We all en-joyed a pizza dinner, a couple games of bowling, and of course prizes! Our next family event will be on Saturday, November 7th, 2009. We are again receiving a donation of tickets to the Blazers game. The game is at 7pm, and we will likely meet for dinner at 5:30pm. Further details will be sent out via Newsflash closer to the date. Families will have the option of attending only the dinner or hockey, or both if preferred.

Please contact Cyndi by No-vember 5th to RSVP your hockey tickets and dinner seats. Families will be limited to 4 tickets for the game, and tickets will be given on a first come first served basis. Any-one with a larger family requir-ing more than 4 tickets can be added to a list in case there are extra tickets or cancella-tions prior to Nov 7th.

Getting Ready for the Read-A-Thon! Are you a teacher, or do you know a teacher who wants to help us encourage kids to read and also contribute to our goal to end MS? If so, we welcome your partici-pation in the Read-A-Thon Program! The program is fun, easy to organize, and pro-motes reading skills that will last a lifetime. It also teaches elementary school children about multiple sclerosis, dis-ability awareness and the im-portance of student literacy and recreational reading. Any teachers in our area (Kamloops Thompson District and Gold Trail District) who signs up their class or school to participate by December 15, 2009 will receive a $10 Chap-ter’s Gift Card. Contact Leanne at the Kamloops and Area Chapter office for more information. 250-314-0773 or [email protected]. Let’s not forget, kids are a part of families affected by MS! Last year, the 2008-2009 MS Read-A-Thon raised $14,000 for people with MS and their families within the Kamloops and Area Chapter.

Our family events are open to parents and grandparents with MS and their children or grandchildren under 18. If you are on our family phone list and/or receive our MS Newsflashes, you will be noti-fied in advance of these fun family events. Please contact the office if you would like to be added to these lists.


Free Swim Passes! We still have several youth and adult swim passes for the Kamloops YMCA-YWCA, and several 2 for 1 City of Kam-loops swim passes to give away! These passes will be made available to persons with MS and their immediate family members (4 maximum) on a first come first served ba-sis. The passes are single use only. Please contact Cyndi Lion if you wish to request passes. After November 2nd additional passes may be provided to families requiring more than 4 if there are passes left over at this time. If you have any general ques-tions about MS or our Well-ness Program, please contact Cyndi. Please note, it is rec-ommended that you consult with your health care profes-sional before engaging in any new exercise program or activ-ity.

Thank you to both the YMCA/YWCA and the Tournament Capital Centre for assisting us with this program. Feldenkrais Workshops We had a great turnout for the August 25th Feldenkrais Work-shop with Tyson Bartel at De-sert Gardens (see photo be-low). Feedback was very posi-tive, so we decided to do it again! The next Feldenkrais Work-

shops with Tyson will be on Tuesday, October 27th and Saturday, November 28th from 10am-12pm (try to arrive at least 5 minutes early) at St. Pauls Cathedral on 360 Nicola Street. There will be mats and more space available at this venue. Please RSVP to Cyndi at the office for these sessions.

Wellness Activities

Chronic Disease Self Management Workshops:

October 5-November 16, 1:15-3:45, Innovative Changes office, #310-141 Victoria St. October 19-November 23, 1-3;30, Logan Lake Fire Hall, 1 Opal drive, Logan Lake October 29-December 3, 1:30-4:00, #36-450 Landsdowne St, (Lower level of Mall)

Chronic Pain Self Management Workshop 2010:

January 21-February 25, 1:30-4:00, #36-450 Landsdowne St, (Lower Level of mall). Contact Kathy at 250-377-8883 for more infor-mation or to register for these workshops.

Chronic Disease/Chronic Pain Self-Management Programs


Community Services

Social lunch The next Social lunch is: No-vember 4th at 12:30pm at De-sert Gardens (540 Seymour Street). Lunch costs $7.50 and each month there will be a draw for a free lunch! This casual group is open to people with MS and their family mem-bers. Information about Social Lunches in 2010 will be sent out in December. Holiday Social Lunch

This year, the annual holiday social lunch will take place on Wednesday, December 2nd from 12-2pm at the Army, Navy & Airforce Veterans (Anavets) hall on 444 Tran-quille Rd. This event is open to people with MS, their partners, friends and family members, Chapter volunteers, staff, and board members. Lunch will be a full turkey meal with all the trimmings, and will cost $8.50 per person. Payment is re-quired in advance at the Chap-ter office (cash or cheque). As always, there will be some ex-citing prizes and games to get everyone in the spirit of the season! Please RSVP by November 30th.

Hamlets Cyndi’s monthly visits to the Hamlets resumed on Wednes-day, September 9th at 10:30am. Individual visits can also be ar-ranged if preferred. This casual gathering usually includes shar-ing of Kamloops Chapter news and general MS information. Living with MS Living with MS meets regularly on the 4th Thursday of each month (except for July, August, and December) at the Chapter Office (180-546 St. Paul Street), and is open to all people living with MS who would like to meet, share information, and learn from others. Light refreshments are available. Danielle Fenelle, Physiothera-pist from RIH, joined us again as a guest speaker on September 24th. If you missed Danielle’s presentation and have general questions about exercise and/or physiotherapy, please contact Cyndi. National MS Society (NMSS) Teleconferences If you have any questions about these teleconferences, or have any feedback about one you have participated in, please con-tact Cyndi at the office.

MS Clinics These specialized clinics offer a wide range of services, de-livered by a multi-disciplinary health care team. These ser-vices may include: • Expert diagnostic and

treatment services for peo-ple with MS

• Clinical research, espe-cially in the area of MS treatment options

• Educational and support programs for people with MS and their families and caregivers.

Please contact Cyndi for de-tails about MS clinic locations and the referral process. Financial/Employment Information Assistance We have several publications and other supports available to assist you with applying for the federal Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefit (CPP-D), Employment Insurance Sick-ness Benefits, or the provincial Persons with Disabilities Benefit (PWD) to name a few. Contact Cyndi with any finan-cial or employment concerns you may have.

Chapter News

For any questions regarding events or information on this page, please contact Cyndi at:

250-314-0773.

Chapter News Continued...


Community Services

Carepartners The last Carepartner event we hosted was the National MS Society teleconference on September 16th While we had a very small turn out here, hopefully those of you who did not join us at the Chapter of-fice were able to participate from home. Please note that when you register for these teleconferences you will al-ways be given a special toll free number to dial in with. If you are not given a number at the time of registration (or very shortly after if registering online) you will need to contact them to get this number. Also, most of these conferences are based in the east, so you will need to adjust for the time. Carepartners requiring emo-tional support are reminded that the Bounceback program is available to them free of

charge. For more information about this program visit www.bouncebackbc.ca or dis-cuss the program with your family doctor. In addition, you can also ac-cess podcasts, teleconference, and other valuable caregiver information on the Care-ring Voice Network website: www.careringvoice.com Newly Diagnosed If you have been diagnosed within the past 2 years and would like to get together with others in your situation, please contact Cyndi at the Chapter office or via email. If there is enough interest in creating ei-ther a workshop or an ongoing support or social group for those who are newly diag-nosed with MS, we will make it happen.

Fall Outreach: Williams Lake and 100 Mile House Cyndi visited William’s Lake on September 30th and 100 Mile House on October 1st. Turnout was great at both locations and we covered many interest-ing topics. Sometimes there are questions that arise during these visits that can’t always be answered fully at the time. If you attended either of these sessions and still have ques-tions or concerns, please con-tact Cyndi via phone or email.

MS Research: Recent Medical Update Memo - September 3, 2009 In people with MS, cigarette smoking has been associated with a higher risk of clinical progression. The authors of this study aimed to investigate the effects of cigarette smoking on the MRI scans of people with MS. Neurology. 2009 Aug 18;73(7):504-10 This study found that people who smoked at the time of their MRI scan, or who had smoked in the past, had higher lesion volumes and greater brain volume loss than those people who never smoked. To explain these results, a number of hypotheses were proposed by the authors, but the potential mechanisms are still unclear. (To read the rest of this memo please visit http://www.mssociety.ca/en/research/medmmo_20090903_mri.htm)

Disclaimer: The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada is an independent, voluntary health agency and does not approve, endorse or recommend any specific product or therapy, but provides information to assist indi-viduals in making their own decisions.

A few members from Williams Lake

Views from Rural BC — By Heidi Redl

Change


“C hange is difficult but often essential to sur-

vival.” On the surface, this seems like one of those sappy, silly sayings that are promoted on posters proclaim-ing World Peace and on calen-dars under pictures of cute lit-tle polar bears and foxes. In-deed, it’s written under a fall landscape on my calendar’s September page. I snorted when I read it the first time. ‘Yeah, right.’ Thing is, that sappy, silly say-ing won’t leave me alone. It popped into my head this af-ternoon when I was out at Horsefly River, leaning over the bridge to watch the spawn-ing salmon run. Bright red backs were flashing in the late afternoon sunlight under the waves and ripples in the river, the exhausted salmon pooling together and resting in a shal-low eddy at the river’s edge before determinedly surging forward again to fight their way

upstream against the powerful current pushing against them. I know exactly how each and every one of those salmon feels. MS is like that. It bites to have a disease that leaves you exhausted and without any option but to fight your way forward against what feels

like a powerful current pushing against you every day. The barred fish gates that block the salmon’s progress and lock them into pens in the spawning channels are just another obstacle to be over-come and I couldn’t help but cheer when some of the salmon found a hole at the

bottom of one gate and defi-antly swam through on their way upstream. Those barred fish gates, or obstacles, pop up every day in the life of a person with MS. There are the stairs to struggle up at work, there is the lack of energy in the evening to pack a lunch for the next day, there is the fa-tigue at any time of the day but which is most pronounced when it’s time to cook dinner, and so on. Yet we surge ahead determinedly. “Change is difficult”; I’ll say it is. Those salmon came back from the ocean, turned bright red, and fought their way up hundreds of miles of river while swimming against the current the whole way. Right after they spawn, they die. That’s difficult all right. So is facing reality that it’s time to start using a cane or wheel-chair, it’s time to stop partici-pating in sports, it’s time to move out of the two-storey house with the beautiful stairs, and it’s time to get a handi-capped parking sticker. Our dreams and hopes die with every “it’s time to…”. “Essential to survival.”; true again. The salmon spawn and next year millions of new fry will swim downstream and be-gin the fish’s 4-year cycle again. Using a cane or a wheelchair allows an MS’er to keep on working and moving around in society, moving out of the two-storey house allows

I know exactly how each and every one of those salmon feels.


Welcome Katimavik! My name is Simon Gamache, I am 18 years old and my first language is French. I am cur-rently in the Katimavik pro-gram. I come from Val-d’Or, Abitibi, Quebec. I finished high school in June 2009. I worked in a mental health organization and I want to continue this in the future. I want to study in social science to work with people who need help. I began Katimavik on Septem-ber 23. I started with the Kam-loops Area chapter of the MS Society on October 5th as a Chapter assistant. Katimavik gives Canadians between 17 and 21 years old the unique opportunity to take part in an intensive 6-9 months volunteer service program. As a Kati-mavik volunteer, you will work for not-for-profit organizations that play an important role in the development of Canadian communities. While on the program, you will live with 10 other young people in two or three different regions of the country. Katimavik allows you to develop your leadership skills, gain valuable work ex-perience and discover new places while making a differ-ence in communities across Canada. You will receive $3 per day and you will have op-portunities to learn English. Volunteer is a good experi-ence for life. In this program I want to be-

Calendar of Events Oct. 19 — Chase Self Help Group

Oct. 22 — Living with MS Group meeting Oct. 25 — Annual General Meeting Oct. 27 — Feldenkrais Work-shop with Tyson Bartel Nov. 3 — Williams Lake Self Help Group Nov. 4 — MS Social Lunch Nov. 7 — Family Event: Din-ner and Blazers Hockey Game Nov. 16 — Chase Self Help Group Nov. 26 — Living with MS Group meeting Nov. 28 — Feldenkrais Work-shop with Tyson Bartel Dec. 2 — MS Holiday Lunch

us to live independently in a new one-storey house we can be mobile in, and getting a handicapped parking sticker - . OK, everybody’s jealous of people who own those and while other people’s jealousy isn’t essential to our survival it sure is nice to be envied for a change. “Change is difficult but often essential to survival.” Yup. I’m no salmon but instead of going with the flow and being washed downstream, I’ll keep on fighting my way against the current to where I want to go. I won’t be riding a horse to bring the cows in off range this fall, nor will I play soccer or run races but I will still “run”, in the upcoming federal election. I think that, like the salmon, we’ve got to stay determined and forge ahead, each of us in our own way.

Author Heidi Redl

come bilingual, help different communities who need help and get experience for my future work. This program asks for a lot of leadership and organisation. Katimavik can change your life. I hope that Katimavik will be change me for the rest of my life and that I will be completely dif-ferent after the program.

Simon Gamache


Acknowledgements Thank you to the Province of British Columbia and Kamloops North Rotary Club for funding this newsletter.

Contributors Trina Radford, Cyndi Lion, Ross Parkin, Heidi Redl, Simon Gamache, and Leanne Fisher

Kamloops & Area Chapter Contact us at:

250-314-0773 or 1-888-304-6622

[email protected]

www.mssociety.ca/chapters/kamloops

October 2009 Please return Undeliverable mail to:

Final Notes

october2009 newsletter updatedkatimavik · nesbitt burns who contributed $500 to this event and to...

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