Although my whole family attended this event at my pushing  with many moans and groans, I walked this kick off event with my oldest son. We did it in 1 hour and 11 min while my other family members did it in 38min. Not exactly fast. But that's okay because we are both out of shape! Baby steps right! Anyhow while doing this walk I had plenty of time to talk to my son alone about life and hear a lot of his disappointment in himself about his weight and lack of physical coordination. That made me sad because I realize that this is not his strong point but I had no idea what it has done to his self esteem. At 10 he has a hard time even riding a bike with training wheels. He's a little different than most kids. Actually a whole alphabet different than most kids ( ADHD, OCD, ODD, ED). He was really feeling it with everyone passing us by including his dad aunt and little brother knowing they would be done first and have to wait for us and enjoy all of the after race fun without him. But I kept reminding him this was our first time I was going just as fast as he was and encouraging and trying to let him know how proud and honored I was to have him right there with me. He heard me but didn't feel it. But when we slowly and achingly crossed that finish line and he was handed a  really cool medal for finishing he lit up from the inside out.  He was so excited to receive that medal and hear all of your wonderful volunteers say " way to go",  this is not a child that ever really is told that from anyone but his parents and at 10, it loses it's effect. You all made a difference in my sons life in such a big way even if you think it was small. He was so proud of himself and that is something money couldn't buy. It was priceless. So thank you again for all your work and I can't wait to keep giving my son the opportunity to feel good about himself through your events.

Thank you
Kristina