Walk on the Capital

If you go to the main message board and click on the pictures you will see me and Heather ( meannevil1) in the pictures. We are sitting in the back row. This event was amazing ! See you lighter. Joanne

It looks like you guys had a lot of fun.  Wow what a turn out! I looked through the photo album and the pic's were great.

This is my story : I had been talking about the " Walk on The Capital " for months at every support group I attended and ran myself. As the walk got closer My husband became ill and the walk was the last thing on my mind. My Husband's cancer became terminal and he was put into Hospice care. I had talked with him about the walk before this because it was scheduled on our 36th wedding anniversary. Bob didn't mind if I went because he knows this is something I care so deeply about. I had requested this day off at work as soon as I learned the date. Since I learned of his illness I just put it on the back burner. The night before I get a call from Heather O'Connor ( An OH Leader in training ). Heather O'Connor , Jen Rosen ( An OH Leader in training ) and myself have been working together for months on Support Groups in lower slower Delaware. We took my support group , New Life WLS Support Group and branched it out to cover the whole county and now we have Eastern New Life WLS  Support Group and Western New Life WLS Support Group.She wants to offer me an OH T-shirt to wear at the event. I inform her I was not going and told her about Bob's health. Heather with her Leader skills encourages me to go. Telling me Bob would want me to go and it sounds like I need to go to get away for awhile. Says she will rearrange her schedule and go with me. Bob overhears me talking with Heather and tells me to go too. My daughter Debbie ( A RNY Patient and support group member) tells me she will stay with her Dad and I should go. Debbie had originally planned on doing the walk with me. So I call Heather back , we both do some re- arranging and our plans are in motion. Before I leave for the event I have to take my grandaughter to counseling.  I kill 2 birds with one stone. I drop her off and go to an anniversary lunch with Hubby. Heather has class. I pick Heather up at the college and off we go to D.C. With all the rushing I leave my support group bag with directions home. We decide to wing it. I had my surgery in D.C. so knew my way there! We at least knew the Walk was on The Capital. Two and one half hours later we arrive in D.C. Ask directions and decide to Park and Walk to the Event. It was about 6p.m. when we arrived in front of the capital. We saw tents but not many people. We are thinking this must be the wrong place so we ask a D.C. Cop. She gets on her radio and says we are at the right spot but she doesn't know where registration is. Somewhere between 4th and 10th streets. So we start walking. Luckily we pick the right direction. When we saw that registration tent we were 2 happy Support Group Leaders. We had already walked about 16 D.C. blocks. I am glad we got there early. We got a seat and got to talk to a lot of people. We passed out support group cards and Heather even took the OH shirt off her back and gave it to someone who had never heard of Obesity Help. We were there about 45 minutes and the buses started coming. We looked back and there were people golore. I had been to a walk from obesity before but I never saw so many people in one place. It was amazing and I was so proud to be there among them all. I really felt like the nation was hearing our call ! After the speakers the walk started. Everyone just walked and talked.We met so many people. Not only from Obesity Help support Groups but from Tops, Dr's offices , Bariatric Clinic staff, heart centers, Support groups of all kinds, and people. galore from everywhere . It was like a circle unbroken . The  end of the walkers met the beginning. You could not see a beginning and an end. It was just people walking for a cause. I think we were heard thru out D.C.  It was an event to remember and we were there as Obesity Help Support Group Leaders and Proud of what we do. We walked and we walked proud among the best ! I think Heather and I made a bond that day in D.C. that will not be broken  for a long time. We are not just Obesity Help Support Group Leaders but Friends too. Thank you Heather ! You are an ANGEL! See you lighter. Joanne

Sorry, I did Heather's name wrong. It is meannevil2.