Greenbriar's Kimberly McDonald and her sisters, Mary Jo and Nancy, are the lucky ones — they don't have Multiple Sclerosis (MS). But their two other sisters do.
So it is in their honor — and with hopes of raising money to find a cure for a disease that truly struck home — that the three sisters will be participating in the three-day, 50-mile, MS Challenge Walk, Sept. 5-7, from Annapolis to Washington, D.C.
Married and the mother of three children, 17, 14 and 12, McDonald, 45, is also an event planner and substitute teacher. And she was the one who organized Jozy's Angels — the family team which includes sisters Mary Jo Adams, 49, of Norrisville, Md., and Nancy Marchildon, 40, of Abingdon, Md., and their 75-year-old father, Clement Marchildon, also of Norrisville.
The two sisters with MS are Bunny Marchildon, 43, of Norrisville, and Suzanne Marchildon, 47, of New Freedom, Pa. The team's called Jozy's Angels, explained McDonald, "because Bunny's real name is Joan, and we call Suzanne 'Suzy,' so we took the J-O and the Z-Y and made 'Jozy.'"
Nearly 400,000 Americans have been stricken with MS — a chronic, often disabling disease that randomly attacks the centrol nervous system. MS has no known cause or cure, yet some 200 people a week are diagnosed with it.
"Bunny got it when she was 23, and Suzanne was diagnosed with it, 10 years ago," said McDonald. "Suzanne takes a medication that seems to help [keep her symptoms under control], but Bunny is in a wheelchair and it's also affected her speech."
IN APRIL, MCDONALD participated in a 6 1/2-mile MS walk in Reston, but the fund-raiser in September is a whole, lot longer. Walkers will travel 20 miles, each of the first two days, and 10 miles, the third day, with everyone crossing the finish line together.
First, though, each member of the team must raise $1,500 to participate in the walk; proceeds go to the Multiple Sclerosis Society to help fund research. Toward that end, McDonald has a couple fund-raisers planned.
On Saturday, July 12, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m., she's holding a carwash outside the Greenbriar pool at 13300 Point Pleasant Drive in Chantilly. In addition, her friend Stephanie Courington — a Mary Kay consultant in Springfield — has also offered to help.
On July 14, 15 and 16 — for everyone placing an order on her Web site, www.marykay.com/scourington, and mentioning McDonald's name — Courington will donate 40 percent of her proceeds to Jozy's Angels. She'll also provide free delivery.
Anyone else wanting to help the team may make contributions by check, payable to the National MS Society, and write McDonald's name on the memo line. Send these donations to Kimberly McDonald, 13140 Madonna Lane, Fairfax, VA 22033. She has until Aug. 1 to turn in whatever she's raised, and any donation of $75 or more is tax-deductible.
McDonald first decided in February to form a team. "I saw a flyer about the walk, and I always wanted to do something like that," she said. "So I asked my dad and sisters to help out, and they said they would."
"I think it's fantastic," said Suzanne by phone from her home in Pennsylvania. "I feel kind of in awe of [the fact that] Kim would arrange something like this — it's one of the greatest things she's ever done. And then my other sisters walking for me and my sister Bunny — it's unbelievable."
TO PREPARE FOR the 50-mile walk, McDonald's been walking around her Greenbriar neighborhood. "I walk four days a week — two days, 10 miles each, and two days, four miles each — even in the rain," she said. "I have a treadmill, so I walked inside if the rain was too heavy. And two days a week, I lift weights."
The other two sisters, Mary Jo and Nancy, have been walking together in Maryland. Because of his age, their father won't actually be walking in the event, but he's helping them to raise money.
He'll also be a crew member with various jobs to perform, such as directing traffic where the walkers are heading and passing out water. Said McDonald: "This is great that he's doing it because he had a triple bypass, 12 years ago."
Suzanne is helping, too. She works for McCormick Foods in Cockeysville, Md., and is getting her company to donate some money. She's also volunteered to help on the last day of the walk.
McDonald has back problems, so she's hoping she can get through the two, 20-mile segments without it hurting her lower back. But she's looking forward to meeting everybody involved in the event, "knowing [that] we're all doing it for the same cause."
She says the best part will be the finish, having her family there, waiting for them, and "knowing that I've accomplished the goal I set out to do in March when I officially signed up." In addition, she said, "There is no cure for MS and, having two sisters with it, there's always the concern it could strike me, too."
Meanwhile, Suzanne is as proud as can be of team Jozy's Angels. "Kim's a real go-getter and is trying to help my sister and I," she said. "I am not as bad as my sister Joan, right now. But the disease is very powerful in what it can do, so I just pretty much live, day by day."