Folks, please stick with me for a few moments. Our niece and Goddaughter Maddie Steffen (my brother Jim’s daughter) was born in October of 2012 with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF is a devastating genetic disorder that affects the lungs and digestive system in about 30,000 kids and adults. The life expectancy for CF kids has increased from living to their teens to now being able to live into their 30’s, 40’s and hopefully beyond. Gail and I are committed and determined to help the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) find a cure so Maddie can live a full and complete life!!
Gail and I are raising money for CFF by doing the Foundation’s 23 mile XTreme Hike in northern Michigan on September 28, 2013. To support us, Dennis “D-man” Dolan has offered to team up with Gail and I to add a little kicker to our fundraising efforts.
By way of background, and you know this, Dennis is a REALLY fast guy. A few years ago he ran a half marathon in 1:29 and after that he kicked out a sub 3 hour marathon. Do you know how fast that is? That’s a bunch of 6:50 miles stacked on top of each other; try that on the treadmill the next time. I think it’s difficult churning out one mile at that pace.
Anyway, considering his advancing age, I’ve challenged Dennis to do it again at the Chicago Half Marathon on Sunday, Sept 8th, 2013. I will give Cystic Fibrosis $25 for every minute Dennis comes in under the 1 hour and 40 minute mark. I’m certain I’ll have to fork out $250 (10 minutes faster x $25) because he’s probably going to run at least a 1:30 half marathon. But if he smokes the race and knocks out a 1:25, I’ll be sending $375 to cystic fibrosis, which is awesome because CFF gets more to fight this rare disease and Dennis gets to drink the sweet nectar of a personal best.
If you’d like to support CFF and raise the stakes for Dennis, I have you covered. You can pledge an amount per minute for every minute Dennis comes in under 1 hour and 40 minutes by clicking the link below and entering your pledge and your email address. After the race on Sunday the 8th I’ll send an email with his verified results and how much you’ve pledged to CFF based on those results (along with a link to the donation form). You’ll then have about three weeks to submit your pledged amount to CFF before Gail and I engage in our XTreme Hike on September 28th.
To motivate you and show my commitment to finding a cure, I will match the first $1,000 you all pledge!
CLICK HERE FOR THE DOLAN-STEFFEN PLEDGE FORM
This means I’m going to miss Oklahoma vs Notre Dame because I’ll be doing the Xtreme Hike, but it’s for a good cause. Go Irish!
If this is too complicated and you just want to donate to CFF, you can go to my Xtreme Hike page by clicking here.
Thanks for your support.