September 20th, 2008

WHAT?  A series of coordinated Chiari walks held at the same time across the country.

WHERE? It is our goal to have at least one walk in each of the 50 states.

WHEN? Saturday September 20th, 2008.  September has been named Chiari Awareness Month in several states.  In conjunction with the Walk Across America we hope to get more states to recognize September as Chiari Awareness Month.

WHY?  To raise awareness of Chiari; to raise money for vital research; and to get people involved.

HOW?  Conquer Chiari will organize the event at the national level, but we need site organizers to plan and hold the local walks across the country.  In addition, for the event to be a success, we will need many, many people from the Chiari community to participate.  This is our chance to raise our voice as a community and be heard.

LIST OF SITES & SITE ORGANIZERS:  We are actively planning walk in over 25 locations so far.  As the exact locations become finalized, they will be posted here.  In the meantime, there are several sites where people have expressed an interest in organizing a walk, but are looking for help.  These include:

Northern California; Clio Michigan; Chicago Illinois; Alberta Canada, Newcastle Australia

If you would like to help organize any of these walk, please email director@conquerchiari.org

FOR SITE ORGANIZERS:  Local site organizers will be critical to a successful event.  If you are interested in organizing a local walk as part of the Conquer Chiari Walk Across America, email director@conquerchiari.org or call 724-940-0116.  While any individual can be an organizer, we prefer that each site have 2-3 organizers to help share the work.  This also provides an alternate contact person for each site.  If you don't know any other Chiari people in your area, that's ok, we can help you find people interested in getting involved.  To get an idea of what is involved with being a site organizer, please review this guide:   CC Walk Across America Site Organizer's Guide.

Additional materials for site organizers:    Site Registration Form, Sample Flyer, Business Sponsor Form, Press Kit,  Trifold Brochure.

FOR WALKERS:  Everyone is invited to participate in the Conquer Chiari Walk Across America as a walker.  As site locations and times become finalized, they will be posted at this website.  While the walk is free, it is suggested that each walker try to raise $100 for Chiari research (see Walker Sponsor Form).  To help with the planning, we encourage walkers to pre-register on-line.  T-shirts will be provided to those who pre-register and provide a minimum of $20 in donations (note that T-shirts are not guaranteed and supplies may be limited). 

As a walker, we encourage you to raise money for research by asking people to sponsor you.  Please use this form to sign up your sponsors: 

Walker Sponsor Form

If there isn't a walk in your area, consider becoming a site organizer!!  Call or email (director@conquerchiari.org) with any questions.

ON-LINE WALKER REGISTRATION FORM:

Note:  In order to receive a T-shirt, you must pre-register by 8/22/08 and provide a minimum of $20 in donations.

Once sites become finalized, we will post the on-line walker registration form.  Please check back soon.