Edited by Amanda Crabtree, Meredith Mayberry and Kelly Morse
Three Central Michigan University staff members are choosing to stand up and walk for a cause.
Dan Digmann, Heather Smith and Barbara Chovanec are raising money and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis.
They work in the same office, fight for the same cause and they have joined forces, but their reasons are very different.
Digmann, assistant director for public relations and marketing, said it’s really motivational to have people around him involved in the same cause.
“It is always great to hear about others that support the same causes that you do,” said Heather Smith, assistant director for media relations. “And it is even better when you can join forces with those people to make your efforts that much stronger.”
For Digmann, MS is extremely personal. In 2000 he was diagnosed with MS, and is wife who he met through a MS event also has MS.
“After you are diagnosed, you do all you can to help yourself,” Digmann said. “You have to be your own best advocate.”
Since 2000, Digmann has been walking for the cause. Three years he participated in Walk MS in Midland and now he does it in Frankenmuth.
Digmann’s goal is to raise $500 before Walk MS on May 3.
Smith raises awareness along side her mother, who was diagnosed with MS in 2003.
Instead of feeling sorry for herself, Smith said, her mother decided to get involved with the Michigan Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and she decided to join in the efforts.
“She is my best friend and it is hard to watch her fight this frustrating disease day after day,” Smith said.
April 26 will be Smith’s fourth year participating in Walk MS in Midland.
Smith’s team pulls together the day of the walk and ends with a great feeling of accomplishment.
“It makes you feel that you’ve done something that can make a difference in the thousands of people who suffer from MS,” Smith said.
Chovanec, editor of Central Light and Inside CMU, will raise money and awareness for the second time this year. She supports this cause for her friend and others she knows who have been diagnosed with MS.
“It just seems like a cause I wanted to raise money for and support,” Chovanec said.
She will participate in Bike MS on July 12 and 13, riding from Linden to East Lansing and back.
Chovanec’s goal is $1000 and last year she was close to reaching it. She would consider it a great success if she raised $1000.
Digmann said he thinks it’s great how they all live here in Mount Pleasant but they’re going throughout Central Michigan to raise awareness.
The goal is the same.
Smith said the key is to raise money to support research to improve treatments and hopefully find a cure.
“I think of the people world-wide who have MS,” Chovanec said. “I think that if there is anything we could do that would be great.”
Digmann said they do anything they can to increase awareness and have others advocate on their behalf, which includes educating CMU students.
“The more people we have supporting the cause, the better chance there is to find a cure,” Smith said.
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