posted 12-22-2017 06:46 PM                  

My wife Sally was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis several years ago. It is an auto-immune and neurological disease that weakens her leg and respiratory muscles. She needs to wear a bipap mask to sleep and sometimes during the day, and usually needs a cane to get around. She has had flareups which have put her in the hospital many times. During the 20th anniversary event, she had to miss out on many of the activities due to being too tired or fatigued. Several people with extreme cases have died from this disease.

Sally is an RN who currently works as a nursing professor, since her condition prevents her from bedside nursing. She is an active member of both the Michigan and national chapters of the Myasthenia Gravis (MG) foundation. The Michigan group (MGMI) is based out of Grand Rapids, which is about an hour from the Gilmore Car Museum. My idea is to have an event for the MGMI members to join Prowler owners and other car buffs. I also plan to put flyers out at local car shows to advertise others to join and hopefully also make a contribution to MGMI. There is also an MG car club (as in the little British roadster) that have come to other MGMI walks and charity runs to show off their cars of the same name, so they may be attending this as well.

MGMI is a self-sustaining non-profit organization that depends on donations and fundraising activities to sustain Michigan patient services, awareness, education and research. It is my hope that those attending this event could also help contribute to this organization. More info can be found at http://www.mg-mi.org

I would also like to plan other activities for the POA members before and after 8/15 if I hear from enough people interested in attending. This is also the week before the Woodward Dream Cruise, however I don't intend to organize anything with that event. If having the cruise in the same week gets more people interested in making the trip, all the better. But keep in mind there is at least a 2 hour drive between the two.

Those unfamiliar with Gilmore, the largest car museum in North America, can go to http://www.gilmorecarmuseum.org . Some long time POA members have been to Gilmore on other POA events before I joined. I actually haven't been there yet myself, but will be going there with the head of the MGMI next month to get more details worked out. Gilmore doesn't have any other events on their calendar for the week I am planning this, other than a weekly cruise-in open to the public. Which means that if you are lucky enough to own other cool cars besides a Prowler, you could bring those instead. They have room on the museum grounds for lots of cars to be displayed.