Yesterday, Loretta and I headed out and covered two locations for the 2008 National MS Walk. She attended the walk in Hackettstown NJ while I headed over to Roxbury NJ. Unfortunately, the beautiful 70-degree weather we had on Saturday didn’t carry through as it was cloudy, cold and windy all day Sunday. Regardless, we dressed in layers and started shooting away.
As I arrived on site in Roxbury, it was nice to see lots of the same faces from last year … and to see even more new ones this year. All told, they had about 600-700 people in attendance.
Prior to the start of the walk, I moved around and captured some shots of the sponsors and volunteers that were already hard at work. I also watched as the Roxbury Fire Department readied their ladder truck with an American flag onto the end of the bucket. Once things were set, they raised it up and held the flag over the center of the event. Unfortunately, with the wind the way it was, I couldn’t get the exact shot that I wanted … but this was close enough for me …
As more walkers arrived, an instructor from a local business called Jazzercise helped keep everyone warm with a brief workout. As I watched the crowd around her, these two ladies stuck out as they were the most animated and tried to follow each move the instructor did …
As the morning progressed, one of the things that I had to do was take team pictures for everyone. As I waited for this one team to fully assemble, I noticed that (like a lot of other people there) they had their dog with them. I couldn’t resist the shot as it was the only one that helped “support the team”!
Once the ribbon was cut and the five mile walk started, I grabbed a few additional shots of the activities around the event including the band, a local radio station, the fire and police departments of Roxbury as well as the many other sponsors of the event. As the front of the walk started to come around on the first lap, I headed over to a little side road to capture them coming down the road. Here was a cute one of a little walker getting a lift for part of the distance …
Overall, it was a great day. It was nice to see the size of the turnout … though I think it would have been better had Saturday’s weather held out. Hopefully next year will be even better!
The National MS Society is a collective of passionate individuals who want to do something about MS now—to move together toward a world free of multiple sclerosis. MS stops people from moving and they exist to make sure it doesn’t.
