News

For many years, at each IWMF Ed Forum, several attendees would take part in an opportunity to get some fresh air, exercise, and share stories with each other as they walked beyond the hotel property where the event was held.

This year, the 2017 IWMF Patient Educational Forum will also include an organized walk in downtown Phoenix on Sunday morning, May 21, 2017, at 6:30am, where walkers will help kick off the 1st Annual Walk for Waldenstrom’s. We will be walking 5 kilometers (3 miles or so) to and through Margaret Pence Park and the Japanese Friendship Garden.

This will be the first time that walkers can, if they desire, take advantage of the opportunity as an IWMF community, to raise funds to benefit the IWMF, and to help find a cure!

Here’s how you can help:

• Attend the Ed Forum and Walk: Attend the Ed Forum, participate in the walk, and encourage your friends and families to donate on your behalf (see below for more details).
• Can’t Come to the Ed Forum, But you’re in Phoenix? Walk with Us: If you can’t make the Ed Forum, and you’re in the Phoenix area, come walk with us (we’ll depart from the Renaissance Phoenix downtown hotel). Invite your friends to join you too!
• Walk in Your Community: Go for a walk in your own neighborhood or on a local walking trail on Sunday, May 21, and participate with us “virtually” – and encourage your friends and families to donate on your behalf (again, more details below). You can even try to get others involved – the more walkers we have, the closer we’ll get to better treatments and a cure! (Even if you can’t walk on May 21st, you can walk on a different day to benefit the IWMF.)
• Sponsor a Walker: If you can’t walk, donate on behalf of someone who IS walking (see below).

Here’s how to participate and raise funds, or to just sponsor a walker:

1. Go to iwmf.com/fundraise and click on the “Walk for Waldenstrom’s” button.
2. Read the information on the page, and follow the instructions:
   1. If you’re walking, look for the “Join This Team” section and click the “fundraise” button.
   2. If you’re looking to sponsor someone, click on the person’s name in the “leaderboard”.

NOTE: For those planning to attend the Ed Forum, rest assured, the Walk is NOT a mandatory event, and if you do walk with us on Sunday morning, being a fundraiser is NOT a requirement for admittance to the walk. You can still take the journey with us for exercise and mutual support, whether you’re fundraising or not!

Our collective journeys around the world on Sunday, May 21, will also help reinforce the theme for this year’s Ed Forum of “Imagine a Cure: Mapping our Future”!