4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2008
PHILANTHROPY
Cyclists pedal to raise money for MS research
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
kristine Drunen (left), with Sara Rags, will speak Saturday night at the Bike MS. Saturday Night Fallry. This weekend, cyclists will raise to ride money for multiple sclerosis. The event, called Bike MS and sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, will begin at 7 a.m. at Washburn Rural Middle School in Topeka. The group hopes to raise $141,750.
BY JESSE TRIMBLE
jtrimble@kansan.com
More than 500 cyclists and volunteers are preparing for the annual Bike MS ride this weekend to raise money and awareness for multiple sclerosis.
Cyclists will ride on two of five routes on Sept. 20 and 21 to benefit multiple sclerosis patients. The event, which is sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, will begin at 7 a.m. Saturday at Washburn Rural Middle School in Topeka. Riders can select a 60-, 88- or 102-mile route on Saturday, and a 45- or 65-mile route on Sunday. The fundraising goal is $141,750, which will go toward national research, advocacy and local hospitals and clinics that deal with multiple sclerosis.
Shauna Burrell-Allen, development coordinator of bike and walk events for the NMSS, said a lot could be done with the money raised.
"Our particular chapter helps over 25,000 people affected by multiple sclerosis," Burrell-Allen said. "We try to help in every aspect of everyday life."
Burrell-Allen said the money raised from the event would go to clients who needed financial assistance or who were on disability and needed help doing housework. They also sponsor events during major holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Saturday the cyclists are scheduled to return to the race's starting point at 5 p.m., where there will be an area for teams to set up tents and for vendors to provide food and T-shirts.
Sunday, the cyclists will return
to the road from 7-11 a.m. when finish-line volunteers and multiple sclerosis patients will gather to welcome cyclists back with medals and cheers.
"I have seen a lot of patients talk to the riders and hand out medallions to the riders," Burrell-Allen said. "And every year there's more and more people, and they are just touched by what the riders are doing for them so much that it brings them back every year."
Lisa Schmidt, multiple sclerosis study coordinator at KU Medical Center, said multiple sclerosis was a scary disease because it affected each person differently.
The KU Medical Center multiple sclerosis department has more than 2,500 patients with MS.
Donna Schlarman, administrative assistant with NMSS, said this year has been the biggest year for Bike MS volunteers in the event's last 20 years. She said volunteers
at rest steps provided riders with Gatorade, water and snacks.
Schlarman said that volunteers were also needed for registration, check-in, massages and meals. Schlarman said volunteers ran 20 rest stops during the two-day event.
"Our clients love this project," Schlarman said. "It's a way to stay in touch with people and makes them feel part of the event."
Schlarman said a postcard program called "Champions Against MS" allowed patients to send messages and personalized bandanas for each cyclist to wear during the ride.
Volunteers and cyclists can sign up on the day of the event and are not required to ride for both days. The registration fee is $50 and a cyclist must pledge to raise $200.
Edited by Kelsey Hayes
HOMECOMING
Celebration provides opportunity to help
BY RYAN MCGEENEY
rmcgeeney@kansan.com
The 2008 Homecoming Committee will hold an open meeting at 6 p.m. Sunday in Alderson Auditorium on the fourth level of the Kansas Union.
"We're looking for as much student and community involvement as possible," said Emily Schuster, Larned junior, cochairwoman of KU community events. "Not only Greek organizations, but student groups and individuals as well."
Homecoming week activities will run from Sunday, Oct. 12, through Saturday, Oct. 25. One important event connected with the celebration is the Stuff the Bus food drive. Stuff the Bus began in 2007. That year, homecoming participants collected about 10,000 non-perishable food items for donation to ECKAN, the East Central Kansas Opportunity Corporation, Jennifer Alderdice, director of student programs for the KU Alumni Association, said.
"Homecoming week is geared toward current KU students," said Alderdice. "But the events are open to everybody to enjoy."
NATION
Edited by Becka Cremer
Officials urge residents to stay away from Galveston during recovery
ASSOCIATED PRESS
GALVESTON, Texas — There's a grocery store open for business on Galveston Island. Cell phone towers are connecting calls. More lights are coming back on at night.
But for all the little signs of recovery in this barrier island community thrashed by Hurricane like nearly a week ago, Galveston just "isn't ready" for residents to return. Not even for a quick look around at their battered homes and businesses, officials said Thursday as they pleaded for tens of thousands to wait at least another week before trying to come home.
"By staying away and being patient, you are making it possible for us to get you home in a week or so, instead of the months it would take if the city's infrastructure were more overwhelmed at this point," Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said.
The roughly 45,000 people who fled Galveston Island are among the more than 1 million who evacuated the Texas coast as Ike steamed across the Gulf of Mexico. Gov. Rick Perry said 22,000 people are still living in more than 200 shelters, and he joined Thomas on Thursday in asking for patience.
Michael Sims walks home after purchasing supplies from a Kroger supermarket in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas. Thursday, Galveston sustained heavy damage in the storm.
"I absolutely understand they want to get back to their homes ... I'd like to get back to the mansion," said Perry, who's been living in temporary quarters since his official residence burned down in June.
Galveston Island remained
ASSOCIATED PRESS
closed, as did the worse-off Bolivar Peninsula, where the storm's surge washed entire neighborhoods into the sea. Search teams pulled out of both areas this week after sweeping every house, authorities said.
The Interior Department said Thursday that Ike destroyed at least 49 of the more than 3,800 offshore oil or natural gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, and some may not be rebuilt. The damaged platforms accounted for 13,000 barrels of oil and 84 million cubic feet of natural gas a day; the Gulf produces about 1.3 million barrels of oil a day and 7 billion cubic feet of gas.
To help ease the recovery in Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged private mortgage lenders Thursday to cut some slack to financially strapped homeowners. The Housing Department had earlier issued a
To the northwest, life took more steps toward normal in Houston, where traffic picked up on the downtown streets less than a week after the massive Category 2 storm blew through. Flight control of the International Space Station was to return Friday to the Johnson Space Center, which shut down a few days before Ike's strike.
CenterPoint Energy said it had restored power to nearly 900,000 homes, and the utility was fast approaching the point where more people in the nation's fourth-largest city would be with electricity than without.
"A lot of times, after a disaster, people come back, they have
90-day moratorium on foreclosures on FHA loans, a reprieve for about 7,000 homeowners who were in foreclosure or on the cusp.
expenses they didn't count on" HUD Secretary Steve Preston said as he stood alongside Chertoff. "We want to make sure they have breathing room before they have to worry about mortgages (that) will
become an additional challenge for them."
Chertoff was in Southeast Texas for the second straight day, watching over the federal relief effort that has delivered hundred of trucks of
Ike's death toll in the U.S. stood at 56, with 22 in Texas, and there was still the fear that more victims would be found.
ice, water and food to the region's more than 5 million people.