Published: June 29, 2009 09:42 pm      

Family raising SMA awareness during TSR visit

PALESTINE — The Bill and Victoria Strong family of Santa Barbara, Calif. will be in Palestine on Tuesday as part of their campaign to drive 5,000 miles with their 20-month-old daughter Gwendolyn who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a paralyzing and fatal disease, across the country in an RV armed with banners, corporate sponsors and a call to action to end SMA.

 A special event for media and community supporters was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today at the Texas State Railroad’s Palestine Depot. The Little Engine That Could™ will be displayed at the TSR during the event.

The Strongs will say a few words about their journey, pass out information regarding SMA, and be available to speak to media.

The Texas State Railroad Palestine Depot is located at Park Road 70 on U.S. 84 East in Palestine.

The “Sponsor-A-Mile to END SMA” drive (http://SponsorAMile.com), in which each mile driven is sponsored at $10 a mile, has a goal of raising $50,000. All proceeds will go to the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation (http://gwendolynstrongfoundation.org), which seeks to shed light on this deadly childhood disease and to fund SMA medical research that specialists and the National Institute for Health (NIH) believe is within five years of a cure. 

The couple left California on June 21 (Father’s Day), and have made their way through Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico before arriving in Palestine Monday.

They eventually will make it to Mississippi where the family will visit Victoria Strong’s 104-year-old grandfather, Harry Gillespie. This will be the first time Gwendolyn has met her great-grandfather.

Harry Gillespie and his late wife Madge were former longtime residents of Palestine, as were Victoria Strong’s great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. Her grandfather moved from Palestine to Mississippi in 1964.

“After our daughter was diagnosed we set a trip to see him but it was canceled due to her health,” Victoria Strong said in an earlier interview with the Herald-Press. “Gwendolyn can’t travel by plane so this was our last option. We got an ‘OK’ from her doctors. Gwendolyn is doing well and Harry is doing well, so now was the perfect time.”

For more information about the family’s journey, visit www.gwendolynstrongfoundation.org, read the story about the family’s journey on the Palestine Herald-Press Web site (www.palestineherald.com) or visit the Herald-Press Blog (http://palestineherald.blogspot.com)