Mandell Center Staff Gets Muddy For MS
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n Sunday, April 27, the Mandell Center’s staff of nurses and doctors, who usually spend their days caring for hundreds of people living with MS across our state, left their scrubs at home and decided to get dirty for MS. “It all started when Mary Osella, one of the center’s infusion nurses, shared with me that she wanted to do the MuckFest,” said Amy Neal, a certified Physician Assistant for the Mandell Center and captain of the Wade’s Warriors From Mandell Center For MS MuckFest MS fundraising team. “Both of us had participated in these types of obstacle course runs before, but neither of us had done one for MS. This gave us the opportunity to pair our own interests with our passion for fighting MS.” MuckFest MS attracts the best mix of people: everyone from seasoned endurance athletes to brand new participants who are doing their very first mud and obstacle 5K. All that’s required for MuckFest MS is a desire to laugh and to have fun with friends, old and new. “We started talking about it around the office to get people interested and were very excited when patients decided to get involved, too,” said Neal, who gathered a group of 20 people to participate in the event. “Mary started chatting it up in the infusion room and then our patients started getting each other excited about the event. About half of our team ended up being Mandell Center staff members and the other half was our patients.” When co-captains Amy Neal and Avery Osella decided to name the team Wade’s Warriors From Mandell Center For MS, the center’s own medical director Dr. Peter Wade decided he should participate too. “Going in to the event, I knew it was going to be a chilly Sunday morning, but it was a fun atmosphere to interact with the center’s staff and patients, all while raising money for MS,” said Wade, who himself is living with the disease. “I was prepared for the cold weather and obstacles, but I was really impressed by the team’s enthusiasm.” Together, Wade’s Warriors ran, swung, sloshed and climbed their way through a 5K course of obstacles and muddy pits, trenches and craters. But the day wasn’t just about the fun. There was also a mission behind MuckFest MS: all proceeds benefited the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Matthew Farr; Peter Wade, M.D.; Amy Neal, P.A.; Ryan Tarry (Biogen)
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