SUNY Orange students organizing Spina Bifida walk
Middletown SUNY Orange students are seeking participants, donors and sponsors for the college’s first Spina Bifida Walk, scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 4, at Middletown’s Galleria at Crystal Run. All proceeds from the event are earmarked specifically for spina bifida research. Community members may support the event in three ways: by participating as a walker, sponsoring a walker who has already registered, or offering a donation to the committee. Prizes will be awarded to those who raise the most money, and early registrants will receive a free, blue, latex-free wristband (many people afflicted with spina bifida suffer from latex allergies) with the Spina Bifida Association logo. Participants may register in advance. Registration will also be held the morning of the event, beginning at 8 a.m. in the mall’s center court. During the walk, representatives from the student-led organizing committee will be available to answer questions, accept donations and provide information about spina bifida, its lifelong effects and new cutting-edge research methods. SUNY Orange students Sarah Marley, Shilpa Patel and Katie Horsham have been stockpiling volunteers and organizing this event for the past two months. They have received assistance from the national Spina Bifida Association as well as the Spina Bifida Association’s chapter in Rochester, the closest New York State SBA chapter to Orange County. Volunteers will be blanketing the area with posters, flyers and information sheets in the next few weeks to encourage participation from the community. “There is no local walk for spina bifida, to the best of my knowledge,” said Patel, who is afflicted with spina bifida and is confined to a wheelchair. “I’ve wanted to organize a walk of this type since 2001, because it’s important to raise awareness, but also to raise money to help researchers find a cure.” “We feel that any amount of money we raise will make a difference,” Marley added. “We’ve already gotten support from places like Orange Regional Medical Center and the Family Empowerment Council, and several stores in the mall were very generous in providing gifts that we can present to the people who raise the most money.” An estimated 70,000 people in the United States are currently living with spina bifida, the most common permanently disabling birth defect. Spina bifida is a neural tube defect that occurs in the first month of pregnancy when the spinal column doesn’t close completely. A herniation of the spinal cord protrudes from the spinal column and can lead to paralysis below the area of the herniation. There are 60 million women at risk of having a baby born with spina bifida. On average, eight babies every day are affected by spina bifida or a similar birth defect of the brain and spine. Each year, about 3,000 pregnancies are affected by these birth defects. The effects of spina bifida are different for every person. Up to 90 percent of children with the worst form of spina bifida have hydrocephalus.