Have you ever seen the meme that says:
“One of my biggest fears is marrying into a family that runs 5Ks on the holidays”
It’s a meme, so of course it’s tongue and cheek and kidding aside, there are 5Ks that exist to help others, even if it falls on a holiday.
Enter: The Cystic Fibrosis Association of North Dakota’s annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day and it’s the biggest fundraiser of the year for North Dakota’s CF Association. What started small 33 years ago has grown into close to 2,000 people that take part in the run/walk.
However, if you’re the type of person who’d rather eat turkey and watch football on Thanksgiving, the CF Association has ways you can still help their organization and this takes place year-round.
Enter: Charitable Gaming.
“We definitely need both fundraising and gaming,” explains Pam Thompson, Development Director for the Cystic Fibrosis Association of North Dakota. “The support from our fundraising is important part of what we do. The gaming allows us to do things we wouldn’t be able to do with fundraising alone.”
“What they do” is provide crucial financial assistance to about 120 North Dakota families who are impacted by Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic and expensive disease. There are two CF clinics in North Dakota, one in Bismarck and one in Fargo that patients should visit quarterly. On top of that, the average person living with CF takes about five to six medicines a month, or about 40 pills a day. Eventually, those costs begin to add up.
“Transportation costs a lot and there are lots of therapies involved,” explains Thompson. “Our organization helps pay uninsured costs of those medications.”
The organization also provides scholarships for persons with CF who want to attend college but need help paying for therapies. Charitable gaming helps the CF Association remove the barrier of college students needing to work multiple jobs while going to school to afford their treatment.
Charitable gaming allowed the CF Association the ability to step-in last year and pay for travel costs for a young lady from Beulah to fly to Minneapolis several times so she could receive treatments after developing a lung infection.
“Charitable gaming has a huge impact; it allows us to say yes. We want to be able to say yes,” Thompson said.
Whether you are a 5K on the holidays type of person, or dabble in gaming year-round, there are many ways to get involved with supporting the Cystic Fibrosis Association of North Dakota. Consider registering for the 2022 Turkey Trot, or visit one of the CF gaming locations at Cheap Shots in Bismarck, The Stage Stop, and Stations West Bar and Grill in Mandan.