We Are Gittin' Ready To Go

Summer is coming. (Whiner alert) For some of you who have been fortunate enough to have a spring, you've already gotten a taste of it. Here in Peoria we've been teased enough. Maybe next week Spring will bless this cold, wet town. 

Regardless, we continue to establish and gear-up for this years camps. As a matter of fact, our first camp is going on right now in Monticello, Iowa, May 2-4. Here's what's going on right now:

Following Monticello will be our Living Springs camp near Lewistown, Illinois, June 6-8, and Alexian Brothers Camp in Elmhurst, Illinois, June 20-22. Currently, our first out-of-state camp will be Centura Health in Woodland Park, Colorado, July 18-20. 

But, these are just the start. We are planning many more camps throughout the country. We have the potential of 32 camps this year. Last year we conducted 18. How many of these 32 end up actual camps depends a lot on medical institution budgets and sponsorships. For this year's confirmed camps checkout our camp schedule at: 

http://www.strokecamp.org/?camplist&camplist

Preparations are under way to get ready for this year's camps. Last weekend I helped Marylee and Lauren with inventory and checking out our electronic equipment that's been lying dormant all winter in cold, cold storage. I marvel at how much inventory is needed to conduct a weekend camp. We have filled two rented storage sheds and a one car garage with needed materials. It looks like one of our portable PA systems is suffering some kind of malady but everything else seems to be working fine. Maybe someday we'll be able to fund a heated garage with adjoining office space. A preliminary search is underway looking for funding and for that ideal combined office/storage space so we can get our stuff out of the multiple, rented, unheated storage sheds we are now enduring. 

Other things we have going on this year are the Strike-Out-Stroke (tm) events. Strike-Out-Stroke (tm) is our registered trademark for exhibits promoting stroke awareness at major and minor league baseball games. Our first one is with the Peoria Chiefs' baseball game, Sunday, June 1st in Peoria, Illinois. We are involved with many games this year. We will also be looking at ways to make our learning center's PC laptop and Android tablet software available at these and other events. 

Later this month I'll say more about the Strike-Out-Stroke (tm) event at the Peoria Chiefs' game. We do a lot of prep and promotion for this and even get 5th grade students involved in a stroke awareness poster contest. One talented 5th grader will get to ride the OSF Life-Flight helicopter onto the field and throw out the first ball. I mean, how cool is that? 

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