Smart Allergy Friendly Education: FARE Walk Boise was a GREAT Success!

May 18th, 2014 was the date of very successful FARE Walk Boise! Our goal is to raise $12,000 in support of FARE - Food Allergy Research and Education. Although the walk itself is over, donations continue to come in in support of this national organization's efforts to help find a cure for food allergies, and to keep individuals with food allergies safe and included.

FARE Spokeswoman - MacKay Gunn

The past few months have been exciting for those of us helping to raise allergy awareness within our Treasure Valley community. I have been involved for several years with this event. This year's support was outstanding, and I can't thank everyone enough for your involvement.

March 19th was the Symposium kick-off marking the beginning of local fundraising and community involvement. With 4 speakers and a room filled with engaged families, teachers, nurses and allergy advocates, we extended our conference time for those who wanted to stay longer.

FARE Symposium Donations and Giveaways

FARE Kick-Off Symposium

On May 7th, we were fortunate enough to have Larry Gebert feature our event on his early morning KTVB show. We can't thank him enough for his time and humor at such 'wee hours of the mornin'.

'Where's Larry' Segment Promoting FARE Boise Walk

The walk itself was an enormous success. A huge thank you to the all of the chairs involved in making this wonderful event happen. We each had our own jobs to be done, and they were accomplished with great success. A huge 'THANK YOU' to Kelly Fletcher, Starla Higdon and Nancy Shires for bringing this event to fruition in our small community.

SAFE FARE Walk Boise Table - early setup

A HUGE 'THANK YOU' to those who donated to my SAFE FARE Walk Team. I reached my goal of raising $500 through cash and product donations in order to support the sponsorship of my table.

SAFE FARE Walk Table Final Set-Up

I couldn't have done it without the following supporters:

Thank you to the National and Local Sponsors:

SunButter, Enjoy Life Foods, Mylan, Sanofi, Boise Valley Asthma and Allergy (Drs., Keiley, Jeppson, Palmer and FNP., Heidi Peters), Idaho Allergy (Dr. Stephen Fritz), The Allergy Group (Dr. Callanan and Dr. Talreja), Inspire Connections Academy, Treasure Valley Food Allergy Network, Smart Allergy~Friendly Education

Dr. Keiley, Dr. Talreja, MacKay Gunn and Walk Chairs

Dr. Fritz

Sanofi Reps from Salt Lake and Phoenix!

Enjoy Life Donations

As the Outreach Chair, I wanted to add an additional 'THANK YOU' to ALL of the other amazing donors locally and nationally who donated raffle items to our Symposium and Walk. ALL of you continually support my food allergy education and awareness efforts.

Some of MANY national and local raffle donations

SubZero, MoMo Dumpling, The No Biggie Bunch, Food Allergy Mom Doc, Learning to Eat Allergy-Free, Flatbread Neapolitan Oven, Tree City Juice and Smoothie Cafe, Don't Go Nuts, Biscoff, GoDairyFree, Boise State University, Namaste Foods, Illuminate Hair Salon, Tree City Juice and Smoothie Cafe, Eagle River Smiles, Big Als, PF Changs, Chipotle, and the Idaho Stampede.

This alone raised over $400 for FARE.

I have heard nothing but rave reviews from the families who attended, and they are so thankful to have this local event. Their biggest comment seems to be... I can't wait to see how great this is going to be next year!