John Owen’s Adventure, Inc

Past Events: What Fun!

Listed below in order

~ Picnic in the Park July, 29, 2010 ~ @2,000 in attendance

2009 Events

~ Triathlete for John Owen September 20, 2009

~ Picnic in the Park July, 30 2009 ~ @1,800 in attendance

~ Run for our Sons ~ Flying Pig Marathon 5-3-09 

~Wine to End Duchenne at Gusto in Little Italy ~ 4/22/09

~ John Owen on the news 4/24 with Maureen Kyle WKYC

~ MDA Shamrock program - Lube Stop Visits

2008

~Picnic in the Park 8-21-08 ~ @1,000 in attendance

~Miracles for Muscles 8-16-08

~Fill the boot - North Royalton Fire Department 9/1/08 (scroll all the way down)

October 1 & 2 2011 ~ Mo Joe Back to Back Marathon

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Joe Vasil ran 52.4 miles in less than 24 hours to derail Duchenne.  Read his awesome race report here.

September 11, 2011 ~ Mo Joe Marathon

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We truly had an amazing September 11 – what a fantastic way to commemorate our heroes of 9-11 by creating more heroes!  We hosted our first run and with 98 participants and $4,000+ raised, I would say it was a great success. This progressive marathon supported and honored our Mo Joe Marathon Dad, Joe Vasil.  The day had every element of weather – rain, hail and sun just as our race began.  As my sister put it plainly –"God does not rain on John Owen!"  We continue to be humbled by the outpouring from our St. Albert the Great family as you see in this picture, they were aptly represented!  Thank you to every one that got your mo joe on at our first marathon!

And of course, we have to discuss the Big 2011 Event ~ as Joe Vasil really put that Mo Joe in motion on 10/1 and 10/2 running back to back marathons for John Owen.  He certainly derailed duchenne with raising $14,568 for PPMD!  Please read his race report  – Joe, Jeannine and Kyle are a permanent part of our JOA family and we are eternally grateful!

July 29, 2011 Picnic in the Park ~ What a Blast

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Thank you for the awesome time at German Central on Friday on 7/29/11 2,500 guests+!  Lawless, Northeast Ohio's Premiere Country Band, The Polka Pirates, Jabez, Famous Dave's, DQ, Augies & awesome sponsors and amazing auction items certainly derailed Duchenne $30,000 to send to research! Thanks much - save the date for 2010 7-27 12!    More to come soon.... 8-7-11      

Coach to Cure party on 11/13 ~ what a blast!  100 Guests joined us to watch the OSU MI Game at German Central.  It was a fantstic way to spend a 40th Birthday!  We may have more football parties in the future!!! Thanks to all that helped to send over $7,000 to PPMD research!

October 10 & October 17, 2010 Marathon Moms

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Julie Reardon is at it again.  In May of 2009 she ran her first ½ marathon in the Cincinnati Flying Pig marathon.  This year, 10/17/10 she ran her first marathon, “I pray with each step that I am running, God will give them to John Owen so that he can keep walking as long as possible”

July 29, 2010 Picnic in the Park

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Our Picnic in the Park was an enormous success!  We have given away $20,000 directly into the hands of scientists as a result of our event.  Over 1,800 friends joined us to celebrate the summer.  Our thank yous are endless to our sponsors, volunteers, supporters and family (our shelter).

I know you all know Marrissa Mehwald… our triathlete sophomore at Miami.  After encountering our Marathon Mom at our Picnic in the Park, Marrissa aspired to help John Owen through her amazing running, swimming and cycling skills!  Not only did she rank FIRST in her age group on September 20, at Hueston Woods State Park, but also she qualified for Nationals in March 2010 with her Miami U teammates in Nashville!!!  Oh, did I mention that she raised over three grand to help END DUCHENNE.  Marrissa, thank you for being our inspiration, not too many college sophomores would dedicate themselves to Run for Our Sons

July 30, 2009: Picnic in the Park

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The quest to End Duchenne hit hard in Parma Thursday night ~ so many wonderful, amazing and kind people poured into the gates of German Central.  We gave away over $30,000 in stuff from our local businesses!  The Mayor of North Royalton and several council members were on hand to man the corn hole tourney!

We have already booked 7/29/10 for next year – so Save the Date

We wanted to get a quick update to you and say most of all THANK YOU!

Everyone one we talked with had a great time and it was amazing to Tony and I that every time we turned around we saw someone we knew.  How blessed we are and how blessed John Owen is to have the incredible support of our community, friends and family. 

Please view this site and add your photos on this website set up by our dear friend Mary Ellen JOA PIP 2009

A special thank you to Monica, Sue, Karl and Bryan for all your clean up help on Friday!

We deposited over $17,000+ today from the event and know that there are still a few more folks sending donations yet ~ so more updates to come once things here slow down (um I don’t think that will happen soon since it is full steam ahead here at JOA)

8/22 is our Volunteer Thank you Party at our house so if you were one of the 160 volunteers ~ please rsvp to rutgerdumm@yahoo.com!!!

Phew, and I seriously thought I would have time after the picnic to send a real update and thank all the folks that donated on it as well – until then please view the Those that support us tab and we hope to get all our formal thank you notes in the mail by…. Hmmmm well soon!!

God bless you all ~ Thank you so much ~ Owen is the luckiest kid in the world!

A Message from Julie...

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Hello Everyone! Well I promised an update yesterday but I have been so overwhelmed by this experience I've been at a loss for words. I ran the 13.1 mile race in 2:04:20 and raised over $3,000.00 for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy via "Run for our Sons" to help end Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The Flying Pig was a great experience, I was in a huge mass of people and finally crossed the start line 6 minutes after the race had started. From there it was awesome, I have never seen so many spectators for a race ever. The hills were long and hard but there was always someone there cheering so I never stopped running. At the finish I saw the my family and the Dumm family cheering me on and was ready to burst with emotion. When I saw Jen (John Owen's mom) I was in tears as I squeezed the life out of her after the race. I finally realized that the boys/men with DMD have to run a marathon everyday of their life. So with my muscles still aching, I keep my chin up and smile hoping that one day there will be no such disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. So to add to the whirlwind of all of this, Jen and Tony nominated me for WKYC's "Return the Favor" contest. If you are inclined to vote for me you can go to www.wkyc.com, scroll down to the POLL, Click Julie Reardon - hit submit - enter the code on the screen - submit again. Voting ends Thursday at 7am. Thank you to all that kept John Owen and I in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks to those that donated and if you were unable to at this time may God bless you with good fortune in the near future.        Julie Reardon     We love you Julie!! Thank you for running for our son!! We are so blessed!

Wine to End Duchenne

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What an awesome, intimate wine party we had on April 22 at Gusto in Little Italy!  The food by executive chef Brian was fabulous – we literally felt like we were on the Food Network, the presentation, taste and sophistication was out of this World!

The wine and description booklet was phenomenal.  Special thank you to Belvino Fine Italian Wines, Vintner Select Distributor, Bowling Green Wines, Lago Restaurant & Wine Bar, Private Reserve Wines, Wine Trends, Traveling Vineyard and Vintage Distributors for donating to the way too cool Cork Pull!

John Owen had his first Shirley Temple and boy did he LOVE it! 

We had such a great time, especially when Mr. Salerno broke out his accordion and serenaded our guests. 

We are eternally grateful to Michelle, Jim, Billy, Brian, Fabio, Nicole and all the beautiful Salerno staff for helping us spread the word on this muscle wasting disease!  You give us cause to celebrate.  Your dedication to us warms our heart and gives us tremendous hope that we will find a cure for DMD!  Thank you!

June 11 and August 6 tickets are still available please call 216-664-1120 to order, $45 is a steal of a price!

2008 Events.......

Picnic in the Park 8-21-08

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Our picnic in the Park for John Owen and DMD on 8/21 was an amazing success! 

 We have so many people to thank for the amazing turn out of 1,000 people (by our estimates).

The evening kicked off with Sovereign Grace Church Band entertaining the crowd.  DJ Ken Moenich kept the crowd moving with his awesome music.

Megan Kruze and Elena Schermaier dazzled the crowd with their rendition of  “The Prayer”

Mary Kay Manning Dancers kicked it up with awesome recitals, followed by a show stopping, board breaking presentation by Practical Martial Arts karate masters!  The St. Ignatius Juggles had the crowd laughing at their awesome antics, Captured Moments Photography snapped precious memories of our event and Lisa Haid painted more kids faces than she ever has!

Lawless hit the center stage and the crowd could not stop raving about how great they sounded!  They are awesome!!!

Dairy Queen (Sprague Road), Tony K’s and Campbells Sweets feed us  - over and over again since we ran out of food TWICE!

We had tons of amazing Kid’s games thanks to St. Albert the Great and topped it off with Pie in the Face for all to enjoy (the kids LOVED the whipped cream)  The kids prizes were out of this world – courtesy of Mattel, Inc, Dr. Riley, Northcoast Nissan and St. Albert the Great.

John Owen presented several Gratitude Train Awards for people that have gone above and beyond for our cause – though it was hard to single out a few folks because clearly EVERYONE on our website has gone above and beyond for us.

We raffled off 106 gift baskets – amazing – just amazing how much we gave away – how much our local vendors GAVE to us to give to you!

We had 26 silent auction items, including a John Owen Original Landscape oil painting that went for $300!  

The Strongsville Police had to shut down portions of Rt. 82 as we all left – we created a traffic jam!!

So – in all this – it was not the amount of money we raised (for that night it was about $15,000) it was the overwhelming support we received from our family, friends and community.  We are so grateful to you all….. thank you

Total to date we have raised $23,330 to split between our amazing advocates to find a cure for DMD and Type 1 Diabetes!

This is our attempt to thank everyone that has helped us…… it is a long list

Special thank you to Micki Gura - you are Awesome Micki - we love you

Miracles for Muscles

What an amazing show of support and dedication from our ATD associates, ATD customers, vendors and Friends.