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MDA Goodwill Ambassador’s Heartfelt
Thanks
 May 25, 2005 – Sierra Nevada's Former MDA Goodwill
Ambassador Bethany Pipes thanks IAFF members for affecting
her life in a big positive way.
To all my wonderful fire fighter friends,
I thought this might be a good time to
send an update to area fire fighters on some of the things I
have been doing since I first became Sierra Nevada MDA
Junior Goodwill Ambassador. It's important to me to let
those who've influenced my life know that their hard work
was not wasted, and that good things continue to happen as a
result of their efforts.
The biggest news is that I have been
nominated and accepted to attend the Congressional Students
Leadership Conference this summer. I will be attending the
Medicine and Health Care Workshop from July 1 to July 10,
2005 in Washington D.C. which means I’ll be in our nation's
capital on Independence Day (hurray!). Just today, the Reno
Rodeo Foundation called with a financial commitment for my
trip to Washington, D.C. that took me over the top of my
fundraising goal.
I've only been working on this project
since Thanksgiving, so I'm pretty psyched that so many
wonderful friends, business people, and organizations have
made my trip to nation’s capital possible. I found out not
long ago that I'll be staying at Georgetown University for my
entire 10-day visit.
If you want to find out more about Lead
America, the organization that conducts these workshops,
there is a lot of good information on their web site at
www.lead-america.org . I am so excited about making a trip
this important. I know it's something that will affect my
entire life.
Here is a list of many more things that I
have been able to do over past few years:
• Became Sierra-Nevada Muscular
Dystrophy Association Junior Goodwill Ambassador for four
years officially, five years total, including one year as
MDA Junior Goodwill Ambassador for the State of Nevada.
• Summer participant since age six in
the Horses Unlimited program in Sloat, CA.
• Interviews with the Portola Reporter
about my MDA activities, Horses Unlimited, my
neuromuscular disorder, and my upcoming trip to
Washington, D.C.
• Spoke twice for a disability
awareness event here in Portola - once before students,
and once for the public.
• Active in Girl Scouts for five years.
• Previous volunteer at High Sierra
Animal Rescue in Delleker, socializing dogs and going to
Reno with the staff twice times to offer dogs for
adoption.
• Won second place in an essay contest
sponsored by the American Legion on the subject "What the
American Flag Means to Me" in 6th Grade.
• Have a 3.68 grade point average in my
freshman year of High School.
• Portola High School Freshman Class
nominee for Homecoming Princess 2004.
• Active at Portola United Methodist
church since age five. Acolyte for the past four years.
Current Youth Member of the Pastor-Parish Relations
Committee. Youth Lay Leader.
• The "male" hamster I purchased for a
project in Biology this year (to keep something alive for
a month) became eight hamsters four days after I bought
"him." Three of the baby hamsters survived. I kept one of
them and arranged adoption for the other two into good
homes.
OK, I put in that last one to make you
laugh; but it really did happen, and my mom was not happy
when she got the call from Portola High School that the one
hamster had become eight!
Most of all, I want to thank my fire
fighter friends throughout northern Nevada who've been such
a part of my life for the past seven years. I wouldn't be
who I am today - and I wouldn't have wound up on the life
path I'm on - without coming to know you through the MDA.
Your devotion to the MDA has made me want to be a better
person than I would have been without you.
Sincerely,
Bethany Pipes
Former
Sierra Nevada MDA Goodwill Ambassador
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