Looking for a few good men

[RescueRangers]

I am part of an Epilepsy awareness group that is organizing an event for the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida. The event will be held on Saturday, 3 December and will be similar to the Overland Expo with equipment demonstrations and talks by subject matter experts (well, people who have actually done the stuff ) but covering all outdoor activities. We have not announced the event officially yet as we are still looking for a location but wanted to put out a feeler to you all.

We are going to have an Overlanding station, at this point consisting of me and my Jeep, and are looking for anyone in the Jacksonville, Fl., area who would like to be a part of it. We are looking for one other Overland vehicle (non-Jeep would be great) and a few other people who would like to talk about Overlanding.

One other thing. I don't want to get into shameless advertising so I will keep this brief. If you know of any outfitters that might like to donate items to be raffled off to support the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida, please talk to them for us.

Our group is the Meepsters (Facebook group) and you can find us at Meepsters5k.org

Ok, I will go sit in the corner now.

 

[IronPercheron]

I want to do something, but im in tx...

Is there something i can do from here

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[RescueRangers]

If you are up for a long drive we would love to have you join us. Short of that, go to Meepsters on Facebook and join. Once we get approval on our location we will be posting tons of information.

If you want to help the Epilepsy Foundation in general, look up the Epilepsy Foundation of Texas. I saw they have a number of offices. Our group started last March as a 5k group (hence the Meepster5k web address). Since then we have gotten a number of Jeep clubs and companies involved and have hosted several events and have several in the planning stage, including our Outdoor Expo. Just given them a call, they are always looking for volunteers and support.

 

[IronPercheron]

On it

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[Mrs. Lars]

Depending on where you are in Texas, you might look up the Epilepsy Foundation of Central & South Texas, too. EFT is primarily North (Dallas to El Paso, I believe. They may catch Houston.) EFCST is South/Central - it operates primarily out of San Antonio, Austin, and Corpus Christi, but covers quite a bit more area. Both groups have quite a few things coming up soon. I'd love to get involved in something overlanding related. Definitely not opposed to visiting Florida! :) Thanks for the idea, and we'll definitely be talking to our guys out here about this. <3

PS, website for EFCST : http://efcst.org/

 

[Lars]

^ What she said. @IronPercheron maybe this is an opportunity for us to do something similar in TX, perhaps under the flag of OverlandBound. Not to threadjack from @RescueRangers too much since what he's doing is near and dear to my heart.

 

[Overland-Indiana]

My brother suffers from Epilepsy, his is due to bad choices in his younger years. Severe alcohol poisoning to the point of him having to be revived, he was "dead" long enough to cause the damage that led to a life long struggle with seizures. If he avoids alcohol and takes his medication then his "episodes" as he calls them are very, very rare. I am far away but can offer my support and best wishes. Good luck!

 

[RescueRangers]

^ Not to threadjack from @RescueRangers too much since what he's doing is near and dear to my heart.

Dude, theadjack all you want. This is a lot better than what we were asking for.

. . . perhaps under the flag of OverlandBound.

Actually that is a good idea, maybe we can get a couple banners made up and go under Overland Bound instead of just individuals. Maybe?

 

[RescueRangers]

Our daughter has it also, got it from a concussion suffered from a fall on the playground. Its weird how that happens, I had a concussion that put me out for two days and I'm fine but her minor concussion resulted in Epilepsy.

Our daughter is the one that wanted to start the 5k group. I got with the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida and it went from there. We started in March of last year with five people and by the end of the year we had close to 200 and she received the Volunteer of the Year award for Florida.

The Epilepsy Foundations are hurting for funding, they just took a big cut, and can use all the help they can get.

 

[Mrs. Lars]

I was diagnosed with it when I was 6 or so. No official reason has been named, but we have a lot of theories that point to heredity. I think I might have been hit from both sides of my family. Yay me! :D ... I'll spare you my story, though. Once you get me going, you'll get all 30+ years of my life history. :) Short version: Yes, epilepsy sucks, don't wrap your kids in bubble wrap, live your life. I've been blessed with crazy supportive people who told me to do whatever I want and be whatever I want to be. I probably push more boundaries than I should sometimes for @Lars' sanity, but he's still with me. <3

So glad to see all the love for the EF here. I used to have a blog when I was more active in advocacy, but a server crash destroyed my work (sigh), and I never got it going again. It's been on my mind lately, though, and this thread might have pushed me back in to it. So, @RescueRangers , thank you for that!

 

[RescueRangers]

You know, I have been around a while and have a wall full of various awards but the one that always means the most to me is when someone says . . . "Thank you".

 

[MarkW]

Being on the north side of Orlando your event would be maybe 2 hour drive for me so I would be interested in helping if possible. You could use my vehicle as well if you still needed another. Not a big public speaker but would do what I can to help.

 

[RescueRangers]

Just want to take a minute to update you all on what we have going on with our event. We have a park in Jacksonville to host our event but had to change our date to 12 November 2016. We are getting positive feedback from almost everyone we contacted, including comments like "I've never heard of an event like this, great idea".

So far we have the Florida Paddle Trails Association and Florida Paddle Club, North Florida Bicycle Club, Jacksonville Chapter of the South Off Road Bike Association, River City Search & Rescue, the National Park Service, U.S. Coast Guard, the Audubon Society, Sierra Club, and Humane Society. We also have the Florida Outdoor Academy to talk about Wilderness First Aid Training. We have a camp here in Florida for kids with major medical issues who will be joining us also well. We have been talking with a local outfitter, Black Creek Outfitters, who is very interested (their main focus is on paddling), and REI is quickly warming up to the idea. For Overlanding we have a local Offroad fabrication shop who is heavily involved in Overlanding (in fact, the owners will be getting back from South America just before the event) who will be bring out some of their vehicles.

We are still in need of sponsors. The Epilepsy Foundation got hit with a big budget cut so they can't help with event costs. We are trying to keep this a free event and are looking for a sponsor (or sponsors) who can help cover the costs. If you know of any company that might want to help, let us know so we can talk with them.