Three young East County women are planning to walk 50 miles in three days in a multiple sclerosis fundraiser to support a friend who has the chronic disabling disease. The trio — Keely Hunt of Santee, 31, Brittani Frederick of Santee, 27, and Jen Taylor of El Cajon, 27 – will join about 220 others in the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s 2013 Southern California Challenge Walk MS, Sept. 27-29. The Challenge Walk will begin that Friday morning at Carlsbad’s Flower Fields and end around noontime Sunday in downtown San Diego at Embarcadero Marina Park South. The National MS Society’s said about 80 of the 220 walkers have been diagnosed with MS.
The three friends will walk in support of their friend Emily Rangel, 32, of El Cajon. Rangel was diagnosed three years ago with MS, a chronic, unpredictable and disabling disease of the central nervous system with no known cause, cure or prevention. Frederick and Rangel became friends five years ago after meeting at a Jazzercise exercise class in El Cajon. The three walkers have formed a spicy-sounding walk team for the Challenge Walk event, “Emily’s Bitches.”
The minimum donation required to walk in the Challenge Walk is $2,500 per person. A fundraiser for the girls will be held on Saturday, Sept. 14, at Manzanita Brewing Co., a popular local restaurant and microbrewery at 10151 Prospect Ave. in Santee. Manzanita Brewing will donate half of every $5 tasting ticket sold from 1 to 10 p.m. on that day. The public is invited to assist the girls in their fundraising efforts. Challenge Walk information, as well as donations to walkers, can be made at www.MyMSChallenge.com. Hunt, Frederick and Taylor also have a Facebook page for updates, www.Facebook.com/EmilysMSGirls.
