UPDATE: 7/6/2012

I Googled "tallest mountains on east coast", from our campsite last Saturday night.  I found that 19 of the 20 tallest peaks were in TN and NC (it actually goes all the way to 40 of the top 41 peaks are in TN and NC). I decided that we would hike one of these mountains every year then I immediately realized that we do not have 20 years left to complete the hikes.

There are currently 20,000 boys in the US living with Duchenne MD (300K worldwide).  In 20 years, the majority of our sons will have lost their battle with this terrible disease (average life expectancy is 25). Our efforts to find a cure have to be much more aggressive. It will most likely take billions of dollars of research to discover a drug, pass all clinical trials, and make it available to humans.

If you can donate a billion dollars then I would like to talk to you about writing a check. However, if you do not have a billion dollars then I want to ask you two favors. My original unstated goal was to raise $15K for Cure Duchenne so, {Favor #1} make a $10 donation to Cure Duchenne. {Favor #2} Regardless of whether or not you are able to provide financial support, will you please support me by reposting this message and adding the statement "I support a Cure for Duchenne" to your status. Raising awareness is half the battle of finding a cure for any rare disease.

Duchenne is the number one fatal genetic disease to affect children of every race and every nation in the world. There are 900 million active Facebook users and 80% of them reside outside the US. If 1% of the active Facebook users each donated $10 then $90 Million would be raised for research. It will take you 10 seconds to share this message and begin harnessing the power of Facebook.

Please help me meet my goal and make a difference in my son?s future.

Original Posting

calm [kahm; older kam; spelling pron. kahlm]

adjective

1. without rough motion; still or nearly still: a calm sea.
2. not windy or stormy: a calm day.
3. free from excitement or passion; tranquil: a calm face; a calm manner.

By definition, "calm" would not describe us or our stories. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) brings out the roughest of emotions and hurls your life and family into anything but a calm sea. We are very excited and passionate about our families and ending this terrible disease.

So what makes us CALM Dads? Well there are four reasons brought together by an unlikely set of coincidences. In September 2004, my son Mackenzie was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which is classified as rare disease.  In 2007, I found out that one of my coworkers (Nick) has a son, Alex, with this same disease.  This information seemed highly unlikely and unbelievable since DMD only affects 1 in 3,500 boys {I don't even know 3,500 boys}. Fast forward to 2009 and I get call informing me that another co-worker (Jimmy) has a son, Luke, who was just diagnosed with DMD. Three guys working together who have sons with the same rare disease? Unbelievable! Moving on to 2011, I get a call from a friend asking if I would be willing to talk to her co-worker (Brad) who just found out his son, Caleb, was diagnosed with DMD. {This is like a really bad Kevin Bacon game}. Four Dads all working in the Chattanooga IT industry have just become part of the global Duchenne family.

In case you have not put it together yet, Caleb, Alex, Luke, & Mackenzie are our sons. We are CALM Dads and we are participating in Cure Duchenne's 2012 Pick Your Peak Event. Duchenne families will be hiking mountains all over the globe on June 23rd & 30th to raise awareness and funding for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  Please visit each of our personal pages to learn more about our sons. While you are there, please consider making a tax deductible donation to Cure Duchenne.

Thank you in advance for your generous support,

Todd Crawford, Jimmy Dotson, Nick Ware, and Brad Nance