USAF’s journey to play 4 those who Can’t

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Okay, I figured I'd post this up, spread the word, whatever. It's worth the read, and there's not a TL;DR, so just sit down and read it.  

For anyone that doesn't know, here's the story behind tremor. 

The special, Film Festival Winning, piece on Chris should be an extra in the next MWAG video.

This is from one of the Co-Captains, Chris Clark.

" Let me introduce ourselves, our cause, and our team.
My name is Christopher David Clark. At 36 I taught salsa five nights a
week, played football every Sunday; I had a great group of friends. I
was the owner of a new video game company and had been on the cover of
two business journals in my first six months of business. I was
literally at the top of my physical, social and business game. I was
"Chris the ever young!" my friends would say. Best of all, I had just
met Karen, the woman who would soon become my strength and partner in
my life’s greatest struggle, and, to my great fortune, my wife. 

At 37 I was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease. A
neurological disease made famous or infamous by Mohammed Ali and
Michael J Fox. This disease touches 60,000 new lives a year in the US
alone. During my diagnosis, the doctor said about my dancing "I would
find another line of work". 

At my 38th birthday party I had to be helped across the room by Karen
and others that I had dipped, spun and twirled less than a year prior.
I remembered thinking "Is this how Mohammed feels?" as I sat there as
50 of my closest friends cried and gave me cards saying how they'd
always remember me as I was while I smiled a shaky smile from a face
that felt, and looked, like it had been turned to stone. I was not
surprisingly, shocked, confused, crushed. 

And that was enough of that! What Parkinson's didn't know was that
mother always said to us as children "WE NEVER QUIT! If you're still
breathing you can try"! Karen echoed that sentiment, her commitment and
belief in a bright and rewarding future while living with Parkinson’s
has never faltered. Quite simply put we don't understand "giving up" it
is just not in our nature.

We learned all that we could about my illness and its treatment.
Through the love and support of Karen, my family, my friends, and the
incredible staff at Johns Hopkins, I improved until I was dancing and
playing paintball again (a sport which I love as does Karen). Many
people can't even tell I have the disease. But despite my outward
appearance and my ability to compete in my sport, I am reminded by my
illness every day that the clock is ticking and I must make the most of
my time as an athlete and role model. We knew that I had to do
something while I could…

Today, Karen and I are the co-captains of Tremor, a 7 man National
Professional Paintball League (NPPL) ( www.nppl.tv ) team from Maryland
named in honor of my illness and our cause. 

In 2006 Team Tremor was hands down one of the most media covered
paintball teams in the world! Tremor press releases have been released
in Germany, Japan, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom,Norway, and
Sweden. 

We estimate that through this network of media outlets our message of
Parkinson's awareness has reached over 300,000 people on three
continents, most of them young people, who have never been touched by
Parkinson's, and THEY CARE! We get calls daily from as far away as
Texas and California from people offering to move to MD just to play
for Tremor. Members of our team commute from Boston to Maryland every
week just to practice! 

Team Tremor is a grass roots effort, and is to date totally funded through the incomes of its players.

Last season we had a year of scheduled outreach and community awareness
programs including buying NPPL grandstand tickets for Parkinson's
patient's, paintball clinics, and speaking engagements at Parkinson's
support groups in addition to missing the last two events due to
fundraising shortfalls. This also forced us to cancel our 2006
scheduled events and caused us to loose some players as well, but it
did not diminish our spirit or our drive to succeed. 

In 2007 we are back with a new group of dedicated players and a new
awareness, outreach, andfund raising campaign. We are committed to
compete in all five NPPL events this year because as the NPPLLIVE.com
webcast showed the NPPL provides us with a national stage for our
awareness campaign and acommunuity of support that we have worked very
hard to gather. 

We desperately need your donations and support to continue our 2007 campaign for a cure.

50% of every dollar you contribute though this internet campaign will be donated to the National Parkinson’s Foundation.

The remainder will be used only to support Tremor's 2007 awareness, outreach and fundraising campaigns!

Your Partners in The Struggle,

Team Tremor
"

The team is full of a great group of players, and I think that by Kansas city, we'll be vying for a top 8 or 9 place at least in D2.  I have been on teams all over, and I wouldn't trade these guys for the world.

Here's some pictures from Boston, if anyone is interested. 

Captain, Chris Clark, laning the tape off break.

The team off break. I'm third from the right. I look slow, but It's only because I was letting another player push off of my foot for a better start.

Karen, Chris's Wife, and Co-Captain. Yes, she is a girl. And, yes, she is a baller.

Dan/"Dubs"

Bob Long. (No, not that one.)  Inventor of the Half-block Cocker/Owner of Turtle Innovations.

Robbie, the other snake player. Even though we both played all the games. 

And of course, the pictures of me, I have to whore myself out.

Pardon the unmatching flexes. I just got picked up by the team, and have not had time to color-coordinate. 

Okay, so the last couple were from a CFOA, but damn I'm sexy.

And for some humble pie, me getting bunkered at the fifty.

Okay, so I know a lot of you probably won't still be reading at this point, but if you are, check out the team's myspace. www.myspace.com/teamtremor.  A small clip of the film is there, along with some more pictures and info.  You can also donate to the Parkinson's fund if you want, but I Don't know if I'm allowed to post that or not. Mods, feel free to delete the link if you don't like the donation option. 

Thanks, Nick!

EDIT: And today is my birfday.  Go me!

Edited by usafpilot07 - 22 July 2007 at 8:53pm