Kings Island has many new features for 2012!

This month’s fundraiser for AJAS could be a FUNraiser for you! Kings Island has donated a pair of one-day passes (good any day that the park is open) to AJAS. Buy a raffle ticket for $15 a chance! The drawing will be June 30, rain or shine.

Details:

• Each chance is $15. You may buy more than one chance. For every chance you buy, we will write your name on a little green ticket and put it in the magic blue AJAS raffle jar.
• Raffle drawing will be held on June 30, 2012.
• Grand winner will receive the pair of Kings Island tickets, valued at $107!!
• Four runners-up will be chosen, each of whom will receive an AJAS/Team Fuse t-shirt (color white, size Large).
• You can buy a ticket by
  • mailing a check to 2836 Westbrook Dr., Cincinnati OH 45211.
  • donating through PayPal.
  • giving the money to one of the AJAS officers.

    

    Four white t-shirts will be given away to runners-up in the raffle.

Paypal secure on-line donations:

Our captain at Mile 19 also told us that we did a great job with crowd control (I believe she said “best ever” a couple of times) and asked us to please work with her again next year. So put the first Sunday in May on your calendar for the Flying Pig, because we’re doing it again!

It’s tournament season! So far, we’ve been to two PSP events: Galveston and Phoenix. In Galveston a new record was set for rainfall while we were there; that doesn’t even factor in the cold and wind. I prefer to think of it as the PSP Tornado.

While we were in Phoenix, they experienced a record-tying temperature high of 103 degrees. But it was a dry heat. Right.

So having survived the Flood and the Fiery Desert, we’re anticipating Tornadoes in Chicago and another Monsoon when we return to New Jersey. At the end of the season we’re going to have to do a special “survivor” t-shirt!

Oh, and if you want some paintball news, Team Fuse right now is ranked 16th in D3. I’m proud of my guys getting out there to help bring attention to the cause.

While at the Phoenix Open, I was able to talk about Ankylosing Spondylitis to a bunch of fine First Responders from the Glendale Fire Department. I shared with them that the Spondylitis Association of America has made a great video about special handling that AS patients might require upon transport by emergency workers: “Managing Patients in an Emergency Setting, a Primer for First Responders.” BTW, I’m working on bringing that video to Cincinnati, in a joint presentation with and for docs and First Responders. Stay tuned!

Next stop on the tournament circuit: Chicago.

We like supporting an athletic event, too, as it involves fellow athletes. Many AS patients report that their symptoms get better with movement, which is typical for many forms of arthritis.

Come see us at the Pig!

Are there any people with AS running the Pig? I don’t know. If you know of any, please give us a shout!

This year we wanted to raise the bar a notch, and we’re off to a good start: we’ve already won more matches than we had last year at this point.

All dressed up with nowhere to go: after hours of delay, the team got to the field on Saturday only to be told they were now playing on Sunday.

Similar to what I noticed at World Cup, we’re really building a reputation in the paintball world. Once again, we had an announcement read over the PA system telling what we’re about and asking people to stop by the AJAS Awareness Booth.

AJAS Awareness Booth in Galveston 2012 with the flap half closed to keep out the cold

We did receive some donations in the booth and passed out a ton of our new “I KICK ASs” wristbands.

What’s that, you say? You don’t have one yet? I bet you haven’t seen our latest Team Fuse/AJAS t-shirt yet, either. Well, hustle right over to our donation premiums page and get you some!

We’re running out of the t-shirts, so we’ll be doing another run soon. As of this post, I have size Large, XL, 2X and 4X left (the 4X is a gorgeous red: suitable for your favorite Santa Claus by day or tiny Mrs. Santa by night). Sorry, our popular orange is gone. We’re considering doing long sleeve, so if you might be interested in that, drop me an e-mail at wendy.beckman@joinedagainst.org and let me know if you’d be interested in that option.

Now the next stop for Team Fuse and AJAS is Phoenix in April. We could sure use your help in getting there, as we’re going to have to fly again to this venue!

Strangely enough, Galveston tied the record for high temps yesterday, according to the National Weather Service. A record high temperature was tied with 76 degrees at 3 a.m.; a record high minimum temperature of 69 degrees also tied the record from 2000. I find these temperatures hard to believe. I swear I had frostbite on my fingers! I saw one report that said by the end of the day the temperature was in the 50s but felt like the 30s with the rain and the wind. Who knows.

What is much easier to believe is that a new record was set yesterday at Houston’s Hobby Airport of 1.33 inches of rain. And it’s all collecting in the Awareness Booth.

So we’re not getting too much traffic from visitors, but some of the players themselves have stopped by. So far I’ve talked to about 20 folks. A lot of the kids like our new “I KICK ASs” wrist bands.

I Kick ASs

(If you’d like one, click here and tell me “I KICK ASs.” Send me a couple of bucks through PayPal for shipping and your new wristband will be on its way.)

We have had a couple of people stop by looking for Air Heads, though, thanks to our sponsor Perfetti Van Melle! Anything to get them to pause for a while is a great help — and while they’re chewing, I’m telling them about ankylosing spondylitis.

The team had a rough day of play. I couldn’t see it because I was holding down the hatches in the booth, but they went 1 and 4 both times. The second match was played while Noah was building his ark. They’ll be back at it again this afternoon. The schedule will probably be off because after we all left the field last night, some mighty winds took some of the fields down.

Yep, it’s still officially winter until March 20. Maybe I can find some thermal underwear on sale before I head to the fields again this morning.

Last year was fantastic: in Brian’s 19 years of playing paintball it was his first time to make every tournament — and Team Fuse and the Awareness Booth were right there every time, thanks to everyone’s generosity. Considering the tough economy since we founded AJAS in 2007, and considering that about 75% of nonprofits fail in the first year, I’m thrilled that we’re here and we’re growing.

At the tournaments last year, people who stopped by the Awareness Booth were remembering us from prior tournaments and were remembering what we had said. That is key: so if, when they go back to their own homes and their own spheres of influence, they happen to hear a guy talking about back pain that is worse in the morning but gets better with activity, maybe some eye pain, they might say, “Hey! I heard about this form of arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis. You should ask your doctor about that.”

And now, we’re off to Galveston. Check out the Galveston action on PSP’s website here. I’ll be the pale Midwesterner in the AJAS booth!

Wendy

How are you guys doing? Well my last post shows me Skydiving and Climbing Mountains – and strangely this last 2 weekends I have been doing the same!

My Humira was stopped, so it has been 6 weeks without injecting. It was stopped as I missed an appointment to see a Specialist to confirm I was reacting well to the treatment. A letter was sent to my house but I was away working in Mexico at the time. So, as a result they (the NHS) said “Nope, you cannot have any more Humira until we see you”.

So after an hours drive North to the beautiful City of York I saw a Nurse and was given the Thumbs Up! Perfect! I injected last Thursday and it has not had any affect on me yet. It took about 4-6 weeks to kick in when I first started the treatment. So I am playing the waiting game.

Anyway, I should have taken it easy but being ‘Kenny’ I did the opposite.. check the pictures!! I mentioned the Crib Goch Ridge that leads up to a Mountain called Snowdon in the UK…. well here are some pictures. I climbed it again this weekend to get some pictures during the day so that I could share with my fellow AJAS supporters!

This picture is from Google to give you guys an idea of what we climbed.

Right now, we are fielding two teams: the D4 Blind Aggression and D3 Team Fuse, captained by Brian Warner, the man himself. After the first day of play, both teams are 1 and 1. Play continues tomorrow.

In the trade show area, I am staffing the booth with help from two of my sons: Christopher and John. Christopher is also an official field photographer, so he works in the booth when he’s not shooting pictures of the teams. This tournament we have added something new: a raffle, thanks to donations from Virtue, Guerilla, Planet Eclipse, HK, Rain Sleeve, and Blue Manatee Bookstore in Cincinnati.

I want also to add a big shout out to our ongoing sponsor, Perfetti Van Melle, who donated 1,000 Airheads for the booth, as well as a new sponsor: Cars Helping America. Donate your car or truck to them and they will donate half the proceeds to us.

If you’re in the area this weekend, stop by the booth and say hi!

I finally have Humira Injections!!! What a life changing experience! For those who dont know what Humira is or what it does please check the link below!

http://www.humira.com/global/injecting-humira-pen.aspx

I no longer have to take my tablet form medication. This consisted of Tramadol, a painkiller and Arcoxia (NSAID). All I take now is a sleek looking pen style injection every 2 weeks.

It took about 2 months for Humira to kick in, initially I was worried it was not working. Eventually, my body became pain free. Going to bed without painkillers was both strange and a wonderful thing.

Below – a picture of the Snowdon climb for Gerry - I have climbed this mountain about 5 times now. Twice for Arthritis UK and across the more dangerous Crib Goch ridge too!

Jumping out of a perfectly good plane seems strange....

I did both the climb and the jump before I got hold of Humira, so it is possible to live life to the max with this condition we have.

Keep smiling people – I will post up later next week!

Stay Strong

Ken

So the reason I’m writing today is a little self serving . . . I hurt. I’m in between injections and don’t know if it’s the weather (Cincinnati weather like to fluctuate +-20 degrees every day) but I’m not a happy camper.

I’ve been using the normal remedies like super hot showers, stretching and an obscene amount of advil, but I’m still achy. Oh well, such is life with AS. Even the super drugs like Humera don’t work 100% of the time.

Enough whining, and on to new things:
2011 should be a sweet year for AJAS.

1.) We’ve put the Fuse project into another league since it saw great success in October at World Cup. This means we won’t be on the beach for the first event, but rather in Texas for spring break! The booth patrol should have a great time meeting new people there

2.) We’ve welcomed a new member to the AJAS board: Christa Tutwiler. Christa comes to us from the University of Cincinnati Foundation and has mad skills. We’re thrilled to have her on the AJAS team!

3.) Wendy has been working hard on the idea of an AS conference in Cincinnati for next year. The idea is to get researchers, pharm companies, AS sufferers and other concerned parties in the same space at the same time to talk about our crazy disease. Sound like something interesting to you? Let us know in the comments section below!

Well, that’s all for today. Hope you all had a happy holiday and are already experiencing a great new year!

Brian Warner