The 2018 Multiple Summits for Multiple Sclerosis (MS4MS) campaign is underway! Join the Rocky Mountain MS Center in our efforts to conquer MS in this unique and fun event.
MS4MS is a do-it-your-way approach to raising awareness and support for the Rocky Mountain MS Center. Whether you hike a trail, walk laps in your own neighborhood, or set out with a team for the peak of a Fourteener… Pick your own summit and conquer it with us!
MS4MS began in 2010 as a uniquely Colorado approach to an active, outdoor fundraising program for the MS Center. Walks, bike rides and 5k races are pretty common across the country, so why not shake things up a little by featuring some local flavor? Look to the west from anywhere on the front range, and you’ve got a pretty obvious local feature looking back at you – the Rocky Mountains.
Sign up for yourself, then create a team, join an existing group of hikers, or head to a trail on your own. Friends and family can support your efforts right on your personal fundraising page.
Hike a 14er: Take your MS4MS team to new heights, hiking one of Colorado’s “14ers.” If you’re not in Colorado, no problem! Find a hike near you, and see how close to 14,000 you can get. Or you can go for the MS4MS record: 19,341 feet atop Mount Kilimanjaro in 2016!
Hike a Flat 14er: If altitude’s not your thing, you can still join us! Map a route on flat ground — 14,000 feet is just a little under three miles. Clients at the RMMSC’s King Adult Day Enrichment Program (KADEP) hike a Flat 14er every year. Join us on a trail near you!
Anything in Between: Whether it’s a nearby hike in the front range, or a challenging walk right in your own neighborhood, you can make it an MS4MS event! Just register on our site and start spreading the word to your friends, family and anyone else who might light to support your efforts.
KADEP’s Flat 14er
In what’s become an annual tradition, clients at the King Adult Day Enrichment Program (KADEP) join MS4MS in their “Flat Fourteener” – an accessible walk measuring more than 14,000 feet around the MS Center facility in Westminster.
“From the start of MS4MS, we wanted KADEP to be involved,” says KADEP Director Michelle King. “Coordinating a large trip into the mountains would have been difficult for us, given that clients are only here during certain hours and on weekdays.” Additionally, a mountain hike might have excluded some clients, since KADEP serves people with many different ability levels.
“We invented the ‘Flat Fourteener’ as a way to get our clients involved in MS4MS, and it’s become an event they look forward to every summer,” said King. Each year, the Flat Fourteener is modeled after an actual 14,000-foot peak in Colorado, and clients traverse the equivalent of that summit’s height on a flat, paved course. This year, KADEP took on all 14,199 feet of Mt. Yale – that’s about 33 laps around the Flat Fourteener course, or just over 2.5 miles.
This year, KADEP’s Flat 14er will once again serve as the official MS4MS Kickoff event, happening one the grounds of the RMMSC’s KADEP facility in Westminster. KADEP clients will be joined by RMMSC physicians, staff and volunteers on their hike. If you’d like to join us for our kickoff hike, please contact Sarah Kyger at (303) 788-4030 ext. 111, or skyger@mscenter.org.
The Flat Fourteener concept has been used by other teams over the years as well, as a great way to include young and old along with those who may have mobility issues. Many KADEP clients will break their hike down into more manageable pieces, hiking parts of the Flat Fourteener throughout the summer and keeping track until they reach their goal.
Getting Started
Get started by heading to summits.mscenter.org and choosing what’s right for you:
Register: Click “Register” to sign up, create a fundraising page, and make plans to head out on your own hike. You can keep your hike private, or get involved with a team. On your personal fundraising page, you can take a few minutes to tell people why you’re participating and some details about the personal summit you’re tackling. Email and social media tools will help you spread the word to your contacts and ask them to support you.
Form a Team: If you’d like to organize a hike and invite others to join you, you can be the Captain of your own team. You’ll get all the tools needed to manage your own personal fundraising page, plus some new features to help recruit and manage your team easily. You’ll also be able to manage a team page where you can spread the details about your hike, as well as some handy features to help you recruit team members via email.
Join a Team: If you already know a friend who’s formed a team, you can quickly and easily join them. If not, you can search a list of teams to find those that are open to the public, and hike with a group. You’ll still get your own personal fundraising page to help with your own efforts.
Donate: If hiking’s not your thing, you can still support MS4MS! You can search for a friend or relative and donate on their page, locate a team and support their efforts, or make a general donation to the MS4MS campaign.
All registrants will receive an MS4MS t-shirt to wear on their hike, and an MS4MS bumper sticker. Team Captains will also get an MS4MS Summit Flag to bring with them on their hike.
Whether you head to the top of a 14er, or just trek around a local park, take your camera! We would love to see pictures of your MS4MS efforts. Post them to social media and tag @MS4MS, or email them to publishing@mscenter.org.
