Los Angeles Arthritis Walk raises $200,000

May 8, 2008

Media Contact:    
Teri Lim
(323) 954-5760, ext. 260
tlim@arthritis.org

LOS ANGELES ARTHRITIS WALK RAISES $200,000

Los Angeles  The Arthritis Foundation’s 7th Annual Arthritis Walk, a 5k fundraising walk, raised more than $200,000 this morning in Brentwood.  Seven hundred walkers, including former Dodger great, Ron “The Penguin” Cey, turned out at the Wadsworth Great Lawn to help raise funds and awareness for the Arthritis Foundation.  

 “Arthritis impacts so many lives and I am delighted to have helped to raise funds and awareness for the Arthritis Foundation,” said Mitchell Jacobs, Esq., chair of the Arthritis Foundation, Southern California Chapter. “The dollars raised at this walk will help us fund programs and research to help find a cure for arthritis.”

Alexa Sutherland, a 10-year-old resident of Monrovia who was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis when she was only 15-months-old, served as the Walk’s official child honoree.  ““We want to get people to understand that children have arthritis too,” said Alexa’s mother, Stephanie.  “So many people are shocked that Alexa has JRA, and they don’t understand.”

Arthritis is more widespread than imagined, affecting 46 million Americans, including one in five adults and more than 300,000 children. The disease also strikes more than 1.3 million people in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.  Arthritis is not an inevitable part of aging – and its impact on people’s quality and enjoyment of daily activities can be managed.  


Hundreds of Arthritis Walks are taking place across the country this spring.  Sponsors for the Arthritis Walk are City National Bank, Centocor, Abbott, KOST 103.4 FM, Ability Magazine, Enbrel, TripleFlex, BioMet, and Arthritis Today.