Western Missouri/Greater Kansas City Chapter
Shari Carroway
Volunteer Spotlight
Shari Calloway has been a committed volunteer of several years, due to her active lifestyle that sent her on a journey leading to the Arthritis Foundation. At age 62, this grandmother of two has had osteoarthritis for 10 years, mostly in her hands and thumbs, and has osteopenia, which is a step above osteoporosis. After retiring from 23 years at TWA in 2002, she began to look for ways to increase the physical activity in her life in order to ease the pains of arthritis.
She became involved with the Arthritis Foundation Joints in Motion marathon training program in 2002, while training with the Runners Edge Training group, and successfully walked the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon. She repeated the same marathon in 2003, and in the year’s since she has participated in several half-marathons as a walker, including those in Des Moines, Lincoln, St. Louis, and Oklahoma City.
Not only does she stay active and healthy by participating in these marathons, but she also attends yoga three times a week, and has remained a member of Runner’s Edge for six years, walking or running every Saturday morning with the group.
When Shari’s not busy exercising or participating in marathons, she spends a lot of her time volunteering for the same type of events. Particularly in the Kansas City area, she volunteers at almost all of the major Kansas City marathons, including Brew to Brew (from KC to Lawrence), the Amy Thompson Run, and more. She has become invaluable to the Arthritis Foundation, and has volunteered at the annual Jingle Bell Run for several years in a row, and even served as the chair of the Zona Rosa committee during the 2006 race. She volunteers for the Arthritis Foundation at almost all the annual events including the Arthritis Walk, Chiefs Night, the Golf Tournament, and Kansas City Corporate Challenge. Additionally, Shari regularly comes to the chapter office two days a week to volunteer by helping the staff with administrative work.
Shari is a phenomenal support to the Arthritis Foundation, and through her positive energy and active lifestyle provides great inspiration to the staff and those she works with, on and off the track!
