More than 500 people participated in the Hope Flies Walk For Abby Saturday in East Windsor.
The three-mile walk through the Broad Brook section of East Windsor was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd and beautiful weather. Walkers started at Broad Brook Elementary School traveled Rye Street north to Main Street, right at Depot Street, right on Perry Lane, right on Reservoir Avenue and ended at East Windsor Town Hall.
Some people ran and others pushed baby strollers as they walked. The walk was initiated by Carol and Joseph Sauerhoefer in 2011, the parents of four-year-old Abby Sauerhoefer, who suffers from mitochondrial disease.
The walk was to raise money for The Foundation for Mitchondrial Medicine, which does research to advance treatments for autism, Alzheimer’s, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s. Last year’s goal was to raise $10,000 and about $40,000 was raised.
According to the Foundation for Mitochondrial Medicine, Mitochondrial disease means the power plants in cells don’t function properly. When that happens, some functions in the body don’t work normally. It’s as if the body has a power failure: there is a gradation of effects, like a ‘brown out’ or a ‘black out’.
