Ferrarone Family Gives Back

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

August 31, 2003
by CAROL RITTER WRIGHT

One of the diseases covered under the umbrella of muscular dystrophy has profoundly affected a family in Pittsford.

Sara, 16, and Laura, 13, are the daughters of Margaret and Bob Ferrarone. Both girls have Friedreich's ataxia, a disease that causes loss of balance and diminished fine-motor coordination.

Using wheelchairs and managing with laptop computers, the Ferrarone girls are able to keep up with their schoolwork.

But their disease has prompted the family to organize an annual event to raise money for research that they hope will find a cure for muscular dystrophy in any or all of its forms.

That event is a walk that begins on the Erie Canal path in Pittsford and ends with a family picnic at Nazareth College.

The walk has taken place for four consecutive years, and this year's was the most successful of all, Margaret said.

About 500 people attended, including nearly 400 walkers as individuals and teams. The event raised an amazing $100,000.

A check in that amount will be presented during the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon on Monday afternoon. Margaret is scheduled to appear on WHEC-TV (Channel 10) to make the presentation along with Bill Hartnett, a walk volunteer who survived being hit by a bus in 1998 and spent several weeks in a coma.

Margaret hopes that someday Sara, Laura and thousands of others will be able to overcome muscular dystrophy: "There's just a lot of phenomenal research going on," she said.

The Ferrarones also have a son, John, 18, who is a freshman at Union College.