Guild Announcements

2nd Annual Woodinville Winemaker's Triathlon & After Party Fun(d)raiser

40+ Woodinville wineries are eager to compete for the trophy at this exclusive winemaker event. Are you ready to watch all the fun, meet all the winemakers & taste their wines? Click here to learn more about this event or here to purchase tickets. Sponsorship opportunities are described in the sponsorship kit document.

New Guild T-Shirts Available

Attention Mito Medical Specialists – We need your help to volunteer at Camp Korey – a week long camp for Mito kids August 2-6, 2010.
Click here for more details (PDF Flyer).
In addition to mito specialists, Camp Korey is looking for other volunteers. For additional information please click here or go to the Camp Korey website.

'Cure for Mito' Auction and Dinner

Thanks to the generous support of our auction attendees, donors and sponsors, the guild raised over $175,000 at the 2009 auction, bringing our total proceeds raised over the past 7 years to over $1.2 million for Seattle Children's! These funds are being used to support our efforts at Seattle Children's to one day have a Center for Metabolic and Mitochondrial Diseases and we are grateful to all of our supporters over the last few years that have made this all possible. Visit the auction page to find out about making auction donations, or becoming an auction sponsor.

Camp for Mito Kids at Camp Korey in Carnation, Washington

From August 2nd through August 6th, 2010, The Mitochondrial Research Guild is pleased to announce that Camp Korey will be hosting a camp dedicated to children with mitochondrial disease. Camp Korey, located in Carnation, WA, is a medically supervised camp staffed with physicians and nurses, and trained camp counselors for children suffering from serious and life threatening illnesses. The camp provides a week-long experience of camp programs and activities for children ages 7-16 at no cost to them. For information about the mito camp click here.

Do you want to make a donation to the guild through your annual giving campaign at work? Or, make donations directly to the guild or donate items for the annual auction? Please visit the donations page.

What is Mitochondrial disease?

Imagine a plant that is unable to make use of the sun and water surrounding it. Over time the plant will not function properly and will show signs of distress, its leaves will begin to wilt and eventually it could die. That is what happens to people with mitochondrial disease.

Everyday, we consume food to make the energy our body needs to function. If our mitochondria are not functioning correctly then the body's organs begin to suffer.

A person's brain can be impaired, their vision could become dim, their muscles can twitch spastically or they can become too weak to walk or write, their heart could be weakened, and they might not be able to eat and digest their food.

For large numbers of people, especially children, this is precisely the situation in which they find themselves due to defects in the mitochondria.

Depending on which cells are affected, a child can suffer from strokes, seizures, gastro-intestinal trouble, blindness, deafness, muscle failure, diabetes, kidney and heart trouble, developmental delays, immune system problems and liver disease.

Whole systems within a body can begin to fail and the life of the child is compromised, changed or ended.

Experts estimate that one in 2,000 babies may inherit some kind of mitochondrial illness and some experts are saying that the number could be as high as 1 in 1,000. 10% to 50% of these children will die before their teenage years.

Currently there is no cure.

Defects in mitochondrial function have now been linked to many of the most common diseases of aging including Alzheimers, and Parkinsons.

For additional information on how you can help please contact Jill Herczog at j.herczog@nwmito-research.org or Ashley Farrington at a.farrington@nwmito-research.org.