it's everyone here from the brain injury association of washington our friends at brain works headstrong we work together we make it happen and it's exciting and i'm thrilled to be here i am deborah crawley an executive director for the brain injury association in washington i want to thank you all this is if you build it they will come and you guys have come out to show your support for all the work that all of us do on a daily basis it's important work it's ongoing and it's fun you guys we have so much fun because this is a community that cares and a community that comes together to support one another this is inclusive this is everyone we're going to change things we've changed things already and we're just moving forward to let folks know this is one of the number one causes of death and disability in the state for young people we're going to make things happen for survivors family members caregivers working together so much can be accomplished and we're seeing that today i want to quickly thank a couple people in particular my staff julie dawning one out of her comfort zone  staff here just a good year donal brittany's here night our girl and i forget paulina who handle registration like a charm it's a lot of work but they they do it with a smile on their face and i'm thrilled i'm really lucky to have that type of staff at the office every day it's a fun place to work and we welcome you any time i want to thank our sponsors rock'n naga and is our man sponsor and just to let you know they came on board months ago when we had like three people registered like do that i'm like i like you guys i now want to enter does one of my colleagues here erin rance has taken on the leadership of the brain works club house really made it i love going up there i visit now and then it's always like a highlight like i call and can i come visit because you guys are fun and i love the members i love being there and it really is because of air and leadership that that whole environment exists and that program is taking off in leaps and bounds and here you go thanks for being here thank you deborah we're all here today because we know somebody with a brain injury people here some people here have brain injuries it's a it's a large community of people that's all coming together and so you might even come here to support you know the brain injury association of washington or headstrong or seattle brain works but really by being here you're supporting on all three and you're supporting this growing community of people who are coming together to support people with brain injury and the people who care about them so i just really thank you for being here and i also want to thank our members who did a tremendous amount of work to get ready for this event making signs and putting banners together and making the signs that you see going around the chorus and just doing all the things bringing their people here doing all the things that it takes to get this community  roland and i see a bigger group than last year i just i just love to see how many faces out there of people who are meeting each other and getting together to meet other people who support people with brain injury and thank you for being here i'll keep it short my name's desiree douglas i'm a headstrong we founded headstrong six years ago after my son had a severe traumatic brain injury and we realised we were going to make it if we didn't find out who else was out there who was living with this and so for me personally this is just beautiful because i knew we couldn't be the only ones and i figure we got to crawl out from underneath the bed and find each other and get out in the sunshine again and learn how to rebuild a life after something that devastating happens so it's just great pleasure to see how many we are here and i know you get bigger because as we all know this is what they called the silent epidemic in aaron's numbers were right i want to give them special thanks here today where is will will will organize twenty six volunteers from seattle works and boeing to come out and help us all that is on the route so ok is out working i also chase ducks away so we want to give special props for that  also want to thank acme bowling they donated tickets for prizes you know people like that in our community who have seen our families come out they know what we're working with just generous to the bottom generous to the core so i had a thought about today oh it this is a this is a big day you know we started last year we're doing it again today but it's really not just about today it's about putting a marker in your life says i can be outside i can be out of my community i can get out and have exercise i can meet new people because that's what it takes to build a great life and so we thought i'd be cool if you could just turn to the person to your left and introduce yourself and tell them why you came today and then julie will tell us about the  or rolling in that direction that's north there is a halfway point and an ending point where we have people who will be helping you out if anyone needs  wheelchair because they can make it they have walkie talkies and we can get that to you so you go up to the end people will tell you to turn around come back and if a half mile is what you want to do as you're completion hold up the half mile finish sign right where you started you are finishing however if you want to really go and do a full mile there's a sign that will tell you one mile continue on and you continue on this way you go down to the end where there are people who will tell you this is the end of the route turn around you come back and then you'll get your one mile finish yes mile on each leg so if you go only the north leg that's one half mile if you want to do a mile you can do another half  mile in battle make it a mile if you're really energetic another time and you'll have two miles we're going to start with runners and fast people so if people people with brain injury is that they've been through a life change you know band where's i've heard several people now say that they died and and now they have a new life and this new life common theme that i've seen with this new life is that people want to give back and they want to help other people and they want to contribute to the knowledge around brain injury to science they want to they want improvements to be made  rehabilitation they want support for people they want people to have better lives and walk around and roll for thought is is really widely supported in the brain injury community because people feel like they have something that they can really give back to and they can help other people they want i think people with brain injury want other people to have what they have and so want to get the word out sometimes people have pretty severe physical effects from being in an accident some of those stem from the brain injury itself and some of them are just from being in a car accident and having broken limbs and things like that oftentimes though that people have weakness or paralysis on one side people often have balance issues people have a hard time moving along in the same way that they did before the injury oftentimes so sometimes you get to know somebody and they they roll in you get to know in their own wheel chair and then after you've been around them for a while they're starting to take steps and they're starting to walk on a walker and they're starting to walk for ten steps and then they're starting to walk for twenty steps and then they're they're walking around the room and it's a pretty amazing thing to see younger but it was fun and i enjoyed this event's first time i've been over here first time ever and since my injury three and a half years ago i'm happy to be here but everybody else here people like talking to each other a lot of people so excited about being part of something new that's sort of support for people with brain injury that especially my friend ok i would like to thank the brain injury association and the other sponsors for this event today brain injury affects many many individuals and in our home affected us deeply two years ago when we lost our four year old grandson nephew cousin to a brain injury  we are grateful that but for the event today to share information about education prevention and living with with brain injuries and so we're very delighted to be here thank you there are great things happening in the community right now and people are coming together people with brain injury are coming together in a lot of different ways there are support groups that people can join where they're doing not just talk roots which are fantastic but also things like yoga and going on albums to movies and to eat together people are really doing some innovative stuff and thinking about ideas that they can do in the support groups that help bring the people together and also sort of supplement the idea of a support group as just a talker but there's really not enough you know people if they go to all these different things still don't always have enough support and friendship places to socialize in their lives and so events like this can really bring people together to have a good time together and do some of those things well we we're involved with headstrong my kind of like members and when might because my son was injured in a car accident in december fifteenth two thousand and five so he's approving him his approved quite a bit that's corey right there anyway believe it or not he said prove quite a bit he's getting a lot of therapy he gets to go to the clinics that u p s and then he swims three times a week at the y and then he has a speech therapist and so it's a long long haul it's good to know people are there people it's encouraging for to see how other people improve to yeah there's a whole new life after brain injury and people can find it when they're when they're doing all the things that it takes all the rep and repetitive tasks that they need to do to be making progress all of a sudden people feel that progress and they can see it for themselves hi i'm glen child one i'm a fifty three year survivor of a rare and operable brain tumor and brain condition the brain tumor is the and the condition is polly michael or p m g for short the right side of my brain i'm the oldest living survivor of this condition and this will be my first brain injury walk but i do all the brain tumor the whole you u s i'm doing about thirteen this year to support brain tumors research and brain injury research here thank goodness it's not raining and you know the seattle seattle weather has been terrible this summer but i'm so happy that there are so many people out and they're they're doing a great job but look at all the people that are common so late this morning but i'm very happy that this production has been put on thank you i'm aaron grants and i'm program director for the brain works we're community based day program in the clubhouse model for people with brain injury seattle brain works partnered with the brain injury association of washington and headstrong in a joint effort to have a fundraiser together and to bring attention and awareness to  the subject of brain injury we had a great time together planning the event and the idea for the walk around and roll was the brainchild of deborah crowley the executive director of the brain injury association of washington and she kindly invited c l brain works our program and headstrong to join to join this to make it a sort of a community effort to support people with brain injury and they are the people who love them so they walk where the roll as a fundraiser for the three organizations and it's also a way for the three organizations to let people know that there is support out there for them in the community and the support has to do with  advocating for people with brain injury do we have in encouraging research around brain injury that can help with efforts  rehabilitation and prevention it's also a great way to bring together the community of people the community of survivors and their family members and their friends and their caregivers and professionals in the community and bring all those people together so people can meet each other and get to know the great things that are happening in people's lives and the struggles that people are undergoing and maybe different ways to deal with the struggles and people make connections that at an event like the walk or in a role for thought that they wouldn't be able to make it other places because they just often are in the same place at the same time because people are so very busy making it through their day we're really happy at seattle brain works to be have been invited by the brain injury association of washington to join into this effort with them because i feel like it's really great for people for community groups to come together and support people from all different angles so we were our clubhouse program is supporting people with sort of direct service showing people working with people in our clubhouse program a program is really a concrete way to help people move forward brain injury association is doing great work with their advocacy around brain injury and with their case management program where they're helping people one on one with the day to day all the things that they have to do to to get to get their lives together you know there are so many people new people in the united states having brain injuries every year there's one point seven people million people in the u having brain injuries every year and it takes a whole community of support there's a new focus on brain injury because of people returning from combat and worse we're still having increasing numbers of people with brain injury of non combat people people having accidents and then thinking about thinking about brain injury it's just a very difficult thing for people people have a life and then all of a sudden their life is very dramatically changed in a way that most of us have a hard time understanding and the road back can be a very long road with a lot of switchbacks so sometimes when people have a brain injury they have difficulty understanding how their behavior after brain injury might affect other people when something in their environment changes might have a hard time being flexible in order to sort of take that change in stride and keep going it just might bring everything to a halt and and that can be hard on on people around the person as well people might not understand what's happening with the person that's making everything come to a halt and this lack of insight can be really hard on on survivors themselves obviously because because when everything stops there it doesn't everything in that environment is still going on and so it can be a great stressor for the family members if somebody is having a hard time that also makes a hard time for caregivers and family members the families of people with t b i have a long journey themselves that they don't always realize in the very beginning and that becomes apparent over time and sometimes changes have to be made in the family too you know brain injury can affect the whole family in a lot of different ways including that one family member might have to change employment there might be financial struggles if the caregiver needs to be hired and paid for and there's other family members who might not get the attention that they got before like children in the family might need to adapt to appearance who's who needs a lot more attention they're not getting the same attention from yeah parent and that can be really hard for for them to deal with families have to have to pace themselves when it comes to brain injury and think about how to sustain themselves over a long period of time take care of themselves and so they can be there for the person with the brain injury because that person has a long road to so they walk where their role was a great success because we had about double the number of people that we had last year our first year was last year and so that was that was fantastic we had all those people together talking to each other and encouraging each other and supporting the survivors who were there and a lot of our members said that they were really encouraged by knowing that all those people were there for them we want to take this and expand it outward because the education and support that's happening in this small community there's so many people with brain injury out there that don't have any support at all and they really need that support and they don't know where to find it so i think that getting the word out there about you know what the brain injury associate what the brain injury association of washington provides about seattle brain works and what we do and about what headstrong does and help people know that there's there's there's things out there that they can go to that there may be support groups in their community that they can that they can get hooked up with other people there's there's things out there for people but there needs to be more