Hello Everyone and Welcome to Mariann's Minions 20th annual Home Page supporting the Stepping Out to Cure Scleroderma Boardman Walk!

It is the 20th year that my family organizes and conducts a walk to support the National Scleroderma Foundation! (It has been 22 years since my wife's, Mariann, diagnosis with scleroderma - she is doing pretty well and in no small part due to the efforts of the National Scleroderma Foundation)

To celebrate our 20th Walk we are going BIG this year!

Food trucks, kids activities, basket auctions, lunch, music...a truly family fun day to recognize our 20th anniversary!

Thanks to all of our sponsors, donors and supporters who helped us make our "get back together in-person" walk last year such a success.  And our deepest gratitude to everyone who has made our 19 walks a fundraising cornerstone of the OH chapter of the National Scleroderma Foundation!

Last year, Mariann and I put out a challenge that we would match all donations for our teams up to $5,000.  With your help (and spurred on in at least some cases by the fun folks had in spending our money), we hit that target and happily wrote the check for the full amount!

So we figured, in the spirit of going BIG, let's help our generous friends and family have some more fun (and hopefully spur more and larger donations) - we are upping our matching challenge to $10,000 for our teams!  

This past year, I started in my role as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Scleroderma Foundation.  The privilege of holding this position has given me an even greater perspective on all the positive ways the Foundation supports our patients/caregivers, provides education to the scleroderma community and funds research to find the cause and the cure.  Through the generous support of our partners and our donors, the National Scleroderma Foundation is the recognized leader supporting the scleroderma community and is the leading private funder of research (these past 2 years we have funded over $4 million in peer-reviewed research grants).

As a reminder, Scleroderma is a chronic, often progressive immunocompromising disease affecting hundreds of thousands of people and their families. This disease affects 4 times as many women as men and literally, the name Scleroderma means "Hard Skin". It can cause thickening and tightening of the skin and too often leads to serious (and sometimes fatal) damage to internal organs such as the heart, lungs and kidneys. It is a highly individualized disease and its involvement may range from mild symptoms to life threatening complications. As a chronic autoimmune disease of the connective tissue, the body's immune system literally attacks itself through the overproduction of collagen and is often accompanied by other debilitating conditions.

Please help us again this year by making a contribution to find the cause, discover the cure and support our patients/caregivers.

Use the links ("Donate Now") to make a secure donation. And if you can, join us on June 3rd - in person or even take a walk wherever you are and share the videos!

If you wish to mail-in a gift, send to:

Scleroderma Foundation

300 Rosewood Drive, Suite 105

Danvers, MA 01923

Make checks payable to: Scleroderma Foundation. In the memo line, please add my full name and 2023 Stepping Out - Boardman OH (Ohio Chapter)

As always, we are blessed by such generous friends and family and wish all of you the best of health this coming year - and our heartfelt thanks for helping us support those who have this disease and who are supporting our fight!

With our deepest gratitude and affection,

Mariann and Kevin Boyanowski