NAF Board Meeting

On June 13 I took a trip to Minneapolis to attend the National Ataxia Foundation Executive Board Meeting. NAF invited me to attend their meeting so I could meedt the board members and talk about the future.
When I got to the airport I found out that my flight out of Sacramento had been canceled so I quickly jumped on a different flight that got me to Minneapolis a bit later than I had planned. Arnie Greutsmacher picked me up from the airport after being stuck in traffic on the way. We headed straight to the meeting (which had already started) and were in slow moving traffic the whole way. The traffic ended up to be a blessing in disguise as Arnie and I had a great conversation and shared some ideas.
We showed up to the meeting about a half hour before the end and furtunately they saved some great news for the end. Harry Orr, The Foundation's Research Director, was on the phone and he announced that the Kyle Bryant Translational Research Award was being given to Australian researchers and their British collaborators who will be investigating the catalytic antioxidant CTMIO as a possible treatment for Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA). Very exciting! For more info check out curefa.org or ataxia.org.
I had a great time meeting everyone and the greatest thing about this trip is that we are all working together to make the next ride bigger and better!

Me, with NAF Executive Director Mike Parent

The rest of my time in Minneapolis was spent checking out the local sights:

Lori and me at the Walker Art Center


Mall of America. I am not a mall person but this place was crazy, so huge that it had an amusement park inside. I had to check it out.


It gets so cold in the winter that it is very unpleasant, even unsafe, to go outside so many of the buildings are connected by skyways.

I had a great time in Minneapolis and I look forward to working closely with the National Ataxia Foundation.