The reason we do this auction is twofold: We love to see our friends-eating, drinking and being merry & we love to help the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Oregon Chapter and Meat Fight!

The reason we are so passionate about the later two is because Melissa was diagnosed in 2013 with Relapsing Remitting MS. Over the course of 10+ years, she’s taken well over 500 injections, had three rounds of IV steroids at the hospital that lasted up to five days, spent hours in an MRI machine and had plenty of bumps, bruises, [MS] hugs, Cog-Foggy days, and lots of spasticity in her lower back and hips, making sitting and standing hard.

But she carries on! In 2014, she found the MS Society and participated in her first WalkMS event in Portland. Later that year, she rode in her first BikeMS event, making it 26 miles before her body was so over heated and she bonked (cyclist terms for crashing in energy, mood, and all around feeling like shit). But she was proud and decided to make both a yearly event!
Want to know how many miles she (and her husband, Rob) have done?

• 2014: 26 Miles
• 2015: 33 Miles
• 2016: 65 Miles- First Metric Century ride with Rob (going forward)
• 2017: 33 Miles
• 2018: 100 Miles- First Century ride, on Meat, her bike that was donated to her by Meat Fight!
• 2019: 65 Miles- Second Metric Century ride!
• 2020: 38 Miles for Bike MS your way thanks to Covid
• 2021: 35 Miles
• 2022: 23 Miles and the first year of Team Meat Fight Willamette Valley
• 2023: 22 Miles

Sometimes she forgets she has MS, but then there are days where she is so pooped, she can’t not think about it. This is why she (and Rob) ride. This is why she is passionate about Meat Fight and the support that organization has given her (a bike, skills to attempt a 70.3 Iron Man course in Texas, and friendships to last a lifetime).

There is no reason not to help find a cure. To help those who are struggling with day to day life, surviving (not living) with MS. Because sometimes it’s just getting through the day to day…MS patients are not living. We need to make it so people can LIVE again! The MS Society helps with those things, whether its AC units, help with costs associated with having MS, support through their MS Navigator program, etc. Meat Fight helps by encouraging MS warriors to their bad ass selves by getting on a (meat) bike and doing an endurance ride, tackling a (meat) hike with other warriors, or taking on an endurance event like a marathon, or a half Iron Man, at no cost to the MS warrior!