When you hear the word arthritis, you probably imagine a senior citizen. You might even picture one of the many commercials for a pain reliever with a senior gripping their joints in agony. Unfortunately arthritis strikes people young and old.

Did you know that? I’m betting unless you have an immediate family member with juvenile arthritis, you’ve never heard of nor considered the disease. This lack of awareness is exactly what motivated a group from Connect Class 14 to focus their final project on juvenile arthritis through an event this Saturday July 14th called P.L.A.Y.

Concerts in the park running kids Huntsville Alabama — For kids with juvenile arthritis normal activities like running around can be extremely difficult and painful.

PLAY

P.L.A.Y. stands for Promoting Lively Lifestyles for Arthritic Youth. This free event is open to the public and is designed to raise awareness about juvenile arthritis while raising funds for the Arthritis Foundation. Taking place at the South Huntsville YMCA, there is an afternoon of fun for the whole family.

Activities include:

Moon bounce
Dunking booth
Aquatic instructions
Snow cones
Cotton candy
Face painting
Balloon character making
Educational seminars

A disease with No age limit

In case the extent of your arthritis knowledge consists of the pain reliever commercials mentioned above, let me give you a little bit more info. According to the Arthritis Foundation, juvenile arthritis is an umbrella term used to describe the many autoimmune and inflammatory conditions that can develop in children ages 16 and younger. This type of arthritis typically affects joints.

And there is no magic test for juvenile arthritis. Instead it is diagnosed by a combination of blood tests and physical examines and so it can easily go undiagnosed.

Doctors also do not know what causes juvenile arthritis, nor is there any hard and fast rule about who is predisposed to get the disease (boy vs girls, a certain ethnicity, etc). Unfortunately, there is no cure for juvenile arthritis. [pullquote align=”right”]”In researching multiple nonprofit health organizations our group found that there was little knowledge of juvenile arthritis, and so we chose to focus our project on The Arthritis Foundation and raising awareness for juvenile arthritis.” -Rebekah Bunn, Connect Class 14 [/pullquote]

The goal of treatment for juvenile arthritis is to:

relieve inflammation
control pain
improve quality of life

According to the Arthritis Foundation, there are over 5,000 children in north Alabama living with juvenile arthritis. Proceeds from P.L.A.Y will support the Arthritis Foundation’s programs that help these children. Click here to learn more about these programs.

The arthritis from the aforementioned commercials is actually osteoarthritis, which is caused by the breakdown of cartilage. When your cartilage deteriorates, bones rub against one another, causing stiffness and pain, according to the Arthritis Foundation.

About Connect

You heard me mention Connect Class 14 earlier. A program of Leadership Huntsville/Madison County, Connect is specifically designed for young professionals under the age of 40 and helps participants learn, engage and network for increased community involvement.

But Connect is much more than a program or a class. Ask any Connect alum about their experience and you’ll get an earful. Like me. I’m a proud graduate of Class 13 and instead of an earful, you’ll get a pageful.

Your Connect classmates become your family. And not just for the months you spend in Connect. (Yes, I do realize how corny I might sound, but that does not make it any less true.) Despite the eight months that have passed since my class graduated I would have no problem calling any of my classmates if I needed their help with a project I was working on and I know they would do the same with me.

Connect Class 13 Leadership Huntsville Madison County — Members of Connect Class 13 (yes that IS my class) at an Alumni Event. We are STILL in touch.

That is a key component of Connect. It builds lasting connections. No matter how much you think you know about Huntsville, how connected you think you are, you will benefit from Connect and Huntsville will benefit from having you in Connect. Projects like P.LA.Y. are essential to Connect. Everyone in the class is dedicated to helping our community and changing it for the better.

Since I’ve now convinced you that Connect is THE place to be, click here to apply for Connect Class 16. Bummed you don’t quite fit in the Connect class? No worries! There are a variety of Leadership Programs, each designed for a different stage in your professional development from Challenge (high school) to Focus (Executive briefing) to Masters Pillars of the Community). Click here to learn about all of Leaderships’ Programs.