Food Allergy Walk - Kyle Dine Event August, 22, 2009

The second annual Seattle area Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Walk was at Warren G. Magnuson Park August 22, 2009. It raised over $35,000 for FAAN - a non-profit based in Virginia that supports research and education for life-threatening food allergies and anaphylaxis.

Our Seattle area support group, WA-FEAST sponsored musician Kyle Dine to come in from Ontario for the day. I got to "chauffeur" him and this gave me even more time to spend with him and his delightful girlfriend. Immediately following the FAAN Walk, he gave a concert for the younger children. Then later in the afternoon he facilitated a team building event for Tweens and Teens about food allergy management and then early evening several of us kayaked at Lake Washington. It was a memorable day. Kyle Dine empowers children, teens and young adults through his music and his workshops. He is a LOT of fun and I realized during the day that I had really high expectations of what he would be like and he did not disappoint!

And even his last name is empowering to those with life-threatening food allergies!

He gave me permission to use one of his songs for a slideshow of the day:

Peanut-Controlled-Zone at Safeco Field

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

The first ever peanut-free section at Safeco Field was August 5th. This has been something I would have loved even more a decade and a half ago starting at the Kingdome but I was thrilled the Mariner's became the fifth MLB team to offer this. We have been to games but it's very stressful wading ankle deep in something so prevalent at a ballpark that can cause a severe reaction to your loved one. And then there's the decontamination process before you get in the car so as not to bring it in to your home. At previous games, kind ushers moved us to remote sections of the Kingdome and Safeco so we weren't completely surrounded by flying peanut dust.
But this game we could relax and enjoy! I actually giggled several times after dropping my sweater on the ground and picking it up finding it not infested with peanut skins! (Yes, it was waaay too warm to wear it but the Girl Scout in me wanted to "be prepared" in case it cooled after sun down).

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

The media was there which always makes me wary since they can (and have) turn allergy parents into a very nasty story. But the media and the Mariners all seemed very enthusiastic about this section! Our section ushers were awesome! They acted like bouncers - there had been many threats posted about intentionally bringing massive quantities of peanuts to cause harm to peanut allergic children since this was a ridiculous issue to them.

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

It was also my Dad's birthday - we showed up at four (three hours before game time and an hour before the gates opened) to preview the section with the event organizer since the Mariners really wanted to know if they did everything right. Since we had loads of time before the game, we had a leisurely dinner at Hit It Here Cafe and watched batting practice . It was a BEAUTIFUL night for baseball and the Mariners even won their third straight beating the Twins 8-7!

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008