Friend,

Halloween is tomorrow and that means the holidays are right around the corner!  

The holidays bring new opportunities to fundraise – and one is Amazon Smile.  From now until November 2nd, 5% of purchases through AmazonSmile will go towards LSI.  Set up is easy, there's absolutely NO cost to you and LSI is able to move our mission forward with funds raised.  For more information and to sign up for AmazonSmile, click here. 

Save the date for GivingTuesday which is November 27, 2018.  Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving. 

Before the holidays roll around, we have one final event of the calendar year on Saturday, November 3rd – the Lupus Patient Education Event at RUSH.  This is the second year for this event and we are so grateful to Dr. Meenakshi Jolly and her team at the Rush Lupus Clinic for making this event possible.  The event includes three formal presentations, an informal discussion with Drs. Jolly, Sequeira and Nika from the Rush Lupus Clinic.  You can find out more and register here.

Events like this are only possible due to the amazing support LSI receives from the Illinois Lupus Walks and the Lupus Charity Runner Program.

Our Chicago Walk – the last of the year – was held last month and together 800 walkers raised over $76,000!  

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon was earlier this month and we had 22 runners who together raised $50,000!  The Lupus Charity Runner program is a great opportunity to guarantee your spot in the Chicago Marathon and raise awareness and funds for our mission.  We have a terrific program evidenced by so many runners who come back to run for us year after year.  We are registering runners for the 2019 Chicago Marathon and we already have three repeat Lupus Charity Runners signed up!

As you can see, we are already deep into planning our 2019 calendar – stay tuned for more announcements on educational opportunities, awareness activities and fundraising events.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Together we make a difference.

Mary Dollear
President, Lupus Society of Illinois

2018 Chicago Lupus Walk a Huge Success

On Sunday, September 23, 2018 the LSI hosted the 18th annual Chicago Lupus Walk.  800 people came out to support the lupus community and over $76,000 was raised to support our mission in Illinois.

Thanks to our Chicago Walk Ambassador, Eddie Silva, all of the Team Captains, walkers, volunteers and sponsors who helped make this event so memorable.

Harwood Heights Car Show

On Sunday, September 23, 2018, the Village of Harwood Heights hosted its inaugural Car Show and used the opportunity to raise awareness and funds for the LSI!

The Horan family made this opportunity possible and we are so grateful for their continued support.  Not only was the event a huge success - bringing in 3x the number of cars expected - it raised $1,000 towards our mission!

Thanks to the entire Village of Harwood Heights, Lawrence Steiner, Trustee, Village of Harwood Heights and the entire Horan Family for making lupus awareness a priority!

2018 Bank of America Chicago Marathon Lupus Charity Runner Team

On Sunday, October 7th, over 44,000 runners participated in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and 20 of them ran for the LSI.

For these 20 runners, participating in the race required hard work for months prior to race day - and LSI was right there with them every step of the way.  

We are so proud that again this year, we have Lupus Charity Runners signing up to run the 2019 Chicago Marathon for LSI!  It says a lot about our program that our runners come back year after year.

If you'd like to meet our 2018 runners and find out the many reasons they run for LSI you can find them here.