Gwendolyn's story

Be sure to read Sunday's newspaper for a touching story about an ordinary couple who are doing extraordinary things in the midst of personal crisis.

Santa Barbara, California residents Bill and Victoria Strong have made it their mission to drive 5,000 miles with their 20 month-old daughter, Gwendolyn, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a paralyzing and terminal disease, across the country in an RV armed with banners, corporate sponsors and a call to action -- To END SMA!

The Strongs will be rolling into Palestine on Tuesday. Why are they stopping in Palestine?

Victoria’s grandparents, Harry and Madge Gillespie, were formerly longtime residents of Palestine, as were her great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents.

Her grandfather Harry Gillespie is 104 years old and moved from Palestine to Mississippi in 1964.

“After our daughter was diagnosed we set a trip to see him but it was canceled due to her health,” Victoria Strong said via a phone interview while traveling in the RV on their way to New Mexico on Friday. “Gwendolyn can’t travel by plane so this was our last option. We got an ‘OK’ from her doctors. Gwendolyn is doing well and Harry is doing well, so now was the perfect time.”
Strong said her grandfather still associates his life a great deal to Palestine.

“He spent so much time in Palestine that it really is his home,” Strong said. “All of our ancestors are buried in Palestine. I’ve spent a lot of time there and I want to visit the cemetery and show my family the town because of our family roots.”

The "Sponsor-A-Mile to END SMA" drive (http://SponsorAMile.com), in which each mile driven is sponsored at $10 a mile, has a goal of raising $50,000. All proceeds will go to the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation (http://gwendolynstrongfoundation.org), which seeks to shed light on this deadly childhood disease and to fund SMA medical research that specialists and the National Institute for Health (NIH) believe is within 5 years of a cure.