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WTNH News Channel 8 Anchor To Host 2007 WAMS Luncheon

      NEW HAVEN, Conn. Local news anchor and reporter Jocelyn Maminta, WTNH News Channel 8, will serve as mistress of ceremonies for the 2007 Women Against MS (WAMS) Luncheon to be held in New Haven on Friday, June 1. Maminta, who joined the station in 1993, co-anchors news with Keith Kountz at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. She also regularly reports on health-related topics and medical breakthroughs. Maminta has served as mistress of ceremonies for the Greater Connecticut Chapter WAMS events for the past three years.

Wendy Booker has been named this year’s keynote speaker. A self proclaimed “soccer mom,”  Booker’s life turned upside down then, just as quickly, right side up when she learned in 1998 she had multiple sclerosis (MS), a progressive neurological disease affecting the central nervous system.

Booker, then 44 and the married mother of three, was a typical mom balancing the demands of a career in interior design and the needs of her growing family. Her diagnosis, although devastating at first, served only to catapult her from ordinary to passionate enthusiast. A onetime jogger, she began to train relentlessly for marathons, including Chicago, Boston, New York and the Marine Corps. Marathon. Unwilling to give into unpredictable and sometimes baffling symptoms, she charted a course to overcome a course that later led her to mountaineering and the Seven Summits.

“Not only did I not think about my illness while I was running, but I wanted to reassure my kids and my entire family as well as myself that not only was I going to conquer mountains, figuratively and literally, but also this illness,” says Booker, a native of Rye, N.Y., and currently a resident of Bolder, Col.

Booker, now 52, went on to attend the Mountain Climbing School of New Hampshire and has also trained in Colorado. To date, she has scaled four of the Seven Summits, enabling her to share mountaintop experiences with others offering a perspective borne out of tenacity, grit and a driving desire to overcome obstacles. Booker will share her amazing story and personal account of life lived in the face of MS at the 2007 Women Against MS (WAMS) Luncheon.

According to statistics, three times as many women are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as are men. As a result, women across the nation now come together annually, state by state and chapter by chapter, to learn, through inspirational personal accounts, about the devastating effects of this potentially debilitating disease and the latest advancements in care. As part of a special luncheon, women dedicated to joining the fight against MS raise critically-needed funds to ensure continued scientific research to find a cure. Since 2001, these dynamic groups have been known as Women Against MS or WAMS.

The Greater New Haven 2007 WAMS Luncheon will be held on Friday, June 1, at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, Conn., at noon. More than 200 participants attended the 2006 WAMS event, raising more than $30,000.

Funds raised through Greater Connecticut Chapter events, such as WAMS Luncheons, ensure ongoing scientific research to find a cure and provide for vital programs offered by the chapter to the more than 6,000 Connecticut residents diagnosed with MS.

For more information on joining the 2007 WAMS Steering Committee, attending the WAMS luncheon or serving as a table captain, please contact Kristen Mauro at (860) 714-2300, ext. 224, or e-mail at kmauro@ctfightsMS.org.

5/22/07

Karen E. Butler
Vice President of Communications
Greater Connecticut Chapter
tel +1.860.714.2300
cell +1.860.997.4487
 
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