Black Woods Blizzard Tour gearing up for great event, helps people like Dawn Kregness

Dawn Kregness loves to quilt, stamp, and spend time with her family.

These things are becoming more difficult, as she deals with ALS.

“I was diagnosed a year and a half ago,” she told us from her Duluth home. “My legs don’t work very well, and my speech is getting difficult.”

Still, she carries on, with the help of her husband, Michael.

“We’ve been married for 48 years, and have three sons and four grandchildren. That’s what counts,” she said.

She just started a new medication. And she was part of the Healey trials, which is aiming to find better treatments. She received an infusion for six months. “I do it to help those who are coming behind me.”

The Kregness family is very thankful for the support of the ALS Association, Essentia Health, and other groups that support ALS patients.

Those includes Never Surrender, Inc., which organizes the Black Woods Blizzard Tour. They donated over $1 million dollars last year, to help with so many ALS related causes.

This year’s ride is expected to be the biggest yet, with 265 riders. They even had to move locations because it’s grown so much.

All the fun kicks off on Thursday, February 9th, at Black Bear Casino. There are three different trails that the ride groups will take up to Fortune Bay Resort Casino on Lake Vermilion. Friday, they will ride to Grand Rapids Timberlake Lodge and return Saturday to Black Bear for their Welcome Home Dinner Celebration.

Dawn and Michael and two tables worth of people will be at the dinner. “We are so grateful for everything Never Surrender has done for our family,” she said.

The ASL Association helps them with equipment, connections, and respite care.

If you’d like to support them: http://www.neversurrenderinc.org