CATEGORIES: Team CMT Members

Telling Our Story

by | Jan 9, 2020 | 0 comments

CHRIS WODKE, TEAM CMT FOUNDER

Lots of people have seen pictures of me in my Team CMT uniform. I’ve been doing events since I founded the team in 2011. What many people may not know is I also wear another uniform, that of a member of the National Ski Patrol (NSP). I’ve been a member of a local patrol in Milwaukee for Wisconsin for 30 years. My job is to make sure customers are skiing safely and to take care of injured skiers. I love patrolling because it gets me outside in the winter and the people on my patrol are wonderful. I’ve made life-long friends. 

I started skiing in college and like anything athletic it took me quite some time to become a proficient skier. I took up running, swimming, cycling and rowing to become a better and stronger skier. It was the start of my life as an athlete. It was a new experience for me since I was always the slowest runner at school and really clumsy. I tripped and fell a lot. I still do. 

I founded Team CMT in 2011 to use my athletic events to raise awareness of CMT. We have over 200 athletes in 40 states and 7 countries. We have athletes doing events to raise awareness almost every weekend. It is so inspiring me to see their efforts and to hear their stories. I am so grateful for their efforts. They play a huge part in raising awareness of CMT. I am so proud of their efforts. 

This year I got a chance to take our story to a whole new audience. The NSP has a partnership with Subaru. For a number of years, they’ve selected ambassador’s to represent their brand. This year there were 400 applicants for the 10 ambassador positions. 

To be selected I had to submit a written application online. My story of being an athlete with CMT was a large part of my application. I said I would use the car and my platform to tell the CMT story to a whole new audience. I was selected as one of two storyteller ambassadors because of my CMT. I was told the committee was intrigued by my story because it is so unusual for someone with CMT to be a patroller. My job will be to drive my wonderful Subaru for the next year, take it to events and write about it on my blog. I will also do posts that will be appearing on run4cmt.com. Basically the same thing I’ve been doing for the last 9 years. 

It isn’t just my story, because I will be telling the story of CMT as a representative of our community. This is just another larger venue. 

I hope it inspires each and everyone with CMT to tell their stories in their own way. We each have a part to play in raising awareness and raising funds to find treatments and a cure for CMT. I hope you will follow me over the next year through my blog and find your own way to tell our CMT story.

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Di Billick Runs 10k for Team CMT

Di also did something special for Team CMT. “I took my body to the absolute limit yesterday, Sunday, April 15th, in honor of Chris Wodke’s Boston Marathon run which took place the next day. I walked (no jogging or running) in one direction and had my husband pick me up when I couldn’t go any further.”

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