22
Fox Focus | Community
Building Mileage
for Milestones
in 2020
Dan Dreiling (L) and Maureen
Ashdown (R) celebrate
completing a marathon on behalf
of Team Fox with a friend.
by KAT MCCARRICK
By definition, Team Fox is the grassroots
fundraising program of The Michael J.
Foundation (MJFF). In practice, it’s the
familiar ring of an orange cowbell, the “give
100 percent” trademark, and family. Built by
those affected by Parkinson’s who fundraise
to actively alter the trajectory of the disease,
Team Fox is characterized by people like
Maureen Ashdown of Cleveland, Ohio —
who’s been there since the beginning.
When Maureen’s father was diagnosed with
Parkinson’s disease in 2006, she turned to
MJFF. As an avid runner living in Ohio, she
decided the Chicago Marathon was a great way
to fundraise for Parkinson’s research. “I sent
out an email to tell people I was running to
raise money for MJFF, on behalf of my father.
The response was incredible,” she recalls.
Back then, there wasn’t an official Team
Fox Chicago Marathon team. It wasn’t until
Maureen saw an email about another Team
Fox member, Dan Dreiling, running Chicago
that Maureen learned she wasn’t the only
one. “I immediately looked up Dan’s page
— he was running on behalf of his brotherin-law
— and saw that he lived 20 minutes
away,” says Maureen. She found a way to
get in touch with him and the two ended
up training and fundraising together for
years. “Dan’s been an important part of this
journey with me,” she says.
Eleven marathons and countless new
friendships later, Maureen remains committed
to Team Fox. “Seeing my dad’s disease progress
over the years, the more he was struggling, the
more it’s meant to me and my five siblings.”
“My dad got me into running. He ran the
New York City Marathon in 1987,” she says.
After he passed away in September 2018,
Maureen’s mother gave her his medal. In the