Sponsored by Knock Out MS Foundation
After her diagnosis with MS in 2017, Christina Carville found inspiration in her children to start a foundation aimed at making the lives of people in our area who struggle with the debilitating disease a little more tolerable.
March is MS Awareness Month, and the Knock Out MS Foundation will have several opportunities to give back during the month, including a Geaux Orange Challenge, give back nights at local businesses, dollar orange dress days at local schools and a Locked Up for MS Fundraiser on March 25.
Multiple Sclerosis is a neurological disease that affects the central nervous system, causing the body’s immune system to attack myelin, a sheath that protects the nerves. While the cause is unknown, MS not only affects the body as a whole, but it can target the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. This causes a wide variety of systems including pain, fatigue, muscle weakness, cognitive and mobility issues and more.
“My daughter was so young, only 18 months, but my son who was 5, it really hit him hard, and so I promised him then I would do whatever I could to make some type of impact or difference and help fight it,” Carville says.
Carville’s journey as an MS advocate began with volunteering for the National Multiple Sclerosis 
Society, but she saw a need for a local platform that could directly help people with MS in their daily life and improve their quality of life through assistive equipment, weighted blankets, cooling vests and other items. “People don’t budget for those things because you don’t expect that it’s ever going to happen to you,” she says.
To raise awareness during the month of March, the Knock Out MS Foundation is challenging
businesses, schools and other groups to Geaux Orange by dressing in orange clothing, taking a picture or video and posting on social media. Tag @KnockOutMSFoundation, and challenge others to accept the Geaux Orange Challenge themselves. Be sure to use the hashtags #GEAUXORANGEFORMS and #KNOCKOUTMSFOUNDATION.
Additionally, Carville says that several schools are having students wear orange on a designated
day in March and bring a $1-$2 donation depending on the school’s preference. Donations go directly to the Knock Out MS Foundation.
The Locked Up for MS Fundraiser will be held March 25 at Beausoleil Coastal Cuisine, where prominent Baton Rouge supporters – including City Group Hospitality’s co-owner Stephen Hightower – will be “locked up” until they are able to raise enough money from friends to post bail.
