Angela and Luis Guajardo's Personal Statement Family: Luis and Angela Guajardo live in South Texas and have two daughters: Karina, 15, who suffers from MPS IIIA, and Anyssa, 12. Education and Profession: Angela received a BBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Texas at Austin, she also has her CPA license. She worked for the State of Texas for a handful of years, but for 12 years now has worked small part time jobs in bookkeeping, tutoring or at her church so that she can focus mainly on her family. Luis received a BA in Mathematics also from the University of Texas and works as an Estimator for an Insurance Company. Personal interests, hobbies: Competitive sports, word and number games, reading, playing with our dog; spending time with the kids and our families. Society fundraising activities: We attended our first conference in 1999. At this conference, both the Dants (The Ryan Foundation) and Wilsons (The Children’s Medical Research Foundation, Inc) were being honored for their dedication to find a cure for MPS. It was very inspirational for us. Also at this conference, the president of the MPS Society at the time, Linda Shine, came up with the idea of holding a national 5K Run/Walk in various places around the country to raise money for research. We felt this was our opportunity to do something, even though we had never even been to a 5K Run. In 2000, we were one of the seven families to hold our inaugural 5K Run/Walk events. We have held one every year since, except in 2004 - when we were in the process of moving to South Texas. We have seen this event grow from seven to about 19 events across the country and now bringing in at least $300,000 each year. In 2007, we also did a type of casual dress fundraiser called Krazy Socks for Karina, in conjunction with Karina’s fifteenth birthday. Committees and board responsibilities: We first ran for the board because we were asked to consider it by one of the board members. We thought it would be one way to step up our efforts to contribute to the MPS Society. We belonged to the Fundraising Committee and became the National Walk/Run Coordinators in 2004. In January 2007, Angela became Treasurer of the Society. She helped implement a new bookkeeping system which has improved recordkeeping for the Society. Personal impact of being on the board, goals you hope to achieve: We think highly of the MPS Society and at our first meeting as board members were amazed at all the behind the scenes work the board volunteers do to help the Society meet all it’s goals. We enjoy being a part of the Society that continues to grow in every way to help families and further research. Angela would like to continue to make improvements to the financial side of the Society. We would both like to see a more treatments become available for all MPS disorders and eventually cures. We would like to make sure the Society continues to help families, funds viable research projects, and meets the needs of as many of those affected by MPS as possible.