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Clowning Helps a Minnesota Mom Become a Leading Walk MS Captain

Be unafraid.

Be very unafraid.

Bubbles the Clown has joined the movement.

Bubbles — aka Paula Gaedtke — makes good money playing parties in Minnesota. To eliminate clown phobia she speaks in her normal voice and lets children approach her, not vice-versa. And she makes cool balloon animals.

But Gaedtke felt awkward about accepting money for Bubbles’ services, so she came up with a compromise.

“I thought: hang on. They’re happy. They want to pay me. So why don’t I do something that benefits both of us?” From that point forward, Bubbles became a big contributor to Gaedtke’s Walk MS team, Paula’s Party.

That’s just one way Paula’s Party became a top fundraiser in Walk MS: Christopher & Banks Twin Cities Walk presented by Anchor Bank. The team claims 120 members and topped $30,000 in donations two years in a row.

The team started with just three or four walkers in 1998, the year after Gaedtke’s diagnosis. The rise of the Internet helped Paula’s Party grow.

“The Society’s e-mail fundraising tool has been a huge help,” she said. “I don’t know if I could do it without the technology factor.”

Then there’s what she calls “the you can mess with me but when you mess with my kids watch out factor.” Three first cousins also have been diagnosed with MS, and Gaedtke admits to a touch of concern when her children, Luke and Abby, have any ache or pain that resembles an MS symptom.

There’s no sign either of them actually has MS, and Gaedtke plans to keep it that way. Knowing the Society funds research aimed at preventing MS spurs her to ask for money year after year.

“I’ll say, ‘It’s a good year, they’re coming a long way in what they’re doing with research,’ throw out some tidbits. Then say I don’t want my kids to have to deal with this, or your children. I show that it hits everyone. That generates a lot of e-mail pledges.”

The office is also fertile fundraising ground. Her employer, the information provider Thomson Reuters, gave her its Community Champion Award plus $2,000 for Paula’s Party. The company also lets her take Fridays off to recuperate from her most significant symptom, fatigue.

“I'm lucky that my company worked with me after the diagnosis," she said. "I didn't have to be concerned about losing my job, because of their flexibility."

Colleagues of Gaedtke’s husband Doug also donate generously. But she sees the kids, currently 12 and 13, as the keys to continued growth for Paula’s Party. The Monday after last year's walk, their classmates were buzzing about how fun it was. One was upset that he hadn't heard about it, so this year the Gaedtkes are throwing a pre-event pizza party.

“If we spread the word and get these kids and their parents motivated, then the wave of the future, the people who are going to raise money for these things, are starting to walk now,” she said.

With a decade of experience as a Walk MS captain, Gaedtke can tell when to transition from asking for money, to recruiting a prospect onto the team.

“A lot of the people who would pledge me are now walking. So it hits what I’m getting for pledges, but who cares?” she said. “The team is getting more pledges by having a wider web of walkers.”