CRESTVIEW — Organizers hope a May 11 family festival will draw attention to a little-understood, often debilitating disease in a fun atmosphere.
Key Lyme Time, to be held in Old Spanish Trail Park, is part of a worldwide Lyme disease awareness effort. Events will include space walks and children's games, a hair cut-a-thon, a key lime pie bake-off competition and pie-eating contest.
Musical performances will feature Crestview High School’s Destiny and Chanticleer show choirs, Triple Threat Dancers and Favored Sons of Tallahassee.
Zumba dancing and other fitness demonstrations will underscore the importance of exercise and a healthy lifestyle in combating Lyme disease.
May is Lyme Awareness Month, organizer Connie Murray said. Carnival proceeds will benefit LymeDisease.org and a fund set up to help pay for Lyme disease treatments for her daughter, Nikki.
Nikki Murray, 26, acquired the disease after she was bitten by a tick in Crestview in 2008.
"If I had taken my Nikki to a doctor who was trained to recognize the symptoms of Lyme disease after her initial tick bite, she could have been blood-tested and treated immediately with antibiotics that may have prevented the suffering I've had to watch her go through," Connie Murray said.
Parents and guardians should check their children, pets and themselves for ticks after spending time outdoors, she said.
Key Lyme Time will hopefully draw attention to the need to watch for ticks, she said.
Want to go?
Key Lyme Time — a Lyme disease awareness fundraiser featuring games, bounce houses, live music, food and fitness demonstrations — is noon to 6 p.m. May 11 at Old Spanish Trail Park.
Admission is free, but games and bounce house require tickets. Contact Connie Murray, murrauc61@gmail.com, or visit www.facebook.com/WorldwideLymeProtestCrestviewfL/events for details.
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Key Lyme Time fundraiser is Saturday in Crestview