A Bowling Green family may have to treat themselves to new shoes at the end of the month.
Penny McIntosh and her daughter-in-law, Beth, are leading two charity walks in the city, raising funds
for their favorite causes.
Beth McIntosh is spearheading the Walk for Apraxia on Saturday at 11 a.m. in City Park, while Penny
McIntosh is in charge of the Walk from Obesity on Sept. 24 at 8:30 a.m. at the Conneaut Avenue entrance
of Wood County Hospital.
Beth’s 4-year-old son, Eli, was diagnosed two years ago with apraxia, which is a motor speech disorder.

"The children know what they want to say, but they just can’t make the words come out of their
mouths the way they should," said Beth McIntosh, who is 30.
The most common symptom of apraxia is deleting the first consonant of a word. For example, Eli would call
his older brother, Camden, "Amden."
Eli has benefited from intensive, frequent therapy that requires almost daily trips to Sylvania, Beth
McIntosh said. He’s progressed from begin 20 to 30 percent intelligible to 60 percent, she said.
The goal of Saturday’s walk is to raise money for apraxia research and start a support group in the area.

"We’re also trying to connect those families together," Beth McIntosh said.
The first goal is well on it way to being checked off – as of Monday, more than $13,000 had been raised
and $3,000 in prizes have been donated.
"We went from 40 participants and now we have 175 registered walkers," Beth McIntosh said,
crediting friends, family and the community for their support. "Once you know somebody who’s
affected by apraxia and you see how challenging it is for the family, you want to help."
Penny McIntosh, who is 51, said her walk is "a little more low key" than her daughter-in-law’s,
but she’s just as passionate about the cause.
Around the same time that her grandson was diagnosed with apraxia, she made the decision to have
bariatric surgery. Since the December 2008 procedure, Penny McIntosh has lost 245 pounds. At her
highest, she weighed 380 pounds.
As a host city, the Bowling Green organizers will be eligible to apply for grants through the American
Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. The grants can be $60,000 or more to fund education and
research efforts, Penny McIntosh said.
She said 93 millions Americans are affected by obesity.
"They’re saying that within 15 years, that over half of Americans will be considered obese."

Negative connotations of obesity, she said, must be changed.
"It’s very disheartening that society does have a bias to obesity. It is a disease as alcoholism
is," she said. "I’m very passionate about this."
Bariatric surgery, which reduces the size of the stomach, isn’t for everyone who is obese, Penny McIntosh
said.
"Bariatric surgery gives people a tool. … It’s not an easy way out."