Relax, Cobb County School Board. Exhale, Tech fans. Smile, self-important politicians. You are getting the week off. Besides, you will always be there for me to get your drawers in a wad. That is why I love you all.

My subject today is a serious one. It is about Multiple Sclerosis and a group of people seeking to make a difference here in Marietta. On Saturday, May 8, a group of volunteers will stage a three-mile walk beginning at Marietta Square and winding through the historical area of town. It is called Walk MS. I will miss the event because I will be in Athens, watching grandson Nicholas Wansley become the third generation - and the smartest - in my family to graduate from the University of Georgia. Woof! Woof!

As of this writing, the National MS Society-Georgia Chapter has more than 20 teams registered to make the walk. That is about 900 people or so. They can always use more. If you need any more inducement, I am told that it is a flat and easy walk and that plenty of food and drinks will be available. That's my idea of good exercise. Leave the 10Ks to the skinny people who always look like they are having a miserable time.

I was alerted to the event by someone for whom I have the greatest admiration. Donna Jordan is a Cobb County resident who has MS and who makes me ashamed of myself every time I get a bad attitude over stupid drivers who don't use their turn signals. This woman radiates goodness and a positive attitude despite the debilitating effects of MS, which has required her to stop working - but hasn't stopped her from inspiring others.

She told me, "I believe this diagnosis has been a re-direction of my life. Life isn't over. It has just taken on a different look. It is not what my husband, Cliff, and I thought life would be like, but we do believe there is a purpose for it."

In addition to putting a team together for the Walk MS in Marietta and hoping to raise $5000 for the organization, the Jordans host a monthly MS Self Help Group at a local church. She says, "Each month we meet new people who have been recently diagnosed with MS. We all share many things in common, uncertainty about the future, fear of disease progression, fear of the unknown but lots of hope. I tell them as scary as the diagnosis may be, MS is not a death sentence."

Like you perhaps, I have long heard of Multiple Sclerosis, but knew little about it. That led me to call an old friend, Terry Smith, former general manager of the Marietta Daily Journal and Neighbor Newspapers who is now CEO of the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Atlanta. The center is the nation's largest comprehensive treatment facility with more than 4,000 patients from 118 of Georgia's counties as well as 28 other states. It is currently estimated that the disease affects a half-million people in the United States with about 12,000 in Georgia.

Smith tells me that in Multiple Sclerosis, the body turns on itself and attacks myelin, which in layman's terms is the sheath around a nerve.

"It is like stripping insulation off of an electric wire," he says as further explanation.

Females are three times more likely to get the disease than men and MS usually strikes people in their mid-40s. That is what happened to Donna Jordan. She began having symptoms in her late 30s, including weakness and fatigue. The disease has slowed her down physically, but has not dampened her spirits or her determination to fight.

Donna Jordan will be helping out at the registration table on May 8. I hope you will get a chance to meet this remarkable woman. She will make you feel better just for having met her.

As for Terry Smith, I asked him how he liked his career change after 30 years in the publishing business.

"I see some brave people every day," he says, "and what they are willing to take on and I am determined not to let them down."

There is a bonus to the job he said.

"I no longer have to worry about phone calls from people you have ticked off."

Me? Tick off people? I had no idea.

You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb2400@bellsouth.net or P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.